I took a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon this morning and stopped at Lisa Falls just to take a look – or so I thought. Being late October the flow was low so I decided to go up and take a peek above the falls. That turned into a pretty fun, and challenging, scramble!
Lisa Falls is at the bottom of a very steep and narrow gulch that drops into Little Cottonwood Canyon from 11,300+ Broads Fork Twin Peaks high above the canyon floor. The gulch is known to have multiple avalanches every winter and evidence of these was everywhere along the path I took.
The trail from the small parking area in Little Cottonwood Canyon is short and the hike to the falls is pretty easy. The images above show this.
I’ve been above Lisa Falls before, but have never gotten as far up the steep and narrow canyon as I did this morning. The images above will give you an idea of what the first part of the scramble looked like. The distance and vertical gain I covered weren’t impressive, but the scramble above the falls was steep.
To get above Lisa Falls
To get above Lisa Falls I followed a steep, but easy to follow, trail on the left side of the falls. Just above the main falls it turns into a pick-your-own-route sort of hike/scramble. There were waterfalls and pools all along the stream as I got higher up the gulch.
When the snow is melting during late spring and early summer the flow is pretty amazing. I would not have gotten as far as I did with that kind of rushing water without ropes and a climbing partner – if I even tried the climb.
These images are from various parts of the scramble. This will show some of the difficulty of what I went up and back down today. By the way, even though this Old Hiking Dude felt pretty challenged, the scramble would become far more technical above where I turned around.
More images above from today’s adventure at Lisa Falls.
I took the video seen above from a scramble I did above Lisa Falls. It was steep and narrow in places and more open in others.
The short and fairly simple hike to Lisa falls is great for anyone wanting to get close to a really nice waterfall. Anyone wanting to go higher needs to have rock climbing experience or an experienced partner – or both,
The Lisa Falls trailhead is just under 3 miles from where Little Cottonwood Canyon Rd. takes off from Wasatch Blvd. Click HERE for a map to the trailhead.
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