Catherine Pass, Sunset Peak & Brighton Lakes

[Nick]

Here's another trip report from my summer of hiking for a living. Whenever I'd plan out my trails, I would try to plan hikes where I could knock out more than one trail guide at a time. This one was a perfect one for that, but was also one of the worst reminders of the year that my knee was kaput.

The route started in Albion Basin in Little Cottonwood Canyon at the Catherine Pass trailhead. From there I hiked up to Catherine Pass, then up to Sunset Peak, then down through the Brighton Lakes where Audra picked me up. A great little point-to-point if you have someone who doesn't mind dropping you off and picking you up.

Not 5 minutes after getting dropped off, and only a short distance up the trail, it started to rain. I took shelter for a few and continued on over the wet rocks. The wildflowers were looking awesome. This was on August 10th.


As I climbed toward Catherin Pass, the clouds broke and offered some fine views.


My only complaint was all the ski resort junk strewn about the otherwise beautiful area. I'm specifically miffed with Alta for painting a bunch of their ski lift poles white rather than the green that most resorts do. I mean, really Alta?!


Approaching Catherine Pass


The trail sign on top of Catherine Pass. I met a couple of ladies who were wondering how much farther it was to Lake Catherine. They had come up from the Brighton Lakes side of the pass so I kindly pointed out that Lake Catherine was right below them and they had already passed it. They were totally let down by this news as someone along the trail had told them the view from there was going to be fantastic. In my opinion, the view from Catherine Pass is pretty darn good, but to each their own, I guess.


I wasn't sure yet if I was going to tie Sunset Peak into the route. My knee had been problematic and the weather was iffy, so I sat down and took a break and thought it over. I knew it was only about a third of a mile, but it looked so far away.


But I went for it anyway. This was definitely my favorite part of the hike.

The trail wraps around the backside of the small peak before Sunset before traversing the ridge to Sunset Peak.


Looking back at Catherine Pass along the way.


I loved the final stretch of trail to the peak. Narrow, steep and great views. Good stuff.


All three of the Brighton Lakes as seen from the top of Sunset Peak.


Looking back at the route from Catherine Pass to Sunset Peak.


After a quick break on the peak, I raced back down toward Brighton Lakes making quick stops at each of them.


Lake Mary was definitely the most interesting of the three.


Sadly she isn't all natural though.



I'd seen a fair amount of people, but nothing like I saw from Lake Mary on down to Brighton Resort. Lake Mary itself was crawling with people swimming and cliff jumping. Pretty ridiculous that even on a busy Sunday in August, there are no resources allocated to ticketing those rule breaking asshats. For those that don't know, swimming is strictly forbidden in the SLC watershed lakes like this, but it seems to be rarely enforced. You're not allowed to bring your pup on the trail either, even if you pick up after them.


The final stretch runs down through the slopes at Brighton. Pretty, but I like my mountains sans-ski clutter. This was definitely amongst my favorite 'work hikes' this summer, but I think I'll go back to leaving the Wasatch for the masses next year.


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[Scott Chandler]

I was amazed when I hiked to Sunset Peak in July that I ran into a couple forest service rangers patrolling. They were wilderness rangers like me and are pulled away from patrolling those Wasatch wilderness areas during the weekends to patrol the busy areas of the canyons. Sadly it was only two folks, one of which with authority to hand out violations. They were probably elsewhere when you were out. It's sad that a forest with so much use can't get the money to appropriately staff for enforcement and education.

 

[andyjaggy]

I've done this hike many times. An alternative, and how I did it growing up in Heber, is to hike up to Sunset Peak from Midway. You won't find any people going up that way, though it's pretty darn steep.

 

[Parma]

how many miles was this trip?

 

[scatman]

I did this hike with my daughter on July the 4th. We got an early start, but ran into a whole bunch of people on our way down.



@andyjaggy - give some more specifics on the route up from the Midway side. I might like to try that way next summer.

 

[Nick]

how many miles was this trip?

About 5.5 miles point-to-point with the side trip up to Sunset.

 

[xjblue]

An old favorite of mine is to hike to Sunset from the Alta side on a moonlit night, usually deserted then. One night I took some friends up from Brighton and we kept wondering what all the glow sticks along the trail were for - maybe help people find the way back to the parking lot, was there that many people getting lost up here after sundown? But there was nobody around. From the summit we watched as first one and then a couple and then dozens of fast moving headlamps came bobbing up past Catherine, finally donned on me it was one of those long distance mountain races I had heard about, the sticks were course markers. We kept passing small groups and individual runners/hiking runners/volunteers all the way down, several asking if we were OK and letting us know we were going the wrong way or that we could find help at the check station back at Brighton, we started coming up with excuses for why we quit the race early : ) No we are just out here for a little hike at midnight was less believable than running a hundred miles across the Wasatch.

 

[andyjaggy]

I think the canyon is called Snake Creek, just west of Midway. There is a golf course at the base of the canyon, and a road that heads up into the canyon. Follow the road, which eventually turns to dirt, and drive up it as far as you can. If you have 4wd you can get pretty far up before you are forced to park your car somewhere. From there just start hiking up the road, and eventually it turns into a trail. you pass a couple of old abandoned mines at one point. It's a really nice hike and you will most likely have it all to yourself. About 3 miles and 3,000 feet of elevation gain, so it's a bit brutal. You first hit Pioneer Peak and then if you want can cross the saddle over to Sunset Peak.