I've had this hike on our "to do" list for quite a while, and just had to find the right time to go..... It's a super popular hike - one of the most popular hikes in Utah because it's short, simple, close and beautiful. Because it's so popular, you gotta go early.....or go on a weekday non holiday.
Donut Falls hike is up Big Cottonwood Canyon and there is a huge parking lot that is always full. The secret, is if you drive past the parking lot and go back by some summer homes, you can park a mile closer to the trail-head, but that parking lot is small and only holds about 16 cars. The big lot was full and everyone was parking there, but knowing our secret we forged ahead and drove on further.
We got to the trail-head and guess what? There was two spots open!!! Meghan/Corey & Marissa/Matt came in one car, so that was perfect! And saved us 2 miles of hiking!
The hike from the trail-head is only .8 miles and it's through beautiful meadows, aspens and pines.
This place was crowded! We left at 8am to get there early and already the big parking lot was full. We've never seen so many people on one hike and so many little kids and babies. Wow.
We left our house and it was 75 degrees. When we got up to the trailhead, it was 54! But it warmed up nicely as we were hiking and the sun came up over the mountains. The water however, was ice cold.
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| Of course Jacob found stuff to climb on and up |
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| Corey leading the way with Baby Jane |
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| Did I mention it was beautiful?? These pics don't do it justice |
Eventually, we came to the part of the hike where you have to scramble up about 50-60 feet of rocks, some slippery from mist and others slippery smooth from all the butts and hands sliding down them! You have to climb up to see the actual "donut" the water flows through, but it's so worth the climb! And the climb really wasn't that bad.
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| At the top, you can see the water coming down and into a hole in the rocks, thus a donut! |
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| It was very impressive! |
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| Even more impressive is if you go inside the "donut" cave, you can really see the donut hole! |
VIDEO of inside:
VIDEO of the top of the climb:
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| Time to head back |
Super fun hike and it was worth getting up early for!
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