Doc and I both had a clear Tuesday so we went to a different canyon that’s usually just too busy to be nice on the weekends. It was like a storybook illustration of “winter” and we discovered a new-ish feeder trail that was extra magical.
For locals, this is the Donut Falls hike in Big Cottonwood. Usually you have to walk up the access road to the trailhead, but at some point a new path through the forest to the east got put in. There’s also construction going on for a boardwalk through the meadow there and it looks like everything will connect:
It was cold–the car said 25 degrees in the parking lot, and we gained elevation/lost the sun–but my Polartec base layers and my parka did great. (This did solidify my planning for some heavy quilted pants that will use up the last of the Thinsulate and Polartec Alpha, though.)
And! The one spot of the trail that’s a scramble down in the summer had a ROPE for the winter and I got to pretend I was rappelling on the Alps. Thrilling!
