White Pine Lake Trail

If you go:

• This is Hike #20 in Cache Trails by Jim Sinclair. 
• Our GPS logged about eight miles (we had two different units with slightly different amounts) for the trail plus a little over a mile for the loop around Tony Grove Lake. 
• The pedometer registered 20,760 steps for the whole thing. 
• Elevation at start was 8,147 feet, maximum elevation was 8,787 with ascent of 1072 and descent of 1141. The lake lies lower than most of the trail, so the last bit into the lake is quite a drop. 
• The parking at Tony Grove Lake costs $5.00 per car, so don't forget to bring a bit of cash. 

It's wildflower season!  We did this hike at the end of June.  Sometimes that time of year there is still a lot of snow, but not this year. As a result, we got to enjoy many of the early wildflowers like Nutall Violet:

Glacier Lily

As we climbed higher, there were lots of Glacier Lilies.  On one of our first hikes, we were so pleased to find and identify these lovely flowers. They only bloom in the early part of the year, usually next to melting snow, and at altitudes above 7,000 feet, so we consider them a rare treat each spring.  Here they are in the rocks and beside a stream.

Hydrophyllum capitatum, Ballhead Waterleaf has a name that describes it perfectly.

Unidentified PWF (Pretty White Flower)

Cinquefoil

Cinquefoil and some lovely new growth on the evergreens.  Janet has a great speech about new life and new hope that she promised she would share with us if we posted some pictures of that beautiful new green.

This pretty leaf was in some cooler and wetter areas.  I believe it's Heuchera, but it's not blooming so I'm not certain.

Here's another unidentified one.  If someone wants to comment and let us know, we'd be pleased!  This one was very impressive with its bushy growth and slender leaf design.

The tiny white ones are Spring Beauty, and they bloom along with the Glacier Lilies as you can see in the photo.

This cutie is Hairy Clematis, which is always facing the ground, so that's why you get a sky background.

Forget-me-nots were plentiful on this hike.  We have a special connection this year to this tiny beauty.  Many of us are trying to remember the things that Elder Uchtdorf told us to "forget not" in his talk.

Even where the flowers weren't blooming yet, there was plenty of beauty to behold.

This tree fell in the forest.  The root system was massive.  We wondered if anyone was there to hear it?

Yes, there was a bit of snow on the trail, and we enjoyed a little play time, 

 including a snowball toss.

Fourteen of us reached White Pine Lake.  We like to take group shots and try to do something a bit different each time.  This time we were attempting to be serious with straight faces.  Some were better at it than others, but one person got laughing so hard she had to hide her face.

There were lovely streams running down into the lake.

 White Pine Lake is a small high mountain lake that must have fish in it because we sure did see a lot of fishermen.  It's very popular for overnight backpacking outings because there is a campground here.

On the way out, we met up with five dads each bringing little boys, a couple of scout troops and some other people.  White Pine Lake is definitely a trail worth trying out.

Old Ephraim's Grave

12 mile hike?  No problem.

{We're the Likin' Hikin' Ladies and we're tough.}

On this day 7 hiking friends made the trek to

Old Ephraim's Grave.

We logged 27,385 steps averaging 27 minutes per mile reaching an elevation of 7,318 feet.
The hike provided a moderately long loop (we won't talk about a steep dirt road!).

Our journey began off Right Hand Fork past Camp Lomia.  About 0.4 miles hiking along the creek we passed the mouth of Ricks Canyon which is also the end of the return route.  We continued on to Willow Creek trail.  From there we hiked through beautiful aspens, enjoyed beautiful flowers, and scenic views.

These fallen aspens reminded us of the game Pick-Up-Sticks.

Kathryn did a great Vanna White impression showing us the tree sculpture. 

We saw lots of butterflies of all colors and sizes along the trail.

The beautiful Sky Rocket flower.

Yellow Monkey Flower

In 1999 the Forest Service constructed a new trail off Willow Creek, called

Ephraim's Cut-Off,

providing a shorter route.  Apparently Jordanne and Laurie thought

this would be a great place to make faces at one another.

Speaking of Willow Creek...

Did you know the trail up Willow Creek was the original wagon road over to Bear Lake

before the present Logan Canyon road was developed?  Yep, it's true.

This big rock might be a sweet reminder for some of the Ladies

of a recent hike to

Willow Creek - Little Cottonwood. 

Does the word "Lost" ring a bell?

They should have turned left when they turned right. 

But never fear...

Our fearless leader, Nan, soon found them. 

Today we were all together and hiking in the right direction

The route eventually became a bit steep with several cairns marking the way as we gained elevation.

It takes a bit of creativity and a whole lot of energy to climb up here and build a cairn.

We were thankful someone did because they lead the way up a fairly steep incline.

In time we came to the sink hole of all sink holes, at least on our hikes.

It's hard to miss not only because of its size but the sink hole is immediately off to the left of the trail.

We have a favorite sink hole we snowshoe to in the winter and play in the snow.

This is NOT it!

However this impressive sink hole has a depth of 120 feet. 

No we did not measure the massive hole in the mountain but read about it later.

We were a little nervous to stand too close but we couldn't help but be

drawn to its size.  After tossing in a few rocks and taking pictures it was time to move on.

Nan never tires of pulling out the dreaded dyer's woad.

In fact, she has set a good example for us each to follow.

We would much  rather see the lovely Columbine flower and they were out in

abundance today.

Some of the ladies have phone apps that help us to identify distant mountain peaks.

Here we are looking off into the distance at the Naomi Peak area.

We could also see the tower on top of Mt. Logan peak.

There is so much to see and enjoy on our hikes. 

Is it any wonder why we love hiking so much.

At this point of the trail we descended the mountain entering into a small meadow.

We knew the monument was just ahead. 

 {Laurie used her handy dandy phone app notifying us of miles we had hiked.}

We were happy after hiking 6 miles to finally make it to the monument. 

We stopped to rest and

enjoy lunch while Nan shared the story of

Old Ephraim.  

We laughed at being the only ones at the monument and within minutes there was a crowd.

We didn't mind.  It's always fun to meet people and hear their stories.

Reaching our destination on most hikes means the difficult part is behind us.

Not so on this hike.

The most grueling part is the 1.8 mile dirt road immediately after leaving the monument.

It seems to go straight up in places.

Kathryn wasn't feeling well and we were able to hitch a ride for her on a 4-wheeler.

We were happy to meet up with our dear friend near this sign a short time later.

Both were a welcome sight!

At this point we turned west and began a pleasant descent of almost 3 miles back to the junction of

Ricks Canyon.

We couldn't pass a tree in distress without stopping to help.

A fallen aspen landed on this little pine tree bending it over. 

The ladies jumped to the rescue.

We're cool like that. 

Chalk this hike up to another day spent with great friends and great hiking!