More Trippin'

We spent a long, warm weekend in Zion National Park last May with our friends, who also happen to be family. I took this photo of my husband and two nephews at trail’s end at upper Emerald Pool, a beautiful but sandy and populated hike. The first part of the trail is on asphalt, but after you pass the lower pool and waterfalls, you start walking on fine sand, just like what you’d find on a beach. After we passed the middle pool, the trail became steeper (and sandier) but we were rewarded with an oasis-like alcove high in Zion Canyon. As we munched granola bars and jolly ranchers, the boys played on all the massive red rocks lying around.



Virgin River detail, the Narrows, a paved walk that turns into an all-out wade. When the water is low, you can hike for miles right up the river. Of the half dozen times I’ve visited the Narrows, I’ve only gotten about fifty feet up the river before having to turn around due to the fact that I can no longer feel my feet. It’s too cold!



Checkerboard Mesa, along the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway.




My husband hiking along the White Pine Lake trail in Logan Canyon in Northern Utah. This trail is one of my favorites! After a gentle climb for three miles and a sharp switchback descent for another 1.5 miles, hikers are welcomed by a sparkling hidden lake beneath the craggy peaks of Mounts Gog and Magog. Wildflower season peaks around July 4th, as evidenced from this photo. You’ll see Columbine, Indian Paintbrush, Lupine, Larkspur, Yarrow, Mules Ear, Arnica, Aster. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of color.



White Pine Lake and Mount Magog. (Mount Gog is behind me.) Giant boulders and (I assume) some form of limestone cliffs line the west side of the lake and a limber pine forest and wildflower meadow rim the remainder. The lake is small but the setting is absolutely stunning. We try to pack in here twice each summer. This year, we’ll be taking our thirteen year old nephew (the one on the left in the Zion pic) with us. I’ll let you know how that goes…





My Holga’s first backpacking trip! This was from the first roll that I ran through my plastic camera. The 6x4.5 mask was still in place and there wasn’t a strip of tape or Velcro in sight. My, how things have changed! Travis and I went on a late summer hike to Brighton Lakes in Salt Lake City’s Big Cottonwood Canyon. The trail is short (four miles on way) but steeee-eep and passes Lakes Mary, Martha and Catherine. If you continue on past Catherine, you can climb up her namesake pass and on down to Little Cottonwood Canyon. This photo is of Lake Mary, on Fuji NPH 400.