Van Cott Ridge - April 20, 2019

[scatman]

My family completed a nice four hour hike this morning along the northern ridge of Red Butte Canyon that I refer to as the Van Cott Ridge. The early wildflowers are finally starting to pop up here along the foothills of Salt Lake City, and the hills are now green for a short period of time from all the recent precipitation we have been getting. Temperatures were in the mid-seventies today and I thought it was a tad bit warm on our hike. It always take me a couple of hikes to get used to the warmer weather as spring moves along.


Common Storkbill


View of the summit of Mount Van Cott


Longstalk Spring Parsley


Ladybug on the trail


Arrow-Leaved Balsamroot


Yellow-eyed Cryptanth


On top of the ridge - at this point you can summit Mount Van Cott or head east along the ridge


Looking east towards the head of Red Butte Canyon


Spring Beauty


Heading into the oak


Looking east along the Van Cott Ridge


Another shot along the ridge


View of the southern ridge of Red Butte Canyon


Lots of sign of elk along the ridge


Elk track in the snow


Lichen on the scrub oak


Yellow Bell


We're heading towards the top of this hill - the last high point along the ridge


One last short, steep section


First Mountain Mahogany that we ran into


Tour de Brewtah coming up in two weeks!


Our turn around point. The ridge drops down after this hill to the head of Dry Canyon


Glacier Lily


More Glacier Lily


View to the south at Gobblers Knob and Mount Raymond


Coming down off the ridge and Mount Van Cott


Winter Kill on our way down.

 

[regehr]

Nice!!! We were up in the foothills today too, and even got stormed on a bit.

 

[Miya]

The way the skeleton is placed looks horrifying...
But all the flowers were very lovely and made me smile! Haha thanks for the share!
I have never seen that color lichen before.

 

[scatman]

Nice!!! We were up in the foothills today too, and even got stormed on a bit.

What part of the foothills were you hiking in? We got home about two hours before the storm hit - at least here in the Avenues.

 

[scatman]

The way the skeleton is placed looks horrifying...
But all the flowers were very lovely and made me smile! Haha thanks for the share!
I have never seen that color lichen before.

We ran into the same deer carcass one month earlier coming down the trail and it was more complete. Something had drug it further down the trail when I took this shot.

 

[regehr]

What part of the foothills were you hiking in? We got home about two hours before the storm hit - at least here in the Avenues.

We did one of my favorite hikes which is to walk between 1 and 2 miles up the City Creek road and then pick a ridge to walk up, walk the old jeep road along the N ridge of City Creek, and then pick another ridge to walk down. Some of these ridges have almost-brush-free routes whereas others are poor choices. But you seldom see anyone up there and it was really perfect yesterday until the rains came in!