Lake Blanche

Another highly desirable day hike to do while I'm in the Park City area is up to Lake Blanche (and Lakes Florence and Lillian while I'm at it, since all three are next to each other) in the Twin Peaks Wilderness, westward of Park City in the Wasatch Mountains.  This is the other major mountain range of Utah (and there are, of course, many smaller mountain ranges as well, but the Wasatch and the Uintas are the two really big ones.)  Because of its proximity to high population areas (the Salt Lake Valley in this case) it gets a fair bit of use, but if done on a weekday (other than July 4th) the crowds shouldn't be too bad.

It's over 2,600 of elevation gain, but only over about 3 miles.  This hike could be done, taken relatively easy, in two hours, plus some time to explore the lakes area, and then another hour or so to come back downhill to the car.  Even taking it easy and getting a relatively late start, it's not a long hike.  That estimate assumes walking pretty slow and taking lots of breaks to catch our breath.  The elevation gain is significant, but the distance is not.

Lake Blanche and the distinctive spur of Sundial behind it

Sundial from another angle, behind Lake Lillian

All three lakes from above