With a hot, dry weekend in store for Salt Lake City, Shawn and I decided to make a quick overnight camping trip to the Deseret Peak Wilderness to cool off in the higher elevations. We left Salt Lake on Saturday morning and headed west for the 1 hour drive to Grantsville, UT. Leaving Grantsville, we made our way up South Willow Canyon Road, looking for a camping spot along the way. Despite the fact that there were many campgrounds along the road, we found all of them to be completely full. After chatting with a ranger, we learned that many people were camping from the previous night and would be departing by early afternoon. We found a nice camp site in the Loop Campground and confirmed that the occupants were leaving. We paid our camping fee and wandered off the enjoy beer by the river while we waited for our site to clear. We set up camp by mid afternoon and spent the rest of the day and evening relaxing by a beautiful campfire and enjoying great food. We decided to wake up well before sunrise the next morning to hike to South Willow Lake. In the cool darkness of early morning we set off, watching the sun illuminate the surrounding canyon as it rose.
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| Hiking to South Willow Lake |
The views were truly spectacular as we made our way from the Deseret Peak trail head to an open valley full of lush grasses and wildflowers. It felt like a scene from Switzerland. Patches of snow clung to the rocks below Deseret Peak, and cascading streams of snowmelt crossed our path several times.
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| Columbine |
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| Remaining patches of snow |
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| Fields of wildflowers |
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| Deseret Peak |
We made our way over a ridge and into an adjacent valley containing South Willow Lake. The views continued to be spectacular, and even larger streams of snowmelt crashed down from above. We reached our destination after about 3.5 miles and spent an hour relaxing at gorgeous South Willow Lake, just thawing out from a long, cold winter.
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| Just below South Willow Lake |
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| South Willow Lake |
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| South Willow Lake |
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| Shawn at South Willow Lake |
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| South Willow Lake |
