The forecast was for rain but blue skies in the morning made me think Big Baldy would be a good hike for today. I've wanted to hit both Big and Little Baldy in one hike so I decided if I wasn't too tired on the way down I would loop around on the Great Western Trail and hit Little Baldy on the way back.
Nutmeg and I started form the Dray Canyon Trailhead at about 9:00am. The air temp was quite cool in the canyon so we moved briskly and went up the south ridge of Big Baldy which is a well established trail but not an official Forest Service numbered trail once you turn off of 049 about a mile up from the trailhead. The south ridge is brutally steep (see the profile below) so if you want a more mellow hike stay on trail 049.
We got to the front peak, the one with the flag pole, in about an hour and 45 minutes and got to the true summit in another 15 minutes. I took a phone call just as I reached the peak and after five minutes started to get cold so we headed down to the saddle at a brisk pace to warm up. There was a bit of snow on the more north facing side but nothing more than about 4 or 5 inches. There were tracks from a hiker or two that looked only a few days old.
From the saddle behind Big Baldy we followed the Great Western Trail down trail 049 to the trail 033 junction and then to the saddle behind Little Baldy. There is a very faint trail from this saddle up the back of Little Baldy. I did notice some orange trail markers but with snow on the ground it was a bit of work to follow the trail. Peak to peak was about two miles and took us about 55 min.
At the trail 033/trail 051 junction we had a bit to eat and drink. We tried to follow trail 051 back to Dry Canyon but somewhere along the way I lost trail 051 and ended up coming down too far south. I knew where we were when I came to Sushi Hill and just followed the trail down to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and then headed north back to the truck.
Distance: 10.4 miles
Time: about 5.5 hours
Avg Speed: 2 mph.
GPS Tracks:
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Google Maps:
Terrain
