Hiking the Peaks of Alta

This week I thought I would mix it up a bit and drive up to Salt Lake County and visit some of the peaks that I love to ski in the winter.

Here was my planned route:

And here is my GPS track:

From Wildcat Base, views of Mount Superior are hard to ignore:

View of Mount Superior. Superior dominates all views from the canyon floor.

The first two and a half miles (I did this loop counter-clockwise, starting at Wildcat Base) follows the Collins service road to the top of the Wildcat lift. This is a gentle climb.

View of Mount Baldy from the Collins service road.

Another view of Mount Baldy. The deep scar in the right third of the photo is the Tombstone area. The scree slope on the left below Baldy is the Ballroom area.

A view of High Traverse. The other side of the notch on the left in the cliffs is called Gunsight.

View of Mount Baldy from the Baldy Shoulder area.

The next mile to the summit of Mount Baldy is steeper, but the trail is clear, clean, and has lots of little switchbacks.

All done! From Wildcat Base to Mount Baldy summit took about an hour and a half, and nearly all of the elevation gains for the day.

Looking west down the ridgeline between Utah County and Salt Lake County. Twin Peaks are the highest in Salt Lake County.

Looking south-southwest on Mount Baldy at the weather telemetry sensors and ski patrol equipment.

Looking north from Mount Baldy at the Cottonwood ridgeline. Mount Raymond, Kessler Peak, and Gobblers Knob are peaks on the next ridgeline north.

Looking north-northeast from Mount Baldy.

Looking east from Mount Baldy. My plan was to hike Mount Baldy, Sugarloaf, Devil's Castle, and Point Supreme.

Looking down the Baldy main chute. The top of Collins Lift and the ski patrol shack are visible on the right. The Collins Angle Station and Watson Shelter are visible on the left.

The next section from Mount Baldy to Sugarloaf was fairly clean to hike, other than a little confusion as I got to the bottom of the east shoulder of Mount Baldy. The route stays to the left in this image:

A scramble on the east shoulder of Mount Baldy

The climb up Sugarloaf Mountain from the saddle (the top of the Sugarloaf ski lift) only took about 15 minutes. The trail continues along the ridgeline to the east side of Sugarloaf toward Devil’s Castle; the trail is easy to follow but as you approach the peak on Devil’s Castle, it starts to get a bit dodgy. The peak itself requires a little climbing up a limestone chimney, but there are plenty of handholds and footholds.

View of Pittsburg Lake from the ridge between Sugarloaf and Devil's Castle.

View of Cecret Lake from the ridgeline bewteen Sugarloaf and Devil's Castle.

A view of Devil's Castle from the Sugarloaf shoulder.

Another view of Cecret Lake from the ridge between Sugarloaf and Devil's Castle.

The well-worn trail does not continue the whole way.

Looking down a chute on Devil's Castle toward the Castle Apron.

The rest of Devil’s Castle was impassable to me. You can see on my GPS track that I got stuck trying to get around this monolith:

I suspect that you have to drop a bit of elevation earlier on the trail (avoiding the ridgeline) in order to get below (to the right of in this photo) the rock. I may hike the ridge from the other direction to verify that sometime.

At this point I turned around and followed my track back to the saddle between Sugarloaf and Devil’s Castle.

The drop from the saddle into Cecret Lake was hard on my knees, but I was probably going faster than I should have.

Looking north-northwest from Devil's Castle.

While you're scrambling up Devil's Castle, be sure to grab a handful of thorns from plants like this one.

View of switchbacks in the descent from the saddle bewteen Sugarloaf and Devil's Castle. Cecret Lake in center.

View of Alta's Albion Base area, looking west.

Last modified on 2020-10-01