The Brighton Lakes loop is a never ending challenge, from the time you start to climb, to the wild and hair raising descent down the Lake Mary trail! The ride takes you past 4 incredible alpine lakes. Starting with Dog Lake, (this is the "other" Dog Lake!!) then up past Lake Mary, then onto Lake Martha, and then Lake Catherine.
Head up the service road, keeping right at all major forks in the trail. The first one you don't want to miss is at .61 miles. The second, and most important is at exactly .94 miles. See the picture below (Doug is point down the old mining road). The mining road is at the top of a tough little climb. Then about 100 yards down the road, it splits, hang to the right (the lower of the two). The upper road ends at the Big Cottonwood Mine, and results in a "hike-a-bike". The lower road passes a couple of mine structures and tailings piles and then descends to Dog Lake. From here the trail is very easy to follow. It receives a lot of hiker traffic.
this trail is sweet. quite a few mandatory hike a bike sections on the way up. Mostly through rock gardens and steep sections. After passing lake marry trail continues to be steep all the way to lake catherine. The hike a bike sections are totally worth it for the downhill. The trail is either tacky and flowy, or rocky and technical the whole way down. Its awesome
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