We hiked along Emma Ridge, above Alta, from Grizzly Gulch to Flagstaff, back in 2018. I'd mentioned to H that I wanted to do it again this summer and so he suggested it for last Saturday. The smoke is still bad in northern Utah but we're just so tired of being trapped in the house that we figured we'd give it a go anyway. As it had been a week ago, when I did my Catherine's Pass loop, things were fairly quiet at Alta when we got up there for an 8:00 a.m. start; Snowbird, on the other hand, is in full Oktoberfest mode and was already charging people for parking.
This is a steep hike from the moment you leave the parking lot: steep up through the aspens to the dirt road; steep up the old mining roads through Grizzly Gulch; steep up the ridgeline and also extremely steep on either side of the ridge; steep down the bowl at Flagstaff. I'd forgotten how steep it was but it came back to me very quickly. Two days later, my quads were still indignant about it.
For a while, there were more deer than hikers out there with us. We ended up seeing six hikers and eight trailrunners, with six of the runners up on the ridge. I was impressed with the runners as the trail is faint in places, rocky and loose in many others, and there are definite no-fall zones where we were watching our footing very closely. With Alta far below to our left, Mt. Superior out in front of us and Big Cottonwood Canyon's Silver Fork, Days Fork and Cardiff Fork far below to our right, the views should have been spectacular. The smoke obscured a lot of it but on a clear day, this is a great trail for scenery.
As before, we lost the trail at the top of the very steep bowl and had to pick our way down via whatever game trails we could find. Right before we got to the mining road that would lead us out, H did spot a trail so now we'll have to go back, earlier in the summer when the wildflowers are at their peak, and follow that to see if it gets us back up to the ridge. We walked out along the old mining road, which brought us out by the Alta town offices. The Albion parking lots had gotten busier - although not to peak wildflower season levels - and we talked for a quite a while with three trail runners who were returning to their truck after a 9 mile training run. They were friendly and training for the upcoming Grand Targhee Cirque Series race.
This isn't a good trail for beginners as it is challenging in spots - there are plenty of other trails in the area with fewer consequences should something go wrong. We enjoyed it, though, for the relative solitude in a popular area, for the dramatic scenery and for getting us out of our comfort zone a bit.
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