hike to lake blanche

I'd been getting pretty antsy to go for a hike - it's been since Ben Lomond amazingly, things just come up, I guess - and since Saturday was supposed to be gorgeous, I picked the hike to Lakes Blanche, Florence and Lillian up Big Cottonwood Canyon (Mill B South trailhead).  We took our time leaving to allow it to warm up and it ended up being a glorious day: sunny and warm (70s) with a light breeze.

Pretty fall aspens

Stats: 5.8 miles round-trip with 2,670 feet of elevation gain, which makes it actually steeper than Timpanogos. I had done this hike in June with a work friend and her husband and, honestly, I didn't remember it as being a steep hike. Even as H and I were going up, it didn't seem steep ... but on the way down, our knees were howling at us. We did it in 3 hours 35 minutes, including 45 minutes of basking in the sunshine at the top, chatting with a couple of women who were hiking too.

Sundial Peak

The trail, which is sometimes rocky and sometimes smooth dirt, follows a stream for most of the way, going in and out of aspen groves. The canyon is fairly narrow with cliffs rising above - we looked for goats to no avail. Despite the warm temperatures, it really seemed like fall: the quality of the light, the falling leaves, that slight cinnamon-y smell.

Lakes Florence (near) and Lillian

This canyon was carved out by a glacier and when you get up to the three lakes, named after miner's wives, the rock lining the cirque still has the dig-marks in it.  Lake Blanche is located at the base of Sundial Peak; the smaller Lakes Florence and Lillian are in another bowl, slightly lower, below Dromedary Peak.  There were a good number of other hikers there (this is a quite popular hike) but everyone was spread out on the rocks and it still felt as though we were in the wilderness.  Not a bad way to spend a sunny October afternoon.