June is my favorite month. I look forward to it all year. I love the weather, the flowers, the leaves back in their proper place on tree branches, the picnics, parks and Popsicles. This year time seemed to be on fast forward. It went from Memorial Day (blink) to July. Here we are in July and so far it has been every bit as fun, so it is my "new" June.
For the last three weekends we have gone hiking with other families in the neighborhood. If you know of any family friendly hikes pass the word along because we have a lot of summer left. Our first family hike was up Big Cottonwood Canyon. I can't even remember the name of the hike. We had never been on this trail before and the directions we had were along the lines of "Drive 0.4 miles past Silver Fork Lodge. There is a wide shoulder and pull over and park on the side of the road. Look for a boulder which marks the trailhead."The first part of the trail was uphill then it flattened out winding through aspens. Then the trail came out of the trees into a meadow with a little lake beyond that. About .75 miles each way. This may be my new favorite short hike. We only saw 4 other small groups of people. Which is like having the place to yourself when it comes to hiking along the Wasatch Front.
One obvious need after doing this itty bitty baby hike was the need for hiking poles. I am okay going uphill but coming down is more difficult. This darn atrophy has resulted in terrible balance. I used to run down these types of trails, and now I carefully work my way down. Step by step. Sheesh. At least we are out of the house.
After a quick trip to REI and with my new poles in hand, I was ready for hike #2.
Hike #2 was the very popular Donut Falls. We counted 61 cars in the trailhead parking lot and those parked along the dirt road. 61 cars!
Hike #3 was yesterday and the destination was Stewart Falls which is on the backside of Timpanogos. We ventured down south into cougar country. What I mean is we saw a whole lot of BYU t-shirts, sweatshirts and hats. Jeff and I cheer on our own schools which happen to be UofU and USU, but when it comes down to it we really don't care. If we were more into school rivalries I could have used one of my new hiking poles...discreetly slide it into the trail just a bit as a perky coed ran by and opps! Haha. Okay so that wasn't very nice, time to move on.
Moving on... back to Stewart Falls. Gorgeous trail. Waist high ferns, tall aspen and evergreens. And a fair amount of stinging nettle. We didn't make it all the way, it started to rain and the kids were tired, but still worth the drive.
