Bell Canyon, before and after

[Mtnbiker]

We hiked up to the waterfall in Bell's Canyon on the east bench in Sandy yesterday. It's fun quick hike, and it's interesting to see the waterfall and what makes it beautiful at different times of the year.

[Glockguy]

How far up the canyon is it? How long did it take you?

[Mtnbiker]

Well, we usually start from the trailhead on 9400 S, on the right fork of the Y that leads up to Little Cottonwood. From trailhead to waterfall at a decent pace is about an hour, give or take depending on snow and ice, etc..

after about 45 minutes the trail becomes very steep and rocky, and 15 minutes later or so, watch for a small stream crossing. Just uphill of the stream crossing is a large pine tree and you'll veer left here. You'll scramble a little bit off camber and just around the corner is the waterfall.

If you go in the spring, you can hear it for quite a ways.

[Iceaxe]

Here is a map of Bell Canyon. Wastch Blvd is not shown but the Wastch Blvd Trailhead is.

Enjoy
Ice

[shaggy125]

If you go further up the canyon there is another taller waterfall. It's less photogenic, but better than the first waterfall when looking at it in real life (in my opinion at least). The lake is nice too if you keep going, but the scenery is best just above the lake where the pines start to disappear and lone peak and thunder mountain surround wildflower meadows. Great spot, here are a few pictures:

[Sombeech]

Wow, very nice pics, Shaggy!

[Glockguy]

Wow thanks for the pics. That area looks way cool and I need to explore it this summer. There are some geocaches up there that have had very few visitors.

[Iceaxe]

There are some geocaches up there that have had very few visitors.

I hit some of the geocaches up Bells a couple of years ago. Did 5 in one day and they were all within about 1/4 mile of each other.

Wish I could remember my geocash name so I could look up my records.

[TreeHugger]

I've been up to that waterfall - how much longer does it take to get to the lake and meadows? It looks beautiful!!

[shaggy125]

I've been up to that waterfall - how much longer does it take to get to the lake and meadows? It looks beautiful!!

The lake is probably around a mile and a half from the upper waterfall according to the map, the trail doesn't get any less steep though, so you work for everything up there. The meadows are less than a mile from the lake. The trail takes you to the lakes north shore, head to the south shore and it's easy walking south up through the trees to the meadows. There are a couple other really small lakes (more like ponds that probably dry up after the snow is gone and it hasn't raind in a while) up there, but it looked like they were in big boulder fields and it was a pain to get to them so I didn't check them out, they just didn't look worth the effort.

I'll attach a couple google earth images along with a kmz file of approximately where all the good stuff is.

Eric.

[Sombeech]

I'll attach a couple google earth images along with a kmz file of approximately where all the good stuff is.

Cool! Thanks man.

[lonepeakgeek]

Nice pics,all. Bells is one of the most beautiful canyons on the Wasatch. It's got that great little cottonwood stock granite. Bells used to be a stop-over place for Royal Robbins and Yvonne Chouinard-some of the routes they created still have un-retrieved pitons stuck in 'em. - Just a little climbing history for you buff buffs.

[TreeHugger]

I finally just got back to this thread. Thanks for the information!!

Those Google Earth photos are AMAZING!!! THAT is such a totally cool way to check out the area!! I'm soooo impressed - gonna download that program asap. Very very cool. Thanks.

[mudjumper]

Has anyone ever camped/backpacked/spent the night up there? Is that meadow any good, or is to too marshy? Any other spots that would make for a good quick overnighter?

Thanks,
Russ

[shaggy125]

I haven't spent the night, but I passed a group that had. They were camped in the trees below the lake. It didn't look to me like an ideal spot, but between their small tents and hammocks it looked like they made it work. The meadows when I was there were pretty much like someones front lawn and would make a perfect camping spot (be careful about damaging the area). A couple had small ponds for water. It was fairly late in the season though, don't know what they would be like earlier, might be marshy?

Eric.