Doughnut Falls

In all our guide books, Doughnut Falls is rated one of the best short hikes. Situated in a beautiful area in Big Cottonwood Canyon, the scenery was enough to keep me photographing for hours. The smell of pine was around us, and although there was still TONS of snow, the trail seemed pretty well packed.

The gate was closed at the trailhead parking, which added an extra .8 miles each way to the hike, but it was nice and the easiest part, in fact. There were families everywhere that day sledding and we also saw several snowmobilers, snowboarders and skiiers in the back country. 

The melting snow started our hike in a GIANT puddle

An incredibly beautiful area

Let's think about this in perspective for a second please... this trail sign (in addition to the parking signs) were buried this much... when they are usually about 5 feet off the ground.. just sayin...

We attempted some geocaches... but the second we walked off the path and 6 foot tall Brad was in snow up to his upper thighs.. we knew that was out of the question. Especially because we just wore hiking pants today, not snow pants

Parts of the trail were steep downhill and were like iced over.. so we used our walking sticks as ski poles and just slid down the hills! Everyone was sliding down on their bums but we didnt have snow pants so after one try of that, being soaked through was bad news haha!

Almost at the falls!

Check out that bowl we have to hike up! So scary because it is so slick! Everyone takes forever to climb up and slides back down. From this view in the summer, you would see the falls, the water going through the hole and everything.

In the summer, Doughnut Falls is a situation where rushing water comes through a giant hole. You see the water above the hole, you see the hole, and you see it rush through. In the winter, however, you don't see anything. You get up to it, and you just see.. a cave. People take turns crawling into this tiny space, that by the way is super slippery, to see the interior of this phenomenon.. basically looks like a cave of frozen water. Still very cool, but pretty different.

Very cool! We were in a tiny little space in here and thank God we had the tripod with us because this was like a 4 second exposure. Pretty awesome :)