This first set is on the way to Red Pine Lake up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Running water may be the best sound Earth makes, and I love to walk along it on gorgeous days like last Saturday. The snow was melting and running down, though as you'll see below, not quite enough of it had completed its journey.
The first part of this hike is steepish and rocky. Good news is that there aren't bikers, but the bad news is that it's as hard on knees and ankles as it would be on tires. After you hit the first creek run, you can go one of two ways. I went toward Red Pine Lake. On the way you see the mouth of the canyon opening to the Salt Lake Valley to the west.
It was too early in June to complete this hike, especially if you didn't know that and wore open toed shoes, like I did. So did Robin, who I met on the mountain. Up high at about where I expected the lake to be, the trail and most of the mountain was still hidden by snow. For a while she and I braved the cold and wet feet to find it, even climbing like monkeys on some rocks that protrude from the mountain and snow above a running stream beneath it. But whatever that was I knew it wasn't a trail that leads to a lake. Eventually, Robin and I both decided that the lake would be there in July when the snow wasn't, and we'd be back.
Then I drove to Moab, which conveniently has one charter school that scheduled its board meeting for early in June before it gets unbearably hot there. My favorite hike there is Negro Bill Canyon, but this time I went for variety over familiarity. I hiked the Moab Rim Trail. It's listed as a three-mile one-way hike with 900 feet of altitude gain. The websites don't mention that the whole gain comes in the first half-mile as you climb a mountain with no trail at all, just rocks. And even though it's early June, there's still plenty of sweating to be done. But as you climb, you're rewarded with views like this.
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| The Colorado River running by the Rim and parts of Canyonlands (I think) in the background. |
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| Looking to the east, the city of Moab fills a valley between the red rock mountains. |
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| If you forget your hat, you're bound to get sunburned, especially up top where the hair isn't as thick as it used to be. So, you move your hair around to cover the barer spots at different times and end up with a do like this. |
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| This bush was singing "She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes." |
You have to cross the creek three times in knee deep water to get here, so remove your phone from your pocket. This swimming hole was a ton of fun, but it was also great getting here.
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| Love the contrasting colors. |
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| For some reason you have to tilt your monitor counter clockwise to get the effect of this mini trail between the rocks and the foliage. |
This waterfall was a bear to climb the first time. There's another trail to get to the top of the cliffs that surround this pool, but I didn't take it. So, I climbed up the moss-covered rocks against the water. There are moss-free sections of the rocks on which your shoes (wear water shoes on this hike--not a good idea to have to take off your shoes and go barefoot here, though some people were that crazy) can get a grip. But I was paralyzed with fear for about three minutes before I was able to take the last few steps and grips to get above the water.
As you can see, there's a few people there already, all clothed (I found out later that this is a popular place for the teenagers to skinny dip). The cliffs are probably just under 20 feet on the left and about ten on the right. Braver souls than me made the big jump, doing flips and whatnot. One guy even found a spot to do a wall run for about four steps on the cliffs before jumping in the water. It's only about six feet, so no diving.
Then on to board meeting, where the locals love to hear how much I love their town.
Then, just to round everything out, I went to Bell Canyon Reservoir a few days later.
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| Isn't Utah just grand? |
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