Hiking to Red Lake in Payson Canyon

Yesterday we went hiking in Payson Canyon on a trail to Red Lake. It's not red and it's not a lake but it's a really nice hike! It's not too difficult with very few people on it; in fact, we saw hardly anyone. Here's what we did.

It took us about 50 minutes to drive there from our house in Orem with the hike taking about 2 hours. The trailhead is actually in Maple Lake Campground with parking spots for hikers. The campground wasn't full despite it being Labor Day weekend. The forecast of rain might have scared people off. We didn't get any rain on us but enjoyed the cloud cover and cooler temperatures. I think we were supposed to pay a fee and we had really good intentions but forgot until this minute.

As we hiked, we saw a lot of burnt trees. There was a huge fire in Payson Canyon five years ago that wiped out a lot of trees.

There were a few spots where they are putting in lumber to stop the trail from washing out.

There was one spot where some trees were totally blocking the trail. The girls went under while Scott and I went around to the left and that was easier than going under.

There was a tricky spot where we had to cross a pretty fast stream called Right Fork Peteetneet Creek. Scott helped those of us who felt a little insecure about crossing.

We also saw a couple of cows! Scott tried to have a conversation with them but they didn't seem to understand his dialect of mooing.

The terrain was quite varied. We went up and down both directions, although the way into the lake was more up at the end. There were places with lots of burned trees and other areas with green trees. We speculated that the bare area in the picture above was a fire break to keep the other side from burning, but we really don't know.

We arrived at the lake and discovered it is not very full. I read a description of it as an "almost pond" with a maximum depth of 4 feet. Definitely not swimming material. We speculated that it is actually a reservoir and it holds more water during the snow melt season.

We had a few snacks and then turned around to head home.

Here's my "Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood:"

We took the road more traveled by though:

We finished up with a quick stop at Wendy's as a reward. It was a fun hike!

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