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Spent some time in and around Salt Lake City between work meetings, so instead of a day-by-day route, here are a few of the things we did.

Pfeifferhorn

Even though I didn’t summit Pfeifferhorn, this was an awesome hike. We did this the same day we arrived in SLC on a cross-country flight, so if we had a little more time I would have gone all the way up. I made it to the base of the final scramble up the peak but knew we’d be heading back in the dark if I kept going. The trail starts at the White Pine/Red Pine trailhead in Little Cottonwood Canyon, just over 5 miles in on the right (south) side of the road and about 30 minutes from downtown. The hike to Red Pine Lake has a great view looking back down the canyon but other than that is pretty uneventful. Once you’re at Red Pine Lake, you can see the ridge you have to climb up to but Pfeifferhorn is not in sight. You have to climb up past the lake and follow the ridge to the right, then you’ll see it. Once you get a decent way up the scree or boulders (we had no clue where the actual trail was, but it’s very evident where you need to go – look for the highest point across the lake and head there), the view looking back down to the lake is amazing. The part from the lake to the ridge is quite a climb but I’d say you could get to the summit and back in 5-6 hours at a decent clip. Might take some closer to 7-8 hours. Between 9 and 10 miles total.

Donut Falls

We didn’t have much time one day so we walked to Donut Falls, which is up Big Cottonwood Canyon. The parking area is down a long road lined with private properties (labeled FR019 on Google Maps), and you keep going until it dead-ends. This is more of a walk than a hike as it’s easily accessible and less than a mile one-way. My impression was a big, awesome hole through which water dramatically feel through – not quite. The falls are actually pretty long but no real singular waterfall. Since it’s very easy to get to get to, there were a lot of people and several different groups rappelling down the sides. The “donut” part of the falls requires a short scramble up some potentially wet rocks to a small cave where the water falls through. It was pretty underwhelming if I’m being honest. Don’t need more than an hour.

Lake Blanche

I previously had tried to do this hike solo in a snow storm and got lost without making it to the lake, so I had a little extra motivation for doing this one. The trailhead is also in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and the pull-off is just before the large S-turn and marked as Mill B South. The hike itself (7 miles roundtrip) is pretty much through trees the whole way with a few nice lookouts, but not too much else and uphill most of the way. I would love to camp by the lake – you could spend hours looking up at Sundial Peak from any point along the shore. It really is a beautiful, serene setting and if you only have time for one hike in the area, I would probably choose this over Pfeifferhorn (tough call, however). Can hike to the lake in 2 hours, probably less if going at a good pace.

Utah Olympic Park

While it’s not a hike, only 30 minutes away from SLC is Park City, home of the 2002 winter Olympics. There is a year-round park there that has a free museum, and you can catch world-class skiers doing flips in the pool in the summer. There was a lot of other things going on at different areas when we were there in August, and you can pay to take part in some of the activities (like a clinic that lets you go off a mini ramp on skis into the pool, bobsledding, and tubing). Such an awesome way to see something totally out of the ordinary. You could spend an hour or more than a day here depending on how much you want to watch/do and I would love to return and do some of the paid activities.

Year traveled: 2017

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