Labor Day Hike to Mary Lake

Derek and I decided the very thing we most desired to do on our Monday off this Labor Day was to go on a hike.  Derek was pretty set on venturing out and trying a new hike that we hadn’t done before.  He was gifted a bunch of great hiking books from a client and had been reading through some hikes he was excited to try.  First we drove all the way up past Snowbird to try to hike Cecret Lake, but when we got there we found we were not the only one’s with this idea.  The parking lot was full and then was a good hour wait to catch a shuttle up to the trailhead.  So, we bagged that hike and headed to Donut Falls up Big Cottonwood canyon.  That parking lot was also completely full and people were parking a mile before the trailhead and hiking in.  We thought that was nutso, so we continued up the canyon to the trailhead for Mary Lake.  Third times the charm I guess.  It was crowded but we were able to easily find parking and finally begin out Labor Day hike.  The hike started up some super steep switch backs which resulted in tears from our poor little Carter guy, but he eventually got his hiking legs and the kids enjoyed not only hiking but clamoring up rocky patches on the sides of the trail.  

At one point we had to hike through a little creek in the trail which was pretty fun.  

When we got to Mary Lake we had the excitement of enjoying our snacks in the presence of a pair of moose.  

You don’t see that every day, and I felt like all our efforts were worth it just for that. 

We got down the mountain much easier than we got up and everyone was starving by that time because it was quite late in the day with all our delays.   We found a little hamburger and hot dog stand at the bottom of the mountain and everyone gladly filled their stomachs.  Derek had heard that Guardsman Pass at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon had a road going through all the way to Heber so we decided to go home via that route.  It was a gorgeous newly paved road with amazing views of Heber Valley the whole way down and it honestly didn’t take any longer than driving home the way we had come would have.  It was a fun day and a nice little driving loop.  Then, that evening we had Derek’s parents at our house for a BBQ because that seems to be what you do on a Monday holiday in September.