Saturday, Top of the Mountain, I Think it was the Fourth of July!

I've lived in Utah now for four years (still can't believe this California girl's still here!) and it's only been this year that I've ventured out to take advantage of the hiking trails in Utah's granite-filled canyons. I've driven through them many times with out-of-town guests, but never hiked into one till this year. Awesome. Kevin and Emily Sherman and their family invited me to hike up Bell Canyon (to the south of Little Cottonwood Canyon where the famous Granite Mountain Records Vault is located) during Memorial Day weekend. It was a real uphill climb initially, but the rest of it was rather relaxing and covered with trees.

Well, that got me interested in more hikes. So, this past July 4th weekend, we ventured out to the Red Pine Canyon just off of the Little Cottonwood Canyon. The trail scales up the side of one canyon, around the mountain and then up and around to the top where the Red Pine Lake is found at an elevation of almost 10,000 feet - a 2,000-foot climb for us! The mountainside is covered with Aspen trees, pine trees (were' not sure which kind, but not the California redwoods), lots of brush, wildflowers, freshwater creeks and tons and tons of beautiful granite - white, grey and red. I brought home a few samples! We took the Sherman kids (Nial, Leith and India) with us on Friday and made it about half way, taking approx 3 hours round trip. We decided to head back up the next day just us adults, hoping to make it to the top to see the lake. After a 2.5 hour strenuous hike through a rocky trail and many snow embankments, WE MADE IT! It is no wonder there is so much snow melt coming down in the creeks, coz there is a ton of snow still at the top. The lake was a pretty green. It was quiet and peaceful. We managed to stay for about 15-20 minutes to catch our breath and eat a few bites of lunch, then we were on our way back down (another 2.5 hours) to prepare for a Fourth of July BBQ (Sherman's backyard) and fireworks at Thanksgiving Point.

Not sure how we lasted the rest of the day - we must have gotten a second wind. All in all, it was a beautiful two days of hiking, sight-seeing, relaxing with good friends and good food (Kevin's BBQing, Emily's cooking, in-person bagpipe serenades and my homemade raspberry pies seem to make a good combination these days!).