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Bells
Canyon Trail - Little Cottonwood Canyon Pictures
And Story Submitted By Dj Nebula Of SLC Back
To Little
Cottonwood Canyon Hiking Trails 
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I
have always wanted to know what was up Bells Canyon. From my
Grandmothers Porch you can see all the way to the top. It is one gigantic
granite circular, and I always heard about this upper reservoir. I
waited a long time for a cloudy day that was cool because it is a long
hike, with a lot of altitude gained in a short amount of distance. We
started at the new trail head put in by Sandy City just below the Lower
Bells Reservoir and headed directly up the trail. Soon we were climbing a
stair case of rock which never seemed to end. At the first ridge top, there
is a place where run off has carved its way in the granite shelf that runs all the way up the canyon. Off
to the left, in the climbing world were
the Two Towers. They are massive granite towers climbers love. 
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At
this point we began are way up some switchbacks, then we came to a spot where there was trail
restoration, kind of confused us for a minute till we saw a cairn marking
the way. This trail is marked with more cairns than any other trail I have
seen in the Wasatch.
Then a steep bush whack to the next ridge. This ridge
was a scramble on granite rock all the way to the top. Getting to
the next ridge, we came upon a swampy area, where there were lots of mossy
grass, and some camper improvised logs to rest on. Up we pressed on to a
third ridge top, were we were scrambling up more granite, following the
cairn trail.
We came to a wall of rock that looked like it was weeping. A little
spurt of water was coming out of it about 10 feet up the granite, it was
really interesting this dry granite leaking water. 
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Once we got back on the
trail, there were more granite slabs to scramble over, and finally
we reached the top spot of the granite, with cairns showing the way. 
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A small walk
in the woods, and you come to Upper Bells Reservoir. Be careful around the
south side of the lake, some of the rocks we were sitting on are quite the
drop to the water, looks can be deceiving. The reservoir is quite
large compared to other water shed projects. 
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The hike down was an
adventure in its self because we lost the cairn trail, and had to traverse
the boulder field on the left side of the canyon. Stay on the north ridge
if you do this hike. If we were not so good at route finding, we could
have gotten lost in the dark. We made it down ok, thanks to some maneuvering
and route finding to get out of the canyon, we arrived at the car by dark.
This is not a hike for a beginner. It has some terrain unfamiliar to most
people, so traversing it for a new hiker can lead to injury. I would even
suggest camping at the Upper Bells Reservoir over night, and then do the
pass or the Beat out Hike the next day. The Trail was really fun and physically
challenging. Not for the timid. Thank you to the nice gentleman who
gave us a bottle of fresh water, for we had ran out on the way down the
canyon.
Directions and Hike Stats Little
Cottonwood Canyon- Trail Head- On the Left Side of the road ¼ mile from Wasatch
Blvd. and the 9800 South Intersection.
Distance to Upper Bells Reservoir- 3 ¾ miles
Elevation Gain- 4100 vertical feet to 9400 feet
Hiking Time- 5hrs 38 min- from Trail Head |
