Cecret Lake — Attraction in Alta

Enjoyable and very scenic hike in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Since the gate at the base was still closed for the season, we started our hike at Albion Base and followed the somewhat groomed walking trail through the woods and through what will surely become the prime area for wildflower viewing in about 2 weeks or so. Then we reached the Albion Basin Parking Lot and began a more typical rocky mountain trail with stream crossings and hiking on and around many loose rocks and some boulders.

Near the top of the trail, there are two or three switchbacks along with some very big rocks that made the hike quite interesting and required thoughtful navigation. All of them were relatively easy to maneuver.

Cecret Lake was truly beautiful this time of year. The lake was full, including a small amount of overflow through a very tiny spillway, and there was still some snow on the far side of the lake along with a small ice island floating in the middle of the lake. It looked awesome for a mid July hike.

As the sun went down over the ridgeline, the lake and the surrounding areas took on a beautiful glow. This was a good time to depart the lake and head back to our car. We made it back well before dark.

AllTrails says the roundtrip trail is 4.5 miles, which seems about right. Ignore the sign at Albion Basin Parking Lot which says that Cecret Lake is only 0.4 miles away. We estimated the lake is approximately 1 - 1.25 miles away...

You have 3 options for this hike:

1. Park at the Cecret Lake parking lot. Entrance is $6 and you have to wait for a car to come out before you can go in because parking is so limited. This makes it about a 1.7 mile hike with about a 420 for elevation gain.
2. Park at Albion Base area parking lot and pay for lift tickets ($10 each). The ride is 15-20 minutes long. After that, it will be about a half mile hike until the start of the trail.
3. Park at Albion Base area parking lot and hike from there. Parking is free, but it will end up being about a 4.6 mile hike (round trip) with about a 1,520 ft elevation gain. You’re also allowed to take the lift back, but in my opinion it’s easier just to keep going down instead of hiking uphill back to the ski lifts.

Overall, I’d say it’s a great hike. But it was...

Nice short hike. Its less then 2 miles of round trip. Leads to very beautiful cecret lake which is not so secret. This is vary popular hike and in summer parking spots by the trail heads are limited. So you either have to wait in like to enter when there is parking available or park by the Alta ski resort and walk about 2 mile up yo the trail head. Fair warning doing this will make you hike extensively longer and harder as you might get tired even before you start the actual hike. Regardless it is must visit places in utah. Try to go early at the sunrise to...