Big Cottonwood Canyon
Wasatch Mountains - Salt Lake City, Utah
Avalanche Paths
Snow Caves
Rattlesnake
The other day, Junior, Bruno and I came looking for this trail
but I couldn't find it, we went up the trail to get to all
of the "Standard Ridge" rock climbing walls. The
whole time they were worried about rattlesnakes. I told them
that I'd been hiking in the Wasatch for many years and that
I had only seen one rattlesnake. I told them that they would
probably never see one. We didn't find the trailhead so we
went to donut falls.
So I went home and read up on the correct trailhead and returned
with Gloria. It turns out that is was much further up the
road than I thought. I had been around this entire area dozens
of times since I was a kid but I had never went up the Stairs
Gulch.
We stopped after about 20 minutes to take a picture of the
little waterfalls, I dropped my hiking stick, started stepping
down to pick it up and almost stepped on a huge rattlesnake.
You pretty much have to step right on them to get them to
bite you.
We then continued up further, this canyon is very rugged and
you should take it very seriously. Don't ever walk in the
middle of a snow talus in the summer. There are usually caves
right below, waiting to cave in, dropping you into rocks and
freezing water. An ice axe wouldn't hurt in this canyon.
