alta loop

We've decided that we're spending too much time weekend mornings figuring out what we want to do, where we want to go and what gear we need.  Case in point, this Saturday morning.  We wanted to go hiking but couldn't decide where to go, so we spent a fair amount of time looking through our books and debating driving down to American Fork Canyon to do some less-traveled trails down there. In the end we decided we didn't want to drive that far and went up to Alta instead.  The webcams weren't showing very much snow so we figured we could do a loop on the access roads and see what our favorite place looks like without snow.

Plenty of skiing to be had

We started at Wildcat base and headed up the dirt access road that runs under the Collins lift.  The creeks are all flowing well (but not flooding) and there's no substantial snow until you get above the angle station.  We saw a tele-girl and a snowboarder making some slushy turns on Main Street - we could hear them hooting and hollering long before we saw them.  We made our way up to the Ballroom, still pretty full of snow, then up to the top of the Collins lift.  We had our snacks sitting on the walkway of the ski patrol building, looking out towards Catherine's Area and Supreme Bowl, both completely bereft of snow.

There's still quite a bit of snow, in spots

We made our way backwards around EBT, stopping to look over the ridge to Mineral Basin (Snowbird) and Mt. Timpanogos looming in the distance.  There was quite a bit of snow on Sugar Bowl under the Sugarloaf chair and we glissaded down awkwardly, just barely managing to keep on our feet.  We followed the access road under the chair for a while, then skirted the bowl under the Yellow Trail Area.  The road started descending under East Greeley, making lots of switchbacks, before coming out under Glory Gulch at the bottom of the Sugarloaf chair.

View of Sugarloaf Mtn. from patrol deck

From there, we followed the trails down the Sunnyside bunny slopes - it's too early for those glorious mountain meadow flowers as they're just barely starting to come out - and ended up with a stroll from Albion Base back to Wildcat along the tow rope.  It was a good hike, never too steep, and a gorgeous day to be out and about.  It's incredible, though, how different everything looks up there when it's not covered in snow.

Nothing like fresh tracks!

Hike stats:  6.98 miles; 1,933 feet of elevation; 10,572 ft. highest point; 2.4 m.p.h. average speed; just under 3 hrs. of walking time and about 40 various minutes of standing around looking at stuff, including potguts (Uinta ground squirrels), a marmot, mountain bluebirds and Cassin's finches (little pink and grey songbirds).