Friday, July 25, 2025

top tier

 This last weekend we were again in SLC.  Saturday, while H did a seven mile trail run and then a road ride, Milton and I did our five mile Dimple Dell loop.  It was kind of humid, a holdover from the brief rain the night before, and H and I were total drama queens about how sticky and muggy it was.  (It wasn't that bad.)  That evening, we three got social and drove up to the RoHa Brewing Project to meet E and K for beers.  We really like that little brewery: they have a ton of beer on tap, live music each time we've gone, both indoor and outdoor seating, with a food truck out front, and are super dog-friendly.  The bartender said they're technically not supposed to have dogs inside but when we got there, there were at least five other dogs already arranged under the various tables, one Frenchie lying directly on the floor vent, keeping her tummy cool.  After saying hi to his girlfriends E and K, Milton wasted no time making friends with everyone at all the other tables.

Green gentian with bee

Because he'd gotten to go to a bar the day before, I didn't feel too badly about short-changing Milton on his Sunday morning walk and instead taking myself up to Snowbird for a wildflower hike.  The Wasatch Wildflower Festival had been at the Bird on Saturday - and was wrapping up at Alta on Sunday - so I figured I might not have to fight the crowds if I got there early enough.  I pulled into a largely empty parking lot at about 7:45 a.m. (not that early, tbh) where the sun was still behind the mountains and it was a glorious 59F.

I love sulphur buckwheat

With cream-cheese bagel in hand (also hiking poles, because knees), I headed up the Peruvian Gulch trail.  That trail is brutal.  The first mile, from Snowbird Center to the Peruvian Gulch road, follows a drainage and basically goes straight up, without messing around with any switchback nonsense.  I passed one older woman on my way up; she, and the youngest woman ahead of me, kept climbing on the PG Road, while I turned off onto the PG Trail.

Headed up that ridge to the tram tower

The second mile, while still going up mercilessly, was not quite as steep as it opened up and crisscrossed some flower-filled meadows.  I got passed by one trail runner on the Cirque Trail, just before starting the ridge walk, and other than him, had the place to myself.  There were a few patches of snow up on the headwall of the cirque, and more snow over on the Gad Valley/Regulator side, but it was all pretty dry up there.  It was windy on the ridge section and I had to hold onto my hat a couple of times.  And right before coming off the ridge, where it gets REALLY steep, I did question my life choices somewhat.

Those orange paintbrushes were incredible

As I started the fourth mile of the hike, however, it was all downhill on the Peruvian Gulch road.  Towards the top, I said hi to four MTBers who were heroically grinding their way up the mountain (on real, people-powered, non-e-bikes).  Snowbird stopped allowing bikes on the tram during Covid ... but never reinstated them, for some reason, despite having spent the time and money to put in the magnificent Big Mountain downhill MTB trail.  Now the only way to ride the BMT is to put in the work and ride to the top, which thins the herd quite a lot.

Lupine, sunflowers, two colors of paintbrush
and Lewis's monkeyflower (plus more I don't know)

Walking down the PG road has its own challenges.  It's pretty steep and the gravel is loose in spots - not fun on the knees and slippery.  As I worked my way down, more hikers were coming up; I'm sure they thought that I'd taken the now-running tram up and was just hiking down.  Little did they know that I am far too cheap to pay for a Snowbird tram ticket.  After a 6.5 mile round trip (and 3.5 hours - that trail is too steep to be fast, at least for me), I was back at the car, changing my shoes and sneaking an oat soda before heading home.

Clover-headed mint (not anemones,
as previously thought)

What I love about that loop - not how steep it is, ugh - is the wide variety of wildflowers.  As you move through the different sections/ecosystems, the flowers change.  There are just so many of them!  There seem to be some different kinds than at Alta too, so it's nice to do hikes at each resort to experience the variety.  Every year I think, I don't need to take a bunch of wildflower photos again but each year I do, because they're just so pretty.

Tiny little yellow blossoms
on the coneflowers



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