Brighton Lakes Trail - Big Cottonwood Canyon
Submitted By Dj Nebula Of SLC - Back To Big Cottonwood Canyon Hiking Trails
This is a great hike for the views, the lakes, the landscape, and the wildflowers and of course Moose! We started at the Brighton Ski Resort parking lot, where there is meadow restoration being done. So the trail winds around the old trail, and ends up about a half mile back on the original trail. We started our accent to Dog Lake, we get to the lake and behold, there are two Bull Moose hanging out on the lake shore.
One a full grown male, the other, maybe two years old. The younger one I think wanted to put on a show for us, so he proceeded to get in the lake and start swimming around.Warning: A Moose male or female can run 30 miles an hour. If you see one watch from a distance, Do Not Impede their path, for they will charge. A bucking from a Moose most certainly would put you in the hospital, so be careful. After the great Moose show, we started on to Lake Mary.
The trail up to Lake Mary is steep, but short and comes to the lake pretty quickly. The Dam at Lake Mary is really cool, a short hop from there and you are lake side. Lake Mary is the largest of the lakes on this trail, and the views are spectacular. After a snack and some water, we moved on to Lake Martha.
Coming out of the forest we get to the lake, and on the shore there is another Bull Moose. Now this one was far bigger than the 2 we had seen at Dog Lake, and he didn't seem to like us too much. He got up and started our way, so we decided to move on to Lake Catherine. We get to the lake, and a tree was there, cooked from the inside out by lightning. Crazy! Lake Catherine sits below Catherine Pass and Sunset Peak. We headed for the pass, the climb to the pass is about 270 feet, and the last 75 feet kicks your butt! At the Pass we ran into a biologist studying our wild flower species here in the Wasatch. Cool Job! Great lake hike that I will do every year.
