Silver Lake (American Fork)

To round out the week I participated in the hiking portion of our yearly ward outing.  This year the ward camped at the Granite Flat campground in American Fork Canyon. We hiked from  Silver Lake Flat Reservoir (a couple miles up a dirt road from Granite Flat) to Silver Lake.

I didn't count how many of us went on the hike, but it was a lot more people than I'm used to hiking with. You could safely say it was the largest group I've hiked in since I was a scout decades ago.

It hardly felt like we were in a big group, though. We pretty quickly spread out with the teens leading the way and those from my generation lagging behind (mostly because they were carrying kids of various sizes). I was somewhere in the middle.

I had never really hiked in American Fork Canyon before (except my nearly annual hikes up Mount Timpanogos) and I loved it. It's much more foresty than most of the other canyons around here. The trail was well-maintained and there were incredible views of Mount Timpanogos (that you never get while hiking the mountain itself).

The trail starts pretty flat but gets quite a bit steeper for the last 3/4 mile or so. It could also be that it just seems that way because you get start getting tired by then. Either way, it's not a terribly difficult hike.

 There are many places where it seems like you should arrive at the lake just over the next little hill, only to discover another hill beyond that one.

Silver Lake itself is worth the trip. It has some beautiful still waters with high peaks and cliffs all around, as well as an incredible view down the canyon from on top of the dam.

It was 2.33 miles to the top (nearly 5 miles for me, total) and a climb of about 1,700 feet.