Winter hike to Lake Blanche - woohoo!
- Girls Gone Adventuring
- Feb 7, 2018
- 4 min read
With the mild weather we've been having this winter, it makes for perfect winter hiking! There's nothing quite as beautiful as a scene dusted in snow, and hiking on a warm winter day is an Adventure we'll take anytime! This Adventure ended up being more than we bargained for however... (see video at the end of the post!!)
It started as a beautiful morning hike, we got to the Lake Blanche trailhead up Big Cottonwood Canyon at about 10:15 am (click here for directions to the trailhead), got the baby loaded up in her hiking backpack, got our YaxTrax on, and started on our way. It was a beautiful day, sunny and bright and warm for the first part of February! Right near the beginning of the trail it forks and the trail to Lake Blanche heads up and to the right. We looked at each other and said "we're going up THAT?" It was a good indication of the difficulty of this hike... It was a steep and difficult hike on its own, but carrying the baby with us took it to the next level. Good thing Katy's a buff rock star!
There were places that were so steep we were barely plodding forward at all :) But we were determined to make it to the Lake, and passing other hikers on their way down encouraged us to keep moving forward. The trail was nicely packed down so although it was slippery in parts, especially on the way down, the YaxTrax with our hiking boots were sufficient - no snowshoes needed.
The scenery was beautiful and we kept stopping and admiring the mountain vistas and incredible scenery - it was gorgeous! We saw two moose about 30 feet off the trail on our way up, which was an amazing surprise! We had just mentioned how cool it would be to see some wildlife...and bam, 2 moose! We took a few videos/pictures and were wowed with the huge moose tracks and all the moose hair we saw on the trail.
Then onward and upward... After an intense 3+ miles we made it to the top! Lake Blanche was covered in snow at the base of Sundial Peak and was a beautiful scene! We could imagine how gorgeous it would be in the summer with the valley blanketed in green and the blue lake shimmering. We definitely want to come back and see it in the spring! It was super windy and freezing at the top so we headed back down after just a couple of minutes.
The way back down was much easier and faster, and we were making good time. About 2/3 of the way down we again saw a moose off to the side of the trail, but this time it was much closer. I was videoing and taking pictures as Katy walked past the moose to show how close it was - not more than 20 feet away! This was too close for comfort but we had to stay on the trail and just keep heading down. As we walked past we saw 3 more moose nearby in the trees - so there was a bull moose with a big old rack, a mom laying in the trees, and 2 young ones nearby.
As we got past, the 2 young ones started calling and making noises as they wrestled, which I turned around to record. After their rough-housing the moose started walking towards the trail we had just passed, which definitely scared us and we hurried down the trail. At the bottom of a rise we looked back up the trail to see the moose right there on the trail at the top of the hill looking down at us.
As I was recording them there at the top of the trail and saying how crazy that was, the moose jumped and started charging down the hill towards us. Literally. No joke. We were being charged at by a family of moose!
I screamed to Katy to run and we took off running as fast as we could. I didn't realize that my camera was still recording all of this. A few seconds in Katy looked back to see if they were still chasing us, and they were. We ran harder and rounded a bend. Just as we did this Katy slipped and fell - luckily it was soft snow and she and the baby weren't hurt. We count our blessings that for whatever reason the moose stopped chasing us once we rounded that bend. We lost a water bottle in the chaos of the moment and were pretty shaken up... I've never been chased by a bull moose and family before! Definitely an Adventure I'd be happy never repeating as long as I live... Needless to say we were checking over our shoulder the rest of the trek down. After we were safe and away from danger we realized I'd recorded the whole thing! We watched it over and over and laughed until we cried over the things it caught on tape...
Today we feel grateful to have escaped a harrowing experience and grateful we can find humor in it now -- hopefully you can too! Check out the video below:
HOW TO DO THIS YOURSELF:
1) Grab your hiking shoes and JUST DO IT! If it's winter-time you'll want yaxtrax or something similar. Borrow them from a friend or grab a pair on Amazon. We found a knock-off brand at Costco for $10
2) There's no fee to enter the area so it's a completely free Adventure - gotta love it!
3) Timing: We started hiking around 10:15 am. We arrived at Lake Blanche around 1:00 pm, and only spent a few minutes on top. We made it back to our car at 2:45 pm ... but that was with a few minutes of running for our lives, so.... plan your timing accordingly :)
** Is there an Adventure you think we should discover? Comment below!
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