The Old Miner's Trail up Emigration Canyon

Old Miner's Trail Up Emigration Canyon

A few rumbles of thunder made us second guess our decision to hike the old miner's trail up Emigration Canyon. But I looked west toward Salt lake and noticed a few blue patches of sky out beyond the Oquirrh mountains, and decided that the dark clouds would blow over with the micro-burst wind.

The trail is pretty much exposed as you head south and then west before turning in a north direction. Eventually the trail leads you to a rocky uphill area of red rock. the trail turns west just for maybe 40 yards as you cross a step-over creek. Then there is a quick uphill climb to a big tree that splits the trail. Behind the tree is a rock face with several good sized slabs of rock collapsed in front of it. If you sneak around some of the rocks you will see the opening of the mine. Inside the front five feet or so of the mine is a metal grate that blocks you from getting farther into the mine. It's dark in there and we wished we had brought a flashlight so we could peer farther in. My wife took a couple of pictures of the opening with her camera. I told her to put the flash on the camera to see if it allowed to see farther in the mine. When the flash went off she said she heard something make a noise. She said it sounded like a drip of water.

From the mine entrance, the trail heads north again through a shady hillside of white pines. Then you come to a small meadow area. We talked about how the meadow area would be a great place for an overnight camp or a place to build a neat cabin. The trail then heads west into a narrow drainage area that is a steady uphill climb, and steeper than we had anticipated. This area was kept in shadow most of the day on the north facing side and we had to climb over and around a few large patches of melting snow. This has been a drought year with not much snow-pack. In a normal snow year this area would have been completely covered in snow, and probably not the best place to hike this early in the season--at least not without snowshoes or hiking staffs.

After this heart and lung stretching hill, we came to the saddle or pass. From the pass we were able to see all the way back to Salt Lake City. The University of Utah Huntsman Center stood at the base of the mountains. We could also see Red Butte Creek Canyon and several other drainages. From the pass we saw a trail that went along the ridge line. We followed it for a little over a half mile until we could see into the next series of canyons. This trail headed back east through several wet and muddy snowfields. We decided to turn back at this point. We only ran into a few other hikers the whole time we were on the trail. Several wildflowers were in bloom with yellow, blue, violet adding color to our hike.

It felt good to be out hiking. When we got back to the car, my wife was reviewing the pictures that she had taken. When she came to the one she took of the inside of the mine using the flash, we could see two eyes reflecting back at us. Around the eyes was the very faint outline of some animal. To me it looked like a bobcat or possibly a mountain lion in a hunched position. It gave me just a little bit of chicken skin as I wondered if it could be a cougar. The mine is about two miles back in so I guess it's possible. Maybe the cat was sleeping and when we approached the front of the mine it remained still but looked out toward us. Maybe the camera flash startled it a bit and it moved and made the noise my wife said she heard. As I think back, it would be a great home for a cougar or bobcat. If it was a wild animal, I'm glad it stayed inside the mine.