Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
Our Sunday visits took us further west than we usually are so we walked a section of the Jordan River Parkway to mix things up. Every time I see a body of water, I think we need a SUP or a kayak because how fun would it be to float down that under the trees?
Of course, you wouldn’t see the Virginia creeper on the bridge doing the most from a boat. (That is an unedited photo; the light was making those stems just radiate.)
Fine, I guess fall is OK if it’s going to do stuff like this:
I’d say colors are peaking in the next week or two at altitude, so get up there!
I’ve been prioritizing going to the last open days of the pool for the last month, so imagine my surprise when we headed up Millcreek and saw (whispers) fall colors.
Suddenly it’s August (it was Lughnasa on Friday) and the light is a little different and I don’t remember the last time it rained. We hiked the lower canyon in Millcreek and it was so dry–you might think those yellow bits on the scrub oak are leaves starting to turn, but they’re just crispy.
(Who else hears “hot and dry” and is immediately transported back to playing on the Apple 2 with their cousins in the 80s?)
We didn’t have a lot of luck with our trips to the Uintas last year (almost getting lost, getting rained out) so we adjusted our expectations for this year’s trip: We were going to do a quick hike to a lake or a river we knew and just enjoy the water and the sun.
Well, it was cloudy and threatening (but it never actually rained) so we ended up at an established picnic area instead. It was called Beaver Creek and there was indeed evidence of beavers:
Plus some wildflowers in a meadow and some aspens and the sound of running water. All in all, a good trip.
We had planned to go to the pool yesterday in the late afternoon but I found myself longing for the apocalypse so we went swimming in NATURE instead.
I may look like I’m lounging languidly here but I think I lasted maybe 30 seconds. That water was COLDDDD (but it worked to get me out of my head).
This was in Millcreek Canyon, where our usual stream spots are under construction. We had the idea to see what access we could get from a picnic area (which are usually mobbed on the weekends) and there were all sorts of delightful spots.
Very specific fact: The most intense green in the world is fresh leaves on trees on a mountainside at the beginning of summer, before everything gets dry and dusty.
It took us three months but we made it back to Millcreek on Sunday. While we were gone, the canyon went from off-season diehard visitors to full-on Summer Amateur Hour–and the construction started below the winter gate, too.
But nature is nature, and it was so nice to be back. And we can still get to the stream so the summer of wading is still on.
We got some midweek snow which had melted but not dried on the lower trails, which led to MUD (and everyone coming down warning us, “It’s muddy!” Yes, we’re aware).
But the sun was out and I took off my shirt again and even if I was tired and crabby from the time change, it was good to be on the trail. 
We had above-average temps over the weekend ahead of a storm and wow, did that sun feel like spring. Of course, the sun also made it sloppy and muddy and all the trees and hillsides will be bare sticks for another couple months, but even false spring is better than no spring.
You know what else was bare? THESE GUNS. I got too hot in my black fleece (!) and told Matt, “Take a picture of my arms!” and he did.
