South Willow Lake (8 miles round-trip, moderate difficulty)

     My brother and I had intended to hike to Deseret Peak, but the road to the trailhead was closed due to a rock slide, with threats of a $5000 fine for entering the area, so we parked at another trailhead, started doing some geocaches, noticed a small lake on the gps map, and ended up at this beautiful alpine lake with an elevation high enough to look over the Ocquirrh Mountains and see Twin Peaks, Lone Peak, etc. in the Wasatch Mountains.

Directions:     To get to the trailhead from Salt Lake City, take I-80 West to the Grantsville Exit (Exit 84). Head to Grantsville on UT138 for 9.5 miles.
Turn right on 400 West and continue for 5 miles to South Willow Canyon.
Go West on South Willow Canyon road  for about 5 miles to a place where a Boy Scout Camp is to the left, the gate (closed, in our case) that leads to the loop campground is straight ahead, and the Medina Trailhead is to the right.
Turn right, and go a very short distance up a hill and park at the Medina Trailhead.
(gps coordinates  N 40* 29.754' W 112* 34.618')
The trail starts to the right of the outhouse.
 Follow this trail, and after about 1/3 of a mile, you will come to an old mining road.
 (gps coordinates N40* 30.160' W112* 34,787')
Turn left (West) and follow this road which becomes a trail as it enters the Deseret Peak Wilderness Area.
Enjoy the beauty as you ascend for a few miles, and don't forget to look back occasionally at the view of Tooele Valley behind you!
You will arrive at a wooden trail sign (gps coordinates N 40* 29.541' W 112* 37.130').
 Follow the trail to the right that leads to South Willow Lake.
 
     The lake is at the base of the steep cliffs. We went off trail in places to avoid some deep soft snow.  The lake is small but beautiful, and a great place to take a rest.
Near the lake is an incredible spot with a rock campfire ring, where you can look West at the lake and feel like you are deep in the wilderness, or look East at the Tooele Valley, and see the beautiful Wasatch Range in the distance, above the Oquirrh Mountains.
We went back down the way we came.
Our gps said we had gone 7.8 miles, so we continued down to the Boy Scout Camp to find another geocache, to make this an 8 mile hike, almost the same distance as the hike to the top of Deseret Peak will be once the road is open!  

     Geocaches I found were: 
Medina Trail Cache:http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC305TJ_medina-trail-cache?guid=e910f185-419c-4057-8857-e68fac0c485b,
Take a Break: http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4BXWB_take-a-break,
By the Boy Scout: http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3GFAK_by-the-boy-scout

The lake is at the base of the cliffs about 3 miles ahead.

Entering Deseret Peak Wilderness Area.

South Willow Lake still a bit icy.

View from the lake with the Wasatch Mountains behind the
Oquirrh Mountains.

View from Mormon Trail Road, about 8 miles from
the lake. South Willow Lake is at the base of the
large snow area.

Parrish Canyon Trail (Easy, 5 miles roundtrip)

     This was the "Hike of the Week" a couple of weeks ago in the Salt Lake Tribune.
 This is a fun, relatively easy hike that you can do with dogs or  mountain bike, with lots of wildflowers, and the destination of a beautiful meadow or  a very nice fire ring with plenty of firewood and a place to sit and enjoy the view!

     The weather has been so rainy that I had not hiked for a couple of weeks. Rain was forecast again, but I woke up early, peeked outside, and it was not yet raining, so I decided to go for it.

Directions:  Drive North on  I -15 from Salt Lake City, and in less than 20 minutes, take the Parrish Lane Exit and head East. At the top of Parrish Lane, turn left on a narrow paved road that takes you to the trailhead (gps coordinates N 40* 55.337' W 111* 51.970').

The Hike:  There is a large wooden trail sign on the North end of the parking area. This is the beginning of the trail.  At .15 mile keep going straight across the firebreak road.  Follow switchbacks up the mountain. At times you will see and hear waterfalls from Parrish Creek on your North.  Be sure to take frequent rests and admire the great view of the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island.  At about 1.7 miles you will come to a fork in the trail. Either one will work, but I stayed to the right, which provides the best view of a rock outcropping that looks like the profile of a dog's face.  Just past the dog face, the trail steepens and fades, but soon rejoins the main trail that you would have been on if you had taken the left fork.  At just over 2 miles, you come to a beautiful meadow rimmed with Mountain Mahogany trees, and a beautiful view of a canyon of pine trees. But don't turn around yet, keep going for another .4 miles and you will be rewarded with a great resting area complete with a very nice fire ring, places to sit, and plenty of dry firewood  to roast marshmallows and make S'mores!  (The gps coordinates are: N 40* 55.339' W 111* 50.598')

      I was sorely tempted to start a campfire, but the promised rain was arriving, so I  headed back to the car, but made a mental note to make this an evening hike sometime, and roast marshmallows before returning by the light of the moon or headlamp!  I had not loaded Geocaches into my gps but had scribbled the coordinates of one that I thought would be near the trailhead, so I found that one before heading back home.

Geocaches I found:
 WizMedic's Quickie Cache UT: http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCMTQW_wizmedics-quickie-cache-ut?guid=8c305fb0-2cc2-4987-a2de-91d02f16eeee

Trailhead Sign

Great views for most of the hike

Parrish Creek

Can't get enough of the view!

Vibrant wildfolwers

Dog Face Rock

Mountain Mahogany and Meadow

Fire Ring. A good Destination!