For me, no other roadside attraction in Utah provides the aesthetic allure of Mt. Superior. Its enormous concave face lets the imagination run wild, and even in the fall, with not (just yet) a speck of snow on the ground, it’s easy to mind-rip big turns all over its intricate structure and terrain diversity. The…
Author: Dave Zook
Hiking Bald Mountain in the High Uintas
Breaking free from my comfort zone of Little Cottonwood Canyon can be taxing. LCC holds the people, peaks, and accessibility that leave me with a “why leave?” mentality. Change is a good thing I tell myself from time to time, and with the mighty Uinta Range so close (yet so far), I felt the urge…
A loopy journey on Mount Timpanogos
At around 10 p.m. I received an invite from my friend Adam Fabrikant for a run the next morning on Mount Timpanogos. Adam is a fierce mountain goat, and while he may hesitate to use those words exactly, he shows no limit to his energy stores. Therefore, I dabbled with some second guessing after I agreed…
Hiking the timeless Mount Olympus and not quite getting lost
Olympus stands apart from the Wasatch front peaks by its light-brown craggy summit, diagonal striations below on the upper mountain, and its large stature. It looms over the southeast corner of 215, and is visible from about the entire valley. The butting up of the flat valley to the instant-steep base of Olympus demonstrates the…
Cecret Lake – the everyone trail
The pinnacle of unextreme hiking takes place in the heart of Alta, and I quite enjoyed it. You don’t have to sacrifice any of your grizzled nature to enjoy such an outing. It doesn’t put an asterisk on your trans-Wasatch, Tri Canyon ski-running feats to admit to a relaxed stroll in the woods. We have,…
Running from Alta to Baldy and back
On a recent, roasting Friday night, I escaped the triple-digit valley life to tag along with trail runners Chris Cawley and Heather Kluk on a challenging loop run beginning in Alta. Beginning just before seven in the relative cool of 8,500 feet, we passed the bottom of Wildcat chair and cut west on the trail…
July 4th in Alta: America and coreshots
The 4th is glorious, and it is great. But it’s also sweaty and crowded. Sometimes jamming into a public arena with half the valley to swap “oohs and aahs” over exploding ordinances as the temps just drop below 90 is less than attractive. Whiny me. So this year on the 4th, as they often do,…
Trail Running Corner Canyon: miles and miles of options
The Corner Canyon Trails are an expansive biking, running and hiking network out of Draper, and the home of a few low-key races. The 100-mile Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) runs right through the middle of the area and connects many of the trails. Getting there from SLC requires several miles on the 1-15, and dealing…
Running on the Peruvian Gulch Trail at Snowbird
Snowbird has added some sort of roller-slidey device and may (or may not) be adding a bunch more developments, but its classic terrain, big and steep, is at the ready for summer running or hiking. I parked on the bypass road near the Powderbird heli-pad and got on the Blackjack trail. There are other ways…
Learning the mountain biking lesson at Payson Lakes
Temps in Salt Lake crept toward the ominous triple-digit threshold as I prepped for a mid-June mountain bike and camp trip to the Payson Lakes area in the southern Wasatch. The heat gathered and stood stagnant in my driveway. We needed out of the valley. Soon enough, the SLC outdoor-accessibility factor reared its beautiful head. Down…