Stewart Falls

After hiking around in Bells Canyon the day before, Susan and I decided to take it a bit easier on Saturday. I thought a drive on the Alpine Scenic Loop would be nice and we could stop along the way and find some nice easy trails to wander on. The idea was sound, but unfortunately the Loop was still closed due to snow and avalanche debris. So instead we stopped at the Aspen Grove trailhead and headed out on a pleasant little two mile hike to Stewart Falls.

Stewart Falls is a two-tiered waterfall on the east side of Mount Timpanogos. The first thing that we noticed was the massive avalanche right at the beginning of the trailhead. Most of the snow had melted away, but there was still a fair amount of avalanche debris that the park service had not had a chance to clear away.

About a mile into the hike we came upon another large avalanche, only this time there was still a good amount of snow as you can see in the picture below.



Between the snow and the debris we had a hard time seeing where the trail might pick up on the far side. Below is another picture that gives a better feel for the amount of damage that an avalance can do.



The waterfall itself was well worth the two mile hike. Given the amount of snow melt this year, the fall is going at a pretty good clip. It makes me wonder what it looks like in years where we have not had as much snow.



The bottom of the fall was covered with the third avalanche field of the hike. The running water had a carved a large tunnel underneath the snow, which was interesting but the snow did not look stable enough to risk going through.



Overall it was a fun little hike that just about anyone could do.