Little Mountaineers Rating: Easy Moderate ( about 1.5 mile loop, mostly flat with a couple rocky areas)

If you or your kids don’t have much hiking experience it can be tough to know where to begin.  Before doing any major outdoor excursion I recommend doing some research and finding some local nature trails in  your city.  I’ll post some of my favorites in a later post.  Once you’ve gotten some experience with your city nature trails and know your how your kids handle walking longer distances you can branch out a bit.  Today I’m talking about one of my all time favorite beginner trails in Utah.  This trail is perfect for families, young kids, and people with little hiking experience.  This is one of the first places we take our kids when they are little, and we keep coming back every year.

Mirror Lake is located in the Uinta National Forest and is accessed by the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway.  This beautiful drive has many stops along the way and many camping/hiking opportunities.  The drive alone is a wonderful way to spend a lazy summer day.

The trail starts at Mirror lake and is one big loop around the lake.    The trail gives you a real taste of the great outdoors without any extreme hiking.  Some years we just walk part of the trail and play in the lake and other years we hike the whole loop.  This is a great hike for summer or early fall.  Now for the best part, photos!  I’m showing you some photos from Autumn and Summer, it’s beautiful both seasons.

AUTUMN AT MIRROR LAKE

Most of the trail is dirt, but the beginning is this fun wooden trail.

SUMMER AT MIRROR LAKE