Nature! Goulet!

Kurt and I have recently really gotten into hiking. Well, Kurt's always been into it, having had the benefit of growing up near mountains, and I've always enjoyed it (except that one year at girls' camp, when we hiked all day in jeans), but now we've decided to do a hike a week. There's several reasons for this:
1) It's a good work-out alternative to running on a treadmill (we hike up and jog down usually);
2) There's way too many hikes I haven't done here in Utah and my time in Provo is coming swiftly to an end;
3) Hiking's just pretty! You see so many cool things!

We missed last week, what with moving and going to Denver, but the week before we got 1.5 hikes in, so that kinda makes up for it.

The first 1/2 hike was on Friday (6/6/08) up in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Kurt's mom was having a 5 hour surgery, so while she got cut open, we tried to go rock climbing and hiking. However, the weather wasn't working for us and neither were the directions Kurt found on the internet, so by the time the rain came we hadn't found our climbing spot. But we did do a few short, pretty hikes.

Here's a pretty creek/waterfall.


Kurt contemplating life and all of its complexities.


I cannot believe how green Utah has been! If I didn't know any better, I'd say this picture was taken in North Carolina!

The next day we decided to hike up the hills on the front side of Timp. I've always looked at the saddle in front of Timp, between the mountain and the hills, and wanted to go up there. It's always looked like it was a meadow to me and I've always wanted to see a real-live meadow! Kurt had gone on a 5 hour bike ride up there earlier that week with Alex Wilcox and told me how pretty it was. So then, naturally, I insisted he take me up there.

We took the Battle Creek Canyon trail, then when it hit the Timpanooke trail, took a left along the meadows. This is a cool waterfall we found towards the beginning of the hike.


This is where the Battle Creek Canyon trail meets the Timpanooke trail. Look how close Timp is!


Here it is: a meadow! Man, I'm such a nerd, but it was so beautiful! Green grass, green bushes, green tree leaves... I really, really love the color green.


Mount Nebo in the distance. This picture gives some perspective to how high up we were.


We found some scat and Kurt tried to figure out what it came from. He finally decided cougar.


This is where we turned around and began our jog down. It took 1 hour 50 minutes to hike up (with frequent stops thanks to asthma) and 45 minutes to run down. It was quite chilly up top, hence why I'm suddenly wearing black sleeves (when earlier I was wearing an orange tank top). It was literally the perfect day for hiking.


Timpanooke trail sign. Check out that blue sky!

I think this week we're going to do 2 hikes (which I haven't told Kurt yet, lol). 1) Hike to the Hot Springs with our friends, the Winder's, to commemorate the first day of summer/longest day of the year (Friday, 6/20) and 2) Stewart Falls before the quaking aspens' leaves lose their vibrance (Saturday, probably). I'm so excited!