Tales From My Trekking Poles: Maybird Lake (8 miles round-trip, Moderate Difficulty)

Description: This is a beautiful small alpine lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon. It is a way to find solitude even on a holiday weekend, once you split off of the popular Red Pine Trail. There were hundreds of hikers on the Red Pine and White Pine Trails, but on the Maybird Trail, I saw two Forest Rangers coming down after doing some maintenance work, and one solo female hiker as I was headed back down, and that was it. When I make a list of my favorite top 10 hikes, this will be on it! I did this hike on July 25, and the wildflowers were amazing, especially at the 9000 foot level. The wild raspberries were just getting ripe. I ate a couple and they were delicious. The trail is shaded much of the way, and offers magnificent views of Snowbird, the Salt Lake Valley, the Pfeifferhorn, Sundial Peak, and Salt Lake Twin Peaks. There are a couple of perfect places to pitch a tent shortly before you reach the lake. I recommend 3 liters of water, and there are several good places to filter water. The elevation gain is 2, 247 feet over the 4 miles. This was the Hike of the Week in the Salt Lake Tribune for July 23 2015. In that article the mileage is incorrect for the Maybird Junction. There are several geocaches along this trail that I have done previously, but I did not have time to look for any this trip.

To get to the Trailhead: From the bottom of Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon, (The 7-11 Store), go South up Little cottonwood Canyon for 9.3 miles. Turn into the large parking lot for the White Pine/Red Pine trails, or park on the road if it is full. (gps coordinates N 40* 34.528' W 111*40.862'). There are trailhead restrooms, and the trail starts right behind the restrooms. You will quickly cross a large bridge and head West. This is a good place to look for wild raspberries.
At 1.4 miles you will come to a junction. The dirt road to your left with the missing sign goes to White Pine Lake. Just past this is a large sign with directions to either lake. Past this sign is the trail up the hill to Red Pine Lake. This is the trail you take to get to Maybird Lake. Follow this trail for another 1.2 miles to the 2.66 mile point. (GPS coordinates N 40* 33.190' W 111* 41.729) Here you will see a small wood bridge on your right, and a wood sign on the left of the trail that points to Red Pine Lake. At this point you have already climbed over half of the elevation gain. Cross the wood bridge, and you are on your way to Maybird Lake! From here it is 1.66 miles to the Lake. When you get to the lake, you will see there is actually an upper and lower lake. The upper lake has a small island covered with pines. The coordinates to the upper lake are: N 40* 32,700' W 111* 42.224.'