Catherine's Pass
Catherine's
Pass can be ridden as a shorter (5.5 miles) out and back for a quick after
work ride, or added to the Devils
Castle Loop for a more extended (8.5 mile) loop. Either way, Catherine's
Pass is a great ride in the Alta area! The scenery is spectacular and you'll
be rewarded with great views of both upper Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons.
And the view of Lake Catherine itself is worthy of the climb!
How to get there: From I-215 take Exit 6 (there will be signs for the Ski Areas, you are looking for Alta/Snowbird). 9 Miles up Little Cottonwood Canyon, past Snowbird Resort. Park in the lot above the Town of Alta.
Catherine's Pass.......Lake Catherine....just who is this mysterious person, Catherine:
In 1871 William Stuart Brighton, a native of Scotland, preempted 80 acres at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon east of the Salt Lake Valley. He, his wife Catherine Bow, and their children spent the summer living there in a tent. The horses, cows, and other farm animals they brought with them found plenty to eat in the meadowlike areas around the lake. The following summer William built a one-room cabin, adding to it over time. Because of booming mining activity in Alta and Park City, men traveled over the mountains on foot or horseback between the two camps. They found the Brightons' place a convenient halfway point to rest and eat. Catherine, an excellent cook and fisherwoman, served them fresh trout she had caught in Silver Lake or mutton obtained from a sheepherder and hot buttermilk biscuits with freshly churned butter. Such food, plus the pristine alpine scenery, proved irresistible. After sampling her hospitality one sojourner, Joseph R. Walker, suggested that the Brightons open a hotel for summer guests. He said he would like to bring his family to stay in such a place.
The first Brighton Hotel, built in 1874, was a two-story wooden structure with seven small bedrooms, a dining/sitting room, and a lean-to kitchen. White muslin covered the raw lumber of the bedroom walls. To keep livestock away from the guests William built a fence around the hotel. Eventually, several one- and two-room cabins were built for vacationing families, according to granddaughter Stella Brighton Nielsen, to keep the children from disturbing the hotel guests. Each cabin had a wood-burning stove, and lighting was provided by a kerosene lamp or candle. Lanterns using candles were crafted from lard buckets or large tomato cans.
As more people sought escape from summer's heat in the Salt Lake Valley, the Brightons, urged on by friends, built a larger facility. A three-story wooden hotel of rustic design was erected in 1893. William Brighton hired the lumber and mill firm of Taylor, Romney, and Armstrong to build the 30 by 100 foot structure. It was to be completed by mid-June and would be "modern throughout." Nielsen remembered watching its construction. Her "uncle, Jack McCarthy, was throwing bricks to a man on the second floor who caught them, when the sitting room fireplace chimney was being built on the east wall of the hotel." She said only the first two floors of the hotel were finished, and the third floor was used to house the help.
An 1895 brochure advertising the resort described the hotel as a "new and commodious structure...[with] fifty light and airy rooms" available for $2.00 a day. That year the hotel was under the management of a Major G. S. Erb, Catherine and William Brighton having died in July 1894 and April 1895 respectively.
