Timpanogos Pics!

Well, we have pictures uploaded to our computer and boy is there so much to blog about this month. Hopefully I will share it all with you, but for this post I just wanted to share pics from our ordeal…I mean hike up Timpanogos. (Actually the hike up wasn’t so bad because we were all looking forward to getting to the top. It was the hike back down that got hard. We kept expecting to see the parking lot after leaving each valley only to find another set of switchbacks and obstacles ahead.)

Starting out with the sun just barely starting to come up.

  Dave leaping obstacles.

A beautiful valley.

Mama Moose, Daddy Moose, and Baby Moose! It was fun to see these from a distance. However on our way back down the trail James heard the clomp of a big hoof right behind him as he was the last in our train of people. He turned around to see a giant Mama moose right behind him. She was big and we scrambled up the side of the trail to let her pass. It was quite an adventure.

  

More obstacles.

Even MORE obstacles. These parts were ok, it was when we got to parts of the trail that were completely covered over in rocks or snow that it was hard. We had to climb the snow and rocks using hands and feet to keep from sliding down.

 

Here is a portion of what we climbed. Beautiful. I wish we had gotten pictures of all the wild flowers. There were fields of them and there were so many different kinds too!

Niel enjoying a little PB & J in another beautiful valley just before the hike gets kind of hard and ugly. It was in this valley that I learned the importance of always bringing baby wipes or toilet paper with you wherever you go. Luckily April was prepared and she and I learned in a patch of trees how to really “rough it.” FYI  for anyone who may want to go on this hike, there is one toilet halfway up the trail but it is full to the top and falling over so make sure you have someone to act as a lookout for you as you have to get up close and personal with nature.

Success! Actually this is not the very top. This is the “Saddle” but we decided it was close enough. Getting to the top would have meant climbing over a treacherous trail for another hour and then having to come back down for an hour. We decided to call this good.

Here’s the view looking over one side of the mountain.

Here’s the view looking over the other side of the mountain.