nature

All The Hikes

By in nature

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?!

Remember When We Used To Hike?

By in nature 1 Comment

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.

Burnt Siena And Phthalo Blue

By in nature, weekend report

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:

Finally, Mountains

By in nature, weekend report

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).

John Denver Day

By in nature, weekend report

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.”

Mountain Day

By in nature, weekend report

It was a near-perfect day in Millcreek Sunday: 75 degrees with blue skies and Bob Ross clounds and fast streams and–once you made it past the hordes trying to picnic in closed picnic areas–not too many people on the trail.

Hiking With Poems

By in nature, poems, weekend report

Passage

by John Brehm

In all the woods that day I was
the only living thing
fretful, exhausted, or unsure.
Giant fir and spruce and cedar trees
that had stood their ground
three hundred years
stretched in sunlight calmly
unimpressed by whatever
it was that held me
hunched and tense above the stream,
biting my nails, calculating all
my impossibilities.
Nor did the water pause
to reflect or enter into
my considerations.
It found its way
over and around a crowd
of rocks in easy flourishes,
in laughing evasions and
shifts in direction.
Nothing could slow it down for long.
It even made a little song
out of all the things
that got in its way,
a music against the hard edges
of whatever might interrupt its going.

In Town But Not Inside

By in nature, weekend report

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We stuck around town for the long weekend but got to see herons, pelicans, and lots of other birds at the Bear River Bird Refuge, and upper Millcreek canyon (at last), and wildflowers and day lilies and even a camera-shy deer. I’ll take any of those over fireworks with the madding crowd.

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