The clouds we’ve had for the last month finally seem to be clearing and summer is here! Honestly, I haven’t minded the rain since the hillsides are so green–but it will also be nice to get the patio set up and have ice cream outside after dinner.
(Photos from The Terraces area of Millcreek, complete with a wild clematis.)
There were swallows singing and fresh green undergrowth and a blue sky in the canyon yesterday, and it was just like Hopkin’s poem “Spring” (minus the Christian overtones):
…and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness;
It was our first time in a canyon since the end of February (!) and thankfully it’s finally spring up there.
All of that snow is making some pretty impressive runoff! I was happy to see doggos on leashes around the water.
Now that the equinox has passed I guess I can say the “F” word… Fall is coming, whether we like it or not, so read your favorite passage from Cold Mountain and go see the leaves starting to change.
We did a 4th of July hike up in the Uinta mountains last week that I didn’t post about because I was too busy talking about my workouts.* Yesterday we did a normal jaunt up Millcreek Canyon (the upper canyon is open again!) so here’s double the hike pictures for Monday.
From Millcreek yesterday–we got some afternoon rain so there were good cloud shadows:
And from our holiday hike–we did the Lofty Lake Loop trail again with my brother and his family. It was indeed lofty (11,000 feet top elevation) with many lakes:
*Turns out that when you push a heavy sled at the gym, everything else that does not involve pushing a heavy sled gets easier! Including hiking! Also, DID YOU KNOW I GO TO THE GYM NOW?!
We repeated the “John Denver” hike from about this time last year and went up to see the aspen forest knee-deep in blue flowers. That trail to Willow Lake is one of my top five–just look at these magic meadows.
We did, too, so we went out Sunday. It’s the one month a year here where the grass on the foothills is green so I’m glad we caught it.
It’s hard for me to head up to elevation in spring and fall, because it’s so much nicer in the valleys (plus there’s yard work to do). But that Nature Rx is real, y’all. I’m glad Doc reminded me.
We finally got out into the mountains over the weekend. The fall colors are gone at elevation, but it was a gorgeous day–blue sky and 50 degrees. Everything looked like a Bob Ross painting where he only uses about four colors, so I took some Bob Ross pictures with things in the foreground:
There was rain and hail* in the valley Sunday morning but then there was a break and we thought, “Now or never” and headed up to Millcreek. We hit snow going up and it was a brisk 44 degrees mid-canyon, but it was beautiful. Like a Chinese brush painting, or a Mahler song cycle.
*Since this blog is now becoming The Feral Cat Times, Oliver was in his house during the rain and it stayed much dryer (we put it on the outdoor rug to cut down splashback. Still working on a better fix, though).
We went up the Willow Heights trail Sunday straight into a John Denver paradise: blue skies, bluebells and lupins and forget-me-nots in bloom, crossing an aspen forest to a lake.
I’ve been discovering Rocky Mountain High after dismissing it for years as corny. But it’s about the perfect summation of being happy in the mountains that I’ve found:
“And oh, I love the life within me, I feel a part of everything I see.
And oh, I love the life around me, a part of everything is here in me.”