May 12 - Dog Lake (Big Cottonwood Canyon)

Heading on a scouting hike up to Dog Lake. Not sure if I'll make it, all depends on where the snow starts and how willing I'm willing to walk thru it - I don't have a lot of time this evening so the "will" is probably not too strong.

Beautiful sunny day and mid-70s in the valley. At the trail head, it's a nice 64 degrees and no visible snow at this elevation - up in the mountains, plenty.

The trail head is around 7200ft. The lake is 2 miles and 1500ft higher.

I see just a couple of buttercups blooming as I start the trail. As I continue on along the south facing trail, I do see Oregon-Grape in bloom. And a couple of the bluebell plants are blooming. Not a lot of purple hanging bell flowers yet, but a few.

A little further along, there's Groundsel in bloom and a couple of Balsamroot plants are blooming as well.

And I see my first Mustard White of the year nectaring on Wild Strawberry blooms.

The mountains to the south are still very snowy. But that's not the direction I'm heading; I'll be heading north soon.

I finish the eastward trek and start heading north up the valley. Lots of green plants but nothing blooming yet. The aspen are still bare branches as they have not leafed out yet.

Lots of tiny orange moths flying - someday I'll get a good look at them.

Hey, there's a Spring Azure!

A little further along, I see a Satyr Comma. And then another; this one lands at my feet.

Many ground squirrels moving within the vegetation.

As I come to the stream (and the merge of the winter and summer trails), I start seeing snow.

Still lots of bare ground but there's snow here/there and on the trail in spots. The transition between clear landscape and totally snowy landscape last but 100-150 yards.

As I walk through this transition area, I see 2 Hoary Commas,

 2 Milbert's Tortoiseshell and 7 Mourning Cloaks flying. They must like the newly emerging landscape. :)

The snow is hard packed and anywhere from 1-2.5 ft deep. I really wasn't expecting snow this soon on the trail but it looks pretty.

I reached the Dog Lake and Desolation Lake branch. It's only 0.6 miles (and 500 ft in elevation) to Dog Lake but after much internal debate, it'll have to wait to another day. Time to head back.

The views heading back to the trail head are really nice - big snowy mountains ahead!

There appears to have been an avalanche on one peak earlier today.

Along the trail, I'm seeing Commas, Millies, and Mourning Cloaks flying; and another Mustard White.

Great little trek!