Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Our search for clearer, cooler weather brought us south to Salt Lake City and then east up into Big Cottonwood Canyon. There are two canyons in the Wasatch range east of the city. Big Cottonwood is the wider, longer canyon that has two ski resorts, one campground, and tons of hiking trails. It also has a seasonal road that travels all the way through the canyon and over to Park City.

Hello Utah!

The road over Gate’s Pass into Park City. We thought we might travel that way with the Airstream, but after driving it with the truck decided going up and around on the main road was the wiser choice

Little Cottonwood Canyon is just a few miles south. This canyon is shorter and narrower. It also has two ski resorts, one campground and a bunch of hiking trails. We choose to stay in the Spruces Campground in the Big Canyon simply because it got great reviews and was reported to have a strong cell signal. Turns out we made the right choice because the only place you can get a signal in Little Cottonwood is at the ski areas, and the campground is in a dead zone.

The famous S-Curve in Big Cottonwood Canyon

When we pulled into Spruces, the attendant offered us up a pull-thru site (this happens all the time – it’s like they think everyone with an RV is afraid to back it up), but we said we prefer privacy over convenience so he stuck us all the way at the end of the campground in site 85. It was perfect.

All tucked into the trees

Despite a small amount of road noise, our site was quiet and secluded. Even though we spent the summer in the mountains, it’s been a really long time since we parked our house in the forest. It was so nice to see the trees and smell the evergreens. The Cottonwood Canyons are used as water supply sources for Salt Lake (hence the strict “no pets” rule) and as a result, the forests here are pristine. After the first Mormon settlers stripped the canyons bare, it was decided that if this area was to supply the city with water it should probably be treated better. So the trees were replanted and strict regulations were put into place. One hundred or so years later and the forests in these canyons are some of the healthiest we’ve seen in a long time.

Another really nice back-in site

The only issue with our perfect site was the lack of sun for solar power. And warming power — it was cold in the canyon! I guess our wish for clearer, cooler air had been granted. We only got direct sun for maybe an hour or two during the day which meant daily generator use was a must. Especially since we were running the furnace at night, in the morning, and even once during the day. Did I mention that it was cold? We’re certainly not solar snobs and running the generator is not really a big deal, but it had been so long since we used it that Tim had to clean out the carburetor to get it to run properly.

We had both been reading up on hikes in the canyon and were excited to tackle some of the trails. Unfortunately, the day we left Boise I got a nasty cold that kept me under the weather for most of the week. Ugh…this is what happens when I visit a city after months in relatively isolated areas.

Despite my less than stellar health, we did go out for a few shorter hikes and a fun drive up and over the pass from BCC to Park City.

We also went into town for a night out later in the week. Even though the pizza we had at Settebello was sub-par at best, we enjoyed a lovely walk around the city and ended the night with some delicious gelato that made up for dinner.
It wasn’t exactly the week we had hoped for. With no big fun hikes and some struggles with the cold (we ran out of propane one very cold morning), we left feeling like it was kind of an off week but hoping for better things to come at our next stop in Park City.