is there still snow at alta?

You better believe there is!  We decided to do an easier hike today since we've sort of been slacking off and not getting all that much exercise lately, and rather than try something tough and regret it, a shorter, less steep hike to ease us back into things seemed like a good idea.  Going back up to Cecret Lake at Alta was just the ticket.  We'd been up to the lake on our July exploratory trip to Utah a couple years ago; now that we'd skied up there as well, we were interested to see if things looked at all familiar.

Looking across Cecret Lake to the Supreme lift

We drove on up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta, parking at the Alta Town Park[ing lot].  The Cecret Lake Trail is normally 1.6 miles round trip from the Albion Basin Campground but the campground is not yet open, so this added well over four miles to the expedition as we had to slog 3 miles up a dirt U.S. Forest Service road to even get to the campground.  The return trip was shorter since we didn't go back down the road but cut through on ski trails.

Devil's Castle - there were ski tracks in that chute

When we had been to Cecret Lake before, the wildflowers were glorious.  We're still a little early - by a couple of weeks - so they hadn't popped out yet.  And there's still a lot of snow, in the trees and up in the bowls.  The day was gorgeous, clear and blue and sunny, with temperatures in the mid 60s up there (low 80s in the valley); there was a breeze, however, that was quite chilly as it crossed over the snow and lake ice.

Sugarloaf - where we traversed across and plummeted

down with the Maine skiers this spring

It was really quite fun picking out where we'd skied not three months before, although the cliffs are really a lot cliffy-er with no snow to soften them!  After we got back to the parking lot, we each had a beer while gazing back into Alta's bowls and no matter how much he professes to love summer, I just know this little hike has completely whetted H's appetite for skiing.