Name: Experiencing the Enchanted World
Start: 2026-10-03
End: 2026-10-03

This moderate out-and-back hike is popular, and for good reason. Takes you up a well-shaded trail to a beautiful small lake from the Millcreek Canyon side of the mountain.

This is an excellent medium difficulty hike that will appeal to most levels of hikers. Beautiful views, trees that shade most of the trail, and a small but picnic-worthy lake at the top all contribute to one of the most pleasant hikes in Millcreek Canyon. While the 1,300+ feet in elevation gain is not insignificant, the trail is never overly steep. The lake can also be accessed via the Big Cottonwood Canyon side of the mountain, but the Millcreek side is the only one of the two trails that allows dogs. Dog Lake itself is in the middle of a forested part of the mountain.

**Local's recommendation:** An excellent spring, summer, or fall hike. Dogs are allowed; they must be kept on-leash on even days, and can be off-leash on odd days.

**Difficulty:** Moderate - based on overall elevation gain

**Highest point:** 8793 ft

**Lowest point:** 7474 ft

**Best time of year:** Spring, Summer, Fall

**Safety information:** Mountain bikes are also allowed on this trail on even days, so if hiking, watch for bikes on the trail. As with any trail in the foothills, watch for rattlesnakes, especially in summer months. Wear closed-toed shoes when hiking, be aware of your surroundings, and always look carefully before placing hands or feet. Be sure to stay hydrated - even with the shade cover on the trail, it can get very warm.

**Roadbook**

From the parking lot at the top of Millcreek Canyon, take the Little Big Water Trailhead up the mountain, and follow the signs for Dog Lake.

- Start point - Lower Big Water Trailhead, Mill Creek Canyon Rd, Salt Lake City, UT 84109 - 0 mi
- Lowest point, 7474 ft - 0 mi
- Highest point, 8793 ft - 3.8 mi
- Dog Lake - Destination - 6.9 mi

**How to Get There**

**Public transport:** Bus routes do not travel up to this trailhead - best access is by car.

**Parking:** There is a small parking lot at the trailhead, and parking on the road. If parking on the road is required, there is a trail that parallels the road on the south side that joins up with the trailhead.

Dog Lake via Big Water Trail

It's the heart of [Gardner Village](https://www.visitsaltlake.com/listings/Gardner-Village/54342/) and where our story began. Archibald’s Restaurant is located in a historic flour mill that was built in 1877 by one of the original pioneer settlers to the Salt Lake Valley, [Archibald Gardner](https://www.gardnervillage.com/archibald-salt-lake-temple), who was also instrumental in building the Salt Lake Temple. The mill was originally powered by turbin driven water and many of the original equipment remains today. The [mill](https://www.gardnervillage.com/gardner-village-history) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a special part of Utah’s history. If you’re looking for a unique dining experience rich in history and great food, Archibald’s in the place.  
  
Archibald’s Restaurant opened in 1990 and serves [lunch and dinner](https://www.gardnervillage.com/archibalds-restaurant). It has a delicious menu serving a variety of dishes. Salads, sandwiches, pastas, steaks and seafood. The pot roast in pan dripping gravy has been a staple for over 30 years. Alongside our impressive menu of entrees, we're known for our signature Fried Green Tomatoes. The popular and longtime appetizer has been on the menu since the restaurant opened. For dessert, the carrot cake and white chocolate bread pudding are a must. Archibald's has built a reputation of serving fresh food, made in-house daily. Pay us a visit, and you’ll feel as if you’ve stepped back in time as you mill around in a restaurant unlike any other in Utah.

You'll also find [unique venues](https://www.gardnervillage.com/host-your-event) within Archibald's for your next event - Mill Plaza, the Gear Room, the Silo, the Wheel Room, The Cottage, Miller's Office and the Cellar Bar. With the backdrop of the historic Gardner flour mill, you'll discover all the modern amenities of a heated floor, fire pits and a cozy fireplace to warm your guests as they mingle with friends and family on the Mill Plaza. You'll enjoy an outdoor space with a stunning setting that has the versatility to have a tent on the plaza or easily create flow to include the[indoor event spaces](https://www.gardnervillage.com/archibalds-restaurant-event-spaces) of Archibald's Restaurant. Event coordinators will take care of the details so you can focus on the things that matter most.

  
Before or after your meal, wander brick-lined paths and explore locally owned shops and businesses surrounding the iconic mill and silo at [Gardner Village](https://www.gardnervillage.com/). With its picturesque setting and variety of experiences, a visit to Archibald’s offers a one-of-a-kind destination you won’t find anywhere else in Utah.

Come for the food and stay for [WitchFest](http://www.gardnervillage.com/witch-fest) during October each year.

**Open for lunch and dinner, Monday-Saturday**

Archibald's Restaurant at Gardner Village

All photos by Outdoor Project Contributor, Brant Hansen

| **Pros:** Huge vistas. Shady. Cool in summer. Fast. **Cons:** Busy. **Congestion:** Moderate **Preferable Season(s):** Summer, Fall **Day-Use/Parking Pass Required:** General Day Use Fee ($3.00) **Dogs allowed?:** No | **Total Distance:** 6.00 mi (9.66 km) **Terrain Difficulty:** GREEN **Trailhead Elev.:** 8,239 ft (2,511 m) **Net Elev. Gain:** 1,271 ft (387 m) **Trail Uses:** Hiking, Biking **Trail type:** There-and-back |
| --- | --- |

This trail gives you a pleasant and incredibly scenic climb through 3.5 miles of aspen groves, sprawling meadows, and thick pine forests. All this eventually leads you to Desolation Lake itself, a picturesque high-altitude lake. It’s the perfect, tranquil resting spot. From there, it’s a short climb up to the Wasatch Crest Trail that joins in just below the Spine. If you choose to ride to Desolation Lake as an out-and-back, you’re in for a fast and flowy descent. The trail twists and dives, throwing you through the same forests you just climbed through.

Desolation Lake Mountain Bike Ride

All photos by Outdoor Project Contributor, Brant Hansen

| **Pros:** Views, fast, beautiful **Cons:**Busy **Congestion:** Moderate **Preferable Season(s):** Summer, Fall **Day-Use/Parking Pass Required:** General Day Use Fee ($3.00) **Dogs allowed?:** Yes | **Total Distance:** 6.00 mi (9.66 km) **Terrain Difficulty:** GREEN **Trailhead Elev.:** 7,645 ft (2,330 m) **Net Elev. Gain:** 1,157 ft (353 m) **Trail Uses:** Hiking, Biking **Trail type:** There-and-back |
| --- | --- |

The Dog Lake mountain bike ride usually begins at the Great Western Trail trailhead in Mill Creek Canyon. The lake itself is picturesque and surrounded by a massive aspen grove. Dogs are allowed on the trail and up to the lake, but they must be leashed on even numbered dates. Likewise, bikes are only allowed on the upper Mill Creek Canyon trails on even days. The biggest benefit of Dog Lake is the epic scenery. You’ll get stunning mountain views and broad vistas. You’ll ride through thickly wooded forests filled with aspens, cottonwood, and towering pines.

Dog Lake Mountain Bike Ride: Great Western Trail to Big Water Trail

8 Softball fields (2 wagon wheel complexes). The fields have announcement stands, concessions and restrooms located in the fitness center on premises. There are also basketball courts and soccer fields along with barbecues and covered pavilion with convenient restrooms.

Centennial Park

One of the larger regional parks with a wide range of amenities including: five baseball fields, basketball courts, volleyball, cricket, soccer and rugby fields.

Southridge Park

Known for the 'Fastest Ice on Earth', Utah Olympic Oval is home to over 100 world records in speed skating. Built in 2001, this amazing venue has transformed from a high-performance competition venue to a community recreational resource for Utah residents from all over Salt Lake Valley. Today, the Olympic Oval continues to host world-class speed skating races annually and provides learn-to-programs for aspiring figure skaters, speed skaters, hockey players and more

Utah Olympic Oval

Our purpose is to establish a place where the native Hawaiian community can learn, share and experience their culture and unique lifestyle of the "islands" right here in Utah. We welcome the community-at-large to come experience and appreciate the cultural experiences and island warmth each time they visit.

Hawaiian Cultural Center

The Element Event Center is a unique, shared vision come to fruition. With the planning and execution of several organizations – including the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center, US Speedskating, Salt Lake County, and the State of Utah – the $12M multi-use Element Event Center is a model of cooperation and innovation between government, non-profit and community partners that individual stakeholders couldn’t have achieved independently.

Element Event Center

Buca di Beppo offers modern Italian cuisine in an eclectic, vintage setting. Buca di Beppo is the perfect place for celebrating a special occasion, planning a group event or having a night out with family and friends. Come celebrate at Buca and enjoy the Italian traditions of food, friendship and hospitality

Buca di Beppo, Midvale

Visit Salt Lake

Salt Lake is the place where the Wasatch mountain peaks frame city streets. Sure, Salt Lake's famed for our winter powder ([four legendary ski resorts](https://www.visitsaltlake.com/things-to-do/skiing-snowboarding/) just 30 minutes from downtown), but that's just one season's story. Summer brings families [hiking through wildflower meadows](https://www.visitsaltlake.com/things-to-do/outdoor-recreation/) before cooling off at a Jazz game or the Gateway fountains. Autumn paints our mountain canyons in gold, perfect for morning strolls that end at local coffee shops. Spring? That's when you might spot baby bison on Antelope Island before heading to the Eccles Theater for a Broadway show. Our soaring Wasatch Mountains rise dramatically from downtown Salt Lake, creating a place where every day offers both natural wonders and urban energy. And while we sit perfectly between the [national parks](https://www.visitsaltlake.com/things-to-do/outdoor-recreation/state-national-parks/) with Yellowstone's geysers and Utah's red rock country, the real magic happens right here, where everyone can [discover the history](https://www.visitsaltlake.com/plan-your-visit/about-salt-lake/) of the city as they find their own rhythm between mountain adventure and city life.

Sports Salt Lake

After an introduction where we'll be discussing some 'tools', we'll use them as clues to find what the planet needs from us.NOTE DIFFERENT WORKSHOP TIME AND LOCATION FOR THIS EVENT.\*\*\*\*\*"Forever, that is long before Brigham Young brought Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, Great Salt Lake was one vast presence. Then progress and commerce and railroads and in 1902 a long trestle from old-growth redwood (because it could withstand the saltier-than-the-sea water) was built across it, saving trains time in getting across America, because time had in fact become money.For fifty years, water flowed freely both ways beneath this massive bridge, until it was replaced by the rock causeway that exists today. Flow through the causeway now occurs beneath a massive 180-foot-long bridge, controlled by an adjustable earthen berm.Forever, our human psyches were intact, undivided. This changed as we began abandoning the lifestyle that worked miraculously for over 200 thousand years for civilization. This massive shift, “the grand mistake” precipitated a division in our psyches, a causeway, if you will—our conscious, everyday modern reality on the south side, our unconscious, evolutionary material we share with every human who ever lived on the north.This side, our wild side, is made up mostly of what psychologist Carl Jung called the 'collective unconscious' which contains our entire evolutionary history, including everything we ever needed to save ourselves. Now, modern life no longer requires that we acknowledge our unconscious at all, since much of what is found there becomes less and less attractive (read 'bad for business'), as we become more and more convinced that we've made evolution obsolete. To our peril, I believe.We still have access to our unconscious, our own balancing, 'adjustable berm.' Many believe, like Freud, that this north, wild, unconscious psychic side threatens society, and sealing it off may be what's best. The North Arm, like our unconscious (both darker, murkier, and still wild) needs to live as though our survival depends on it, because it does." ~Brooke Williams5 continuing education credits available for mental health professionalsThis calendar listing is brought to you by NowPlayingUtah.com, Utah's one-stop, online website for arts and entertainment events, powered by the Utah Cultural Alliance.

Experiencing the Enchanted World

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