We started off the day with tasty and extensive Sunday brunch with a view from the back deck at Alta Lodge:
- From our brunch table at Alta Lodge
Their brunch comes highly recommended, with everything from a buffet including cold calamari, scallop and shrimp salad, to special orders from the kitchen that include waffles and eggs benedict. $25 a plate. We sat for a while and talked with some folks I know, including the GM, Marcus.
Thereafter we drove down to Snowbird, parked on the Bypass Road and walked down to board the Tram.
- Riding the Snowbird tram
Once on the summit of Hidden Peak we could see that work is already well underway on the high-speed detachable replacement for Snowbird's Little Cloud chair.
- The towers of the new high-speed detachable Little Cloud chair are in
- Construction on the top terminal off the new Little Cloud lift
Our plan was for a 5.5-mile loop up the Peruvian ridgeline to the summit of Mount Baldy, then down to Sugarloaf Pass, through Cecret Saddle to Cecret Lake. We'd thereafter bushwhack down through Cabin Hill to the base of Sugarloaf, then follow the trail and workroad that roughly parallels Home Run, leading to the Albion Basin Lodge. That meant a walk back down Little Cottonwood Canyon Road and the Bypass Road at the end to return to the car.
Vistas were a little hazy with smoke from the wildfires burning in the West Desert. Clouds moved in for most of the afternoon, and while we felt a couple of raindrops on Baldy it never truly rained. As expected, after a lean winter and dry spring wildflowers are somewhat muted this year, although we still found a couple of good displays of color at higher elevations. We even bumped into some regular AltaBird skiers I know while we were atop Baldy -- it's hard to pull us away, even in the off-season.
- Mrs. Admin reaches the summit of Mount Baldy
- The first (and probably last) time Mrs. Admin will ever be seen atop Mount Baldy
Before leaving the summit I had Mrs. Admin take a peek down Little Chute just so she could see what something that isn't a blue groomer looks like from above.
- Purple Columbine on Mount Baldy
- Wildflowers atop Mount Baldy
- Climbers on the cliffs at Cecret Saddle (look carefully, they're there...really)
- Cecret Lake
At Cecret Lake I hung a two-person hammock between two fir trees and we relaxed for a while as we toyed with the local wildlife.
- Mrs. Admin's cherries were a hit with a local pika
- Mrs. Admin at the bottom of Devil's Elbow, with the Castle in the background (Powderqueen was right, Utah's nothing but a barren, brown desert!)
Walking past the Wildcat base area, Alta is putting in a new building immediately adjacent to the Administration office. The folks at Alta Lodge told me that they had to build it as a separate building so that the current Admin building's permit can remain grandfathered. It's likely to provide more office space as the current facility is rather cramped, and possibly more employee housing as well.
- The new building under construction at the base of Alta
Now it's time to go hot tubbing...
