Bells Canyon - The Other Way

Wow. Two hikes in two days. This year is starting off great!

Annie was meeting some people for lunch (and taking Sydney along) so that left Titan and I free to hit the hills. We decided to head up Bell(s) Canyon, just to the lower reservoir. Last year we went up as a family on Memorial Day, along with everyone else in the valley. This year there weren't nearly as many people, but it was still a pretty popular place to be.

Last year we started at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon and hiked up from there. This year we parked at the parking lot on Wasatch Blvd (that I had seen last night trying to find the lot for Rocky Mouth). It was a very different trail. I'm not sure which I preferred.

Wait, yes I am. I preferred the Little Cottonwood trail. This one was very steep in places and there were a few places where it was really hard to keep your footing. I saw multiple people slip and fall.

There was a particularly difficult spot where my water bottle popped out of the pack and bounced thirty feet down the nearly vertical trail. Fortunately there were some nice people behind me that brought it back up to me.

Titan did fantastic in the carrier. He didn't have any freak-outs like last year. We talked most of the way up and down. He thinks that every body of water is a "tubby", and would point out all the tubbies he saw. He was also excited to see the little patches of snow here and there.

I look really worn out in the above picture, which is funny because that was taken after our 20 minute rest at the top just before we headed back down.

I think the trail was about as long as the Little Cottonwood trail; right about .75 miles, give or take a mile. The water level was really low, but it was a great little hike. I think Titan especially enjoyed it. He loves to be outside.

We drank some gatorade (Titan drank from his sippy cup) and ate some Clif bars at the lake. We rested about 20 minutes, I gave directions to a surprising number of people coming up the trail (good thing I know my way around), and we headed back down to the car.

It was another beautiful day for a short hike, even if I had an extra 35 pounds to carry (Titan's a LOT heavier than last year). I'd recommend a trip up to Bells Canyon Reservoir to anyone; I'd just recommend going up the other way.

Rocky Mouth Waterfall

It's March and I was able to get out and do a little hiking. It was a beautiful day for a hike and I had no other obligations so I decided to take my son up to the Rocky Mouth waterfall.

I'd heard about the hike a lot, and had wanted to go for a long time. It's still a little early in the year for there to be much water falling, but that was just perfect with a not-quite-two-year-old.

The trail starts at about 11300 South Wasatch Blvd in Sandy. There's a little parking lot (really little, in fact) and a wooden stairway that leads from there toward the mountain. Then, after climbing 100' or so you come out into a neighborhood. Really. Just like that. And there are no signs or anything telling you where to go.

I figured it was probably best to continue going uphill, and sure enough I found where the trail continues up around a curve in the road.

Being an impromptu sort of hiking excursion I didn't have a way to carry Titan. Well, just in my arms or on my shoulders (he hasn't figured out the whole hold-on-to-dad's-head-so-I-don't-fall-off thing, so I had to hold him on there. He walked quite a bit of the trail, but wasn't able to get over the big steps (and he gets distracted really easily. I'm pretty sure he pointed out every leaf and rock.)

The trail is pretty short. It's probably not even a half mile from the parking lot to get to the waterfall. It's also not very steep. I think I read that there's an elevation gain of about 280', which isn't too bad over 1/2 mile.

The trail goes in between a couple houses, which is a little odd but it works, and the waterfall isn't too far beyond the back fence of the houses. It's a really pretty area. I'd like to head back when the trees have leaves and there's more water falling.

Just short of the waterfall there's a cemented-shut mine entrance. The tunnel goes into the mountain a little bit before the cement wall, so it sort of still looks like a tunnel. Titan kept saying "tunnel" and "train", I guess expecting a train to come roaring out of the tunnel any time.

The waterfall is one of the prettiest you'll find so close to the valley. I imagine it looks better with more water, but it was nice to be able to get up close to it without worrying about it carrying Titan down the mountain.

The hike was about a mile round-trip, and took us less than an hour. In fact, it almost took longer to find Wasatch Blvd than it did to hike the hike. It was a great first hike for the year.

This would be a great hike for families with young kids. It's not too steep, you're not walking on the edge of any cliffs, and there are plenty of rocks and leaves to keep the kids interested the whole way.