After yesterday's quick jaunt to Cecret Lake, Mrs. Admin was hungry for more hiking today. With 8.5 miles and over 2100' of vertical ascent, I think that she got it today.
The entrance to Mill Creek Canyon is barely more than a mile from our home, yet oddly enough I've barely been over half of the way up there. Sometimes you overlook the opportunities closest to home. The entire canyon is managed as a park by the city of Salt Lake, so there's a $3 toll to enter the canyon. Unlike other Wasatch Front canyons, dogs are allowed in Mill Creek, but to accommodate mountain bikers it's leash-only on even days, and no mountain bikes on odd numbered days. Today was an even-numbered day, of course, so I had no interest in bringing the dogs along, but we did bring neighbors and ski buddies Dale and Pat.
The plan was for something more modest -- park at the end of the road and hike along Mill Creek ~2.75 miles to the Wasatch Crest overlooking Canyons Resort.
However, getting there was fairly easy, aside from dodging downhill mountain bikers on the last portion of the route that followed the Great Western Trail. So after a quick bite to eat while taking in the views, we opted to make a loop of it by following the Wasatch Crest south to the ridge that divides Mill Creek from Big Cottonwood Canyon, then descending via the Little Water Trail.
This turned out to be a good decision, for we were rewarded with not only stunning views into the Wasatch Back and across Canyons to Deer Valley, but also into both Mill Creek Canyon (and across the Great Salt Lake as far as Nevada) and Big Cottonwood.
We burned some extra mileage on the crest looking for the intersection with the Little Water Trail. We never found it, but we could see the trail on the ridgeline so we simply bushwhacked down to it. I actually preferred Little Water as the trail was barely visible at times, and was totally devoid of bikes. Near the end of the line Mrs. Admin fell both feet into Mill Creek, but we had less than a mile to go at that point. At this point she's fairly tuckered out. I'm guessing that she'll be quite sore tomorrow.
The entrance to Mill Creek Canyon is barely more than a mile from our home, yet oddly enough I've barely been over half of the way up there. Sometimes you overlook the opportunities closest to home. The entire canyon is managed as a park by the city of Salt Lake, so there's a $3 toll to enter the canyon. Unlike other Wasatch Front canyons, dogs are allowed in Mill Creek, but to accommodate mountain bikers it's leash-only on even days, and no mountain bikes on odd numbered days. Today was an even-numbered day, of course, so I had no interest in bringing the dogs along, but we did bring neighbors and ski buddies Dale and Pat.
The plan was for something more modest -- park at the end of the road and hike along Mill Creek ~2.75 miles to the Wasatch Crest overlooking Canyons Resort.
However, getting there was fairly easy, aside from dodging downhill mountain bikers on the last portion of the route that followed the Great Western Trail. So after a quick bite to eat while taking in the views, we opted to make a loop of it by following the Wasatch Crest south to the ridge that divides Mill Creek from Big Cottonwood Canyon, then descending via the Little Water Trail.
This turned out to be a good decision, for we were rewarded with not only stunning views into the Wasatch Back and across Canyons to Deer Valley, but also into both Mill Creek Canyon (and across the Great Salt Lake as far as Nevada) and Big Cottonwood.
We burned some extra mileage on the crest looking for the intersection with the Little Water Trail. We never found it, but we could see the trail on the ridgeline so we simply bushwhacked down to it. I actually preferred Little Water as the trail was barely visible at times, and was totally devoid of bikes. Near the end of the line Mrs. Admin fell both feet into Mill Creek, but we had less than a mile to go at that point. At this point she's fairly tuckered out. I'm guessing that she'll be quite sore tomorrow.
