Sept 3 - Silver Lake, Lake Solitude, Twins Lakes Loop - Big Cottonwood Canyon

Very cloudy morning but there is no rain in the mountain forecast so I'm heading up to finally hike to Twin Lakes Pass (I hope).

I start up the canyon a little after 8am. It's very cloudy and looks like rain. The Fall colors have arrived!!! They are hard to see because of the clouds and lack of sun but color change has started especially at the lower end of the canyon. :)

I'm expected crowded trails as it is a Saturday morning but they are still pretty empty - always good to know.

The Silver Lake parking is no different - plenty of spots available.

The grasses in the wetland around Silver Lake are a golden brown. There are patches on color on the nearby mountains but the aspen leaves are still green.

I head around Silver Lake keeping an eye out for moose - none this morning. As I get closer to the Lake, I'm seeing Bluets (damselflies) and Darners.

And there are a few Mallards on the lake.

I stop for a couple of lake shots and then continue.

As I'm walking past three ladies, a small dark grey critter run out of the flowers and crosses the trail right in front of me. He either crossed just ahead of my right shoe or over it I'm not sure. But it's appearance woke up 4 women pretty quickly! :)

I head directly towards Lake Solitude.

Then I start my way up the hill to the view over Twin Lakes.

I reach the ridge over Twin Lakes - not too shabby!

It's still cloudy and very windy - not a good day for "great views" from the Pass so I decide to head down and attempt to walk around Twin Lakes. I've only ever walked down the right side. I've made one attempt to complete the loop but there was snow on the ground and I lost the trail. Here's to my 2nd attempt!

I head down to the lakes - boy, the water levels are dropping fast - more beach, more rocks exposed.

Hey, there's a couple of shorebirds.

I start my way down the trail around the lake.

Nice views along the way (despite the clouds).

I reach the end of the 2nd lake. On the beach are some fresh moose tracks. There's one around here somewhere. (I find some fresh moose scat too.)

A little further are some nice rocks for a quick break.

The trail is a little hard to find now as I start up a little hill around a rocky area but it just doesn't look like the right way as I am continuing uphill and not down to the lake shore.

I turn back and pick up the trail as it heads up some boulders. I turn around and there's a big male moose in the distance!! Yea for getting confused on trail!!

He's bedded down. Very cool!

Then I look towards the lake trying to figure out how to get down. I see a little trail heading down over rocks. I head down carefully as I need to sit on the rocks before heading down to the next set of rocks. But it dead ends. :(

I suppose if I liked bouldering I could do it but that's not happening. So I climb back up. After looking around, I find another trail that goes up and then down to the beach - yea! And start my way around the other side of the lake (all new territory for me).

It's a bit of an adventurous trail on this side as the trail is climbs over rocks/tree roots, is very narrow in spots all while being 10-15ft above the lake.  At one point, I again ended up being stuck on some rocks luckily I hunted down the actual trail. It was super fun though! And the views were awesome!

When I made it back to the dam, I find a rock along the lake and had lunch. (Only a few people at the lake - I'm expecting more.)

And then I head down. Now there are plenty of folks heading up now!

And I find lupine flowers. I'm surprised they are even in bloom but the tiny flowers really amaze me.

Along the ridge over Silver Lake, the Pika and Marmots are still around.

Awesome day!