Snowbird Hike

The weather forecast was for some clouds but basically a nice warm sunny day. I was a little skeptical when I stepped out the door and saw the thick overcast. But we drove up to the Reed Lakes Trailhead and hoped that the overcast would burn off. When we reached the Snowbird Trail as it leaves the Reed Lakes Trail, we saw the clouds and fog slowing moving up through the Reed Creek Valley. As I started up the very steep winding trail that heads up to the first ridge toward Snowbird Mine ruins, I noticed that fog was also enveloping the peaks around us. I said to my hiking partners that I thought we were going to get swallowed up by the clouds. And, yes, that is exactly what happened. The higher we got on the trail, the thicker the fog became. The trail itself is often rather difficult to follow. It winds through piles of old mine debris then on up through gigantic boulder piles. It can be difficult to figure out where the trail actually is. Fortunately a couple of our group had been there before and had a good general idea. We had a few small stream crossings and lots of boulder climbing. The farther we climbed the more we figured we were not going to outclimb the clouds and finally reach the glacier and our actual destination, Snowbird Hut. It is an interesting route, winding through sections of large boulders, then areas of good trail through green vegetation sprinkled with blueberries. After several hours we finally climbed the largest boulders to the high ridge that usually gives the first view of Snowbird Glacier. When we arrived we ate lunch and hoped we would see the glacier. We saw a large snowfield that leads to the glacier, but the fog was too thick to see past that. As we pondered whether it was worthwhile to continue on at least another mile, down to the glacier, then up the steep difficult to follow route to the hut, it started to rain. Shelly walked down through the snow to have a look. She returned saying she couldn't see anything out there. At one point, the clouds lifted slightly and we had a short glimpse of the glacier, but it was quickly gone. This is a beautiful hike, and still involved a trek across the glacier then a steep hard to follow boulder climb, so we decided to turn back before we got dangerously wet and the rocks and trail became dangerous and slippery. It was rather disappointing but still a lovely hike. We plan to try again in the next few weeks.