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- Apr 20, 2013
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On Memorial day time was scarce, but with an early start I figured my daughter and I could avoid at least some of the hordes and go up Bell Canyon.
Starting around 6am, there was only one car in the Wasatch Blvd lot, so I thanked the drizzle of rain that had just passed and we climbed up out of civilization- kinda. It had been a couple of years, as the trailhead is always so crowded, but we had chosen wisely this time.
The reservoir, a quite full pond at the moment, and Bell Canyon the deep u-shaped cut to the left.
Obligatory slug photo.
I saw a slug when I was living in Philly that was a foot long, but this one was an impressive six inches. Among dozens of these, there were also a good half million worms on the trail that my daughter tried very hard to not step on. I am sure my tread was not so light.
Besides the slimy friends, the trail was empty on the climb up.
We skipped the lower falls, originally intending to hit them on the way back... so no pictures of those falls...but you cannot miss shots of the creek.
Originally we had aimed for the upper falls/cascades, but we had taken too long in our meandering uphill, so we stopped just short, and instead sat on a huge piece of rock and watched some clouds forming at the mouth of the canyon while eating cookies and dried fruit for breakfast.
Just a few minutes apart.
Looking at the actual Bell Tower area.
This area has some significance to me, my sister fell here in the 80's. She recovered well, but I took a few minutes admiring some of the pitches.
Then the rain started coming our way, and with our breakfast done and expecting crowds on the trail below, we had to head back down.
Above the falls there was a steep worn trail dropping down to some cascades. With the excitement of some very slick mud, we could not say no. So my daughter and I slid and skidded down past these:
and to this.
Climbing back up we got muddy knees and hands, but kept smiles on our faces.
As expected, as soon as we hit the junction to the lower falls, the crowds started, so we skipped the falls all together and kept moving down the trail, stopping pretty consistently to let groups going uphill pass. We passed at least 3 groups that looked like they were going to spend the night. I was envious.
My daughter says she counted 47 different groups by the time we hit the reservoir. Thank heavens we started early.
Near the bottom I took this. It was so intensely green I stylized it a bit.
It had drizzled most of the way down, but as we hit the reservoir we passed the line of clouds hugging the mountains and it was sunny and dry. We got rain, but missed the crowds.
Oh, and I lied, if you were to squint really hard, you can see the falls in this picture
Featured image for home page:
Starting around 6am, there was only one car in the Wasatch Blvd lot, so I thanked the drizzle of rain that had just passed and we climbed up out of civilization- kinda. It had been a couple of years, as the trailhead is always so crowded, but we had chosen wisely this time.
The reservoir, a quite full pond at the moment, and Bell Canyon the deep u-shaped cut to the left.
Obligatory slug photo.
I saw a slug when I was living in Philly that was a foot long, but this one was an impressive six inches. Among dozens of these, there were also a good half million worms on the trail that my daughter tried very hard to not step on. I am sure my tread was not so light.
Besides the slimy friends, the trail was empty on the climb up.
We skipped the lower falls, originally intending to hit them on the way back... so no pictures of those falls...but you cannot miss shots of the creek.
Originally we had aimed for the upper falls/cascades, but we had taken too long in our meandering uphill, so we stopped just short, and instead sat on a huge piece of rock and watched some clouds forming at the mouth of the canyon while eating cookies and dried fruit for breakfast.
Just a few minutes apart.
Looking at the actual Bell Tower area.
This area has some significance to me, my sister fell here in the 80's. She recovered well, but I took a few minutes admiring some of the pitches.
Then the rain started coming our way, and with our breakfast done and expecting crowds on the trail below, we had to head back down.
Above the falls there was a steep worn trail dropping down to some cascades. With the excitement of some very slick mud, we could not say no. So my daughter and I slid and skidded down past these:
and to this.
Climbing back up we got muddy knees and hands, but kept smiles on our faces.
As expected, as soon as we hit the junction to the lower falls, the crowds started, so we skipped the falls all together and kept moving down the trail, stopping pretty consistently to let groups going uphill pass. We passed at least 3 groups that looked like they were going to spend the night. I was envious.
My daughter says she counted 47 different groups by the time we hit the reservoir. Thank heavens we started early.
Near the bottom I took this. It was so intensely green I stylized it a bit.
It had drizzled most of the way down, but as we hit the reservoir we passed the line of clouds hugging the mountains and it was sunny and dry. We got rain, but missed the crowds.
Oh, and I lied, if you were to squint really hard, you can see the falls in this picture
Featured image for home page:
