Last week I decided to do something a little different. I had hiked to Cecret Lake, Sugarloaf Pass and up Sugarloaf Mountain, but never to Devil’s Castle. This was the time to snoop around the west side of Devil’s Castle and see how far I wanted to go.
I had known about Devil’s Castle for a while, but had never hiked to it. Devil’s Castle is a wicked formation of three peaks above the world class ski resort of Alta, Utah. It is supposed to be a challenging class 4 scramble with some class 5 moves. This is the kind of stuff I had never done, but I had to at least take a look.
I took the video below after getting a little above and west of Cecret Lake.
My hike started before sunrise. I got to Cecret Lake, an incredibly popular hiking destination at Alta, just before the sun came up. After climbing up a rocky area on the west side of the lake I took in a glorious sunrise.
After sitting a while to take in the view I moved on to Sugarloaf pass. This is a small pass between Sugarloaf Mountain and Mt. Baldy, a couple of 11,000+ peaks I had been up before. The pass separates the world-renowned ski resorts of Alta and Snowbird, both of which I have skied.
From there I went up Sugarloaf. This was a steep and rocky hike, but the view in all directions from the summit was something special! I hug out on the summit to have a high-calorie snack and chug some liquid and then pressed on to the east toward Devil’s Castle.
The ridge between Sugarloaf and Devil’s Castle was pretty fun. I looked to the south toward Mt. Timpanogos and other peaks. To the north and down a steep face was Alta, with Cecret Lake being directly below Sugarloaf.
As I got closer to the western peak of Devil’s Castle (there are 3 peaks to this formation), the trail became a lot more challenging and a lot more fun. I started getting to some class 3 scrambling and it was awesome. I moved ahead with caution and managed to get to the base of the first summit.
On the way there I rounded a corner and saw a couple of mountain goats absolutely lit up by the morning sun. It was quite a sight! As I got closer to the first summit I lost sight of the goats for a while.
I heard the goats before I saw them again. They were moving along the steep mountain across from a chute I was going up. I managed to get some pretty good photos and video, but had to put the camera away for some area that required 3 points of contact to get up.
After another 10 minutes or so of scrambling I got a point at which I decided it was time to turn around. I probably could have gone up the first summit, but I was tired and didn’t want to push my luck. That just wouldn’t have been a good idea when hiking solo in unfamiliar territory.
I took in the view, got some photos and video and patted myself on the back for having gone so far. When I moved to Utah in the summer of 2022 I never imagined doing a hike/scramble like this. Getting closer to 69 years old and not having been a hiker before coming to Utah, I was pretty proud of myself for how far my abilities had come.
Getting back down was as fun as I had remembered it. Rather than go up Sugarloaf and return the way I went up I took a different trail. This trail was between Devil’s Castle and Sugarloaf and went right down to Cecret Lake. It was very steep, with a lot of loose dirt and rocks, but it was a blast! From Cecret Lake to the base of Alta was just a couple more miles and I was glad to be headed back for more snacks and water.
By the way, check out images comparing Cecret Lake with Sugarloaf above it in the summer to when I skied by it in the winter!
My little hike covered around 7.23 miles and the vertical gain was just over 2,700 feet. It was a great way to start a day!
Leave a Reply