Salt Lake City Day 3- Hiking to a Frozen Donut Falls

By Rachel Richards

My third and final day in SLC with the family over Easter weekend was amazing.

It started off with me waking up to an Easter basket all my own that Bruce & Lauren bought for me (best hosts ever).

It was really funny because Bruce hid Ben’s basket in the oven and then forgot it was there. He started to preheat the oven to cook breakfast and when he realized the basket was still there, he pulled it out in the nick of time because the bottom of the basket was smouldering, moments away from setting on fire.

We had a very important task that morning- the Tynan brother birthright challenge.

You may recall, I’ve mentioned this ‘birthright challenge’ over Christmas break. My brothers choose various tasks to challenge each other for the Tynan family birth right. It has ranged from video games, to black jack, to other physical tasks. The boys even have a custom made belt buckle that says “Tynan” that they pass back and forth.

​Over Christmas break, they did a night time tennis match and enjoyed it so much that they did another Tynan tennis match for the birthright.
I come from a very dramatic family and we LOVE to dress up! So the boys hit Ross for polo shirts and sweat bands to look the part.

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​The weather was to die for gorgeous and I enjoyed playing referee while sipping my cold brew. In the end, Ben took the title again.

That afternoon, we met with my cousin Sarah and headed for Big Cottonwood Canyon. I did some research on moderate hikes and wanted to do one to three alpine lakes; Mary, Catherine, and Martha (boring names eh?).
I knew there would be some snow at the top but I was not expecting to pull into Brighton to see the lifts running and skiers and snowboarders enjoying the snow! We laughed so hard! This is a classic Rachel move.

There wasn’t as much snow lower in the canyon so we headed to the Donut Falls trail head instead. Liam got all strapped up and we headed off.

Very shortly into the hike the trail was completely snow covered so we had to pick our way carefully along the slushy snow.

Liam got very restless in the backpack and we soon had to alternate carrying him instead. Hiking with a baby is definitely different. You have to stop and readjust often, you have to pull out snacks, you have to pull out toys.

Donut Falls is a very short hike and soon we came to the rivers edge around the corner from the falls. The trail is very steep and it was very icy and we didn’t think it was safe with a baby. Bruce and Ben opted to head back with Liam and we girls went off to pick our way along the snow.
We slid down that steep hill on our butts and walked across snow bridges.

As usual with winter hikes, the falls were covered with snow and hard to see. Lauren and I carefully picked our way up to try and get to the donut cave. It was pretty solid where we went up, but next to us was a snow slide that some people were actually sliding down.

We didn’t make it all the way to the cave because the snow became much too steep and slippery. We picked our way down carefully and headed back to meet the boys.

It was the PERFECT warm spring day and any day in the mountains makes me happy.
Especially with this guy!!

​We finished off the day with dinner at Red Robin and soaking in as much Liam time as possible.

And that sums up my three day getaway. I highly recommend Salt lake City if you’re looking for a getaway that mixes mountains with city amenities!