Gloria Falls

SALT LAKE CITY, UT

Gloria Falls is a popular easy hike in Little Cottonwood Canyon, just 30 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City. The waterfall itself is gorgeous, plunging over 50' down a wide tiered area. The total hike is just 2.5 miles roundtrip.

After Friday's hike to Mount Olympus, poor Karen's knee was still in tough shape. Tomorrow, she is taking my car to Moab for two days, so we wanted to do some easy hikes so her legs would be strong for hiking in Arches National Park.

Here's how the hike started ...

A 544' elevation gain isn't a big deal until you're trying to do that with a sore knee ... in snow. So we kept our eyes peeled for makeshift walking sticks for Karen. She was less than thrilled that I took this picture. :)

Meanwhile, I was less than thrilled that I wore short pants!

You'd think I must have look a little out of place compared to the other hikers we saw, and you'd be right. But it was because I was wearing a coat, gloves, and an earband. About half the hikers we saw were in SHORTS!

We saw one kid at the beginning of the trail turn around and go back to the car, and then we saw him later on the trail ... in shorts and a tshirt! He said he went back to his car to leave his coat behind because he was worried he would get too hot. Ha!

We finally arrived at the waterfall. Gorgeous! We opted to NOT climb up the side of the falls, even though we saw footprints from other more daring hikers.

Later in the week, I had lunch with Kim's dad, Calvin. He said he had been hiking in snow once that was just soft enough for his foot to suddenly plunge through to a very rocky surface below. He said he was lucky he didn't twist an ankle or get his foot stuck.

I had always worried about slipping and falling or getting wet socks and frostbite. I had never thought about an injury from what lies beneath! Glad I heard that little tidbit after we hiked Gloria Falls. :)