Backcountry Ski Cardiff Fork

Salt Lake City, Utah

Save

View all 3 photos

All 3 photos

Save Review Directions Add Photo

Details

Distance

4 miles

Route Type

Out-and-Back

Description

Added by Jackson Smith

Cardiff Fork is a great Wasatch backcountry tour, located in Big Cottonwood Canyon up Mill D South. Cardiff Fork can also be reached from Little Cottonwood Canyon. Approaching Cardiff Fork from the Big Cottonwood side is definitely takes a lot longer than the approach from the Little Cottonwood side, but that just means more time in the mountains and who doesn't want that? Cardiff offers a wide variety of wide open bowls and awesome chutes.

Drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon until you reach the Mill D South parking lot (aka Donut Falls parking). Head up the main road until you reach the bathrooms at the Donut Falls trailhead. Here you can either keep straight past the bathrooms, but the best way to go is to keep right along the road. You will follow this skin track and along the way you will pass a cabin and an old abandoned mine. Once you get to the basin of Cardiff, you can either keep straight along the Power Line ridge, or you can hang a right and skin up into Cardiac Bowl. Power Line will take you up to the ridge between Little and Big Cottonwood Canyon giving you an awesome view of the Wasatch. Overall elevation gain is about 2,880 feet with a max elevation of 10,148 feet.

If you are approaching from Little Cottonwood, it cuts the trip in half distance-wise and vertical feet gained. The trailhead in Little Cottonwood is the Central Alta Trailhead which takes you up to Cardiff Pass.

Make sure to check to avalanche forecast for the day before you ever travel in the backcountry. Know before you go!

Download the Outbound mobile app

Find adventures and camping on the go, share photos, use GPX tracks, and download maps for offline use.

Get the app

Features

Snowboarding

Photography

Skiing

Snowshoeing

Hiking

Bathrooms

Easy Parking

Family Friendly

Forest

Groups

Romantic

Scenic

Wildlife

Backcountry Ski Cardiff Fork Reviews

Have you done this adventure? Be the first to leave a review!

Leave No Trace

Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations. Please explore responsibly!

Nearby

Snowshoe to Cardiff Mine

The trail starts from the same trailhead as Donut Falls which is extremely popular. In the winter, the gates are closed and you need to park just off the highway. Follow the road and crowds along the trail but once you cross the bridge continue straight ahead instead of following the trail that curves to the left. About 50 feet after leaving the trail, you will intersect with an old mining road...

Big Cottonwood Canyon Astrophotography

Located in the Wasatch Mountains, less 30 minutes from Salt Lake City, Big Cottonwood Canyon, provides some of the best rural dark-sky viewing of the Milky Way in the Wasatch.The Donut Falls trail head/Mill D trail head, close to the ski resorts of Brighton and Solitude, additionally provides one of the easiest (and most accessible) areas to view the stars year-round. The position of the canyon...

Donut Falls

The Trail Follow the trail for just a little bit and when it forks, stay to the left and you will arrive to Donut Falls. Once at the waterfall, climb up the rocks to get to the cave at the top, which is not visible from the bottom. To take pictures inside of the cave, you will most likely get your feet wet. This is a really short hike, so it's great if you are short on time and want to see so...

Kessler Peak in Utah's Big Cottonwood Canyon

Kessler Peak is a 10,403-foot peak located in Big Cottonwood Canyon. From the top, you can see all the way to the Uintas to the East, The tram at Snowbird to the south, and the Salt Lake Valley to the west. To the north is Mount Raymond and Gobblers Knob. Kessler Peak is the terminus and highest point of the north ridge from Mount Superior. There is nothing technically challenging about this...

Hike Cardiff Fork

Cardiff Fork and Donut Falls share the same parking lot, so depending on what time of week you go exploring here, it may be the most packed parking in all of the Wasatch. Head up on a weekday for less crowds. The Cardiff Fork trailhead is follows the rocky jeep road around the parking lot to the west and makes its way up the canyon. The trail is a wide jeep road pretty much the whole way up. K...

Hike Days Fork

To get to the trailhead drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Spruces Campground. Once in the parking lot, walk to the southwest corner of the parking lot and go up the road past the bathrooms. The trailhead will be next to the overgrown baseball field. The trail is awesome single track the whole way up to the top and never branches off so it's really easy to follow, you can't get lost. The trail ...