mount timpanogos

Sunday was a great day.  Sunday, you see, was the day we climbed Mount Timpanogos which, at 11,749 feet at the summit, is the second highest peak in the Wasatch (second only to Mount Nebo at 11,928 feet).  We did the Timpooneke Trail: 14.8 miles roundtrip with 4,389 feet of elevation gain - that's 593 feet of elevation per mile - and it took us 7.5 hours.  My knees may have been screaming afterwards, but it was worth it.

7 a.m., 37 degrees ... and smiling!

We got an early start, wanting to avoid the heat of the day and the crowds as best we could.  "Early" meant leaving the house at 6 a.m. and hitting the trail at 7 a.m.  It was 37 degrees when we started and we were in the shade for a while before the sun came up enough to reach over the mountains.  The first part of the trail is pretty mellow, mostly a dirt path with some rocks and a couple of scree slope crossings (which are tough on the ankles).  We worked our way up the drainage - the five benches called the "Grand Staircase" - and got to the Timpanogos Basin (elevation 10,2000 feet) in just under 2.5 hours.

The massive massif itself, Timpangogos

The Basin is a big meadow bowl, now covered in the remains of alpine wildflowers.  There's a lake up there (Emerald Lake, that we did not get to, but if you take the Aspen Grove trail up Timp, it goes right by the lake), and the bowl is ringed with dramatic cliffs.  Above it all Timpanogos rises.  We continued up the switchbacks to the Saddle (11,050 feet) which has amazing views of the Utah Valley to the west and south, and into the Heber Valley to the east.  Many people make the Saddle their destination but we could see the summit, just 0.9 miles off/700 feet up and knew we weren't done.

Right on top of the world

It took us just under 45 minutes to climb that 0.9 mi./700 feet.  The up is steady with often-steep switchbacks and the terrain is intimidating for sure, the mountainside falling away in steep scree slopes.  But once we got up to the summit at 10:45 a.m., it was just amazing.  360 degree views - it seemed like you could see everything!  The mountains and rock formations surrounding Timpanogos are quite stunning, curvy and looming, carved out by glaciers.  It was just spectacular.

Amazing formations to the west

It was also a little chilly, so we took a bunch of pictures, snarfed some snacks, and headed back down after 20 minutes.  I had thought the climb back to the Saddle would take a long time because of the loose footing, but we made it down about five minutes faster than it took us to go up.  What took us a long time was the slog trek out once we got down off Timp: those scree slopes were brutal, plus this hike is a good five miles longer than the previously longest we've done (White Pine Lake).

The hut at Emerald Lake waaaaaaay down there

Although Timpanogos is a very popular and busy hike, often with 1,000 hikers on any given summer Saturday, we only saw around 100 people (and 11 or 12 dogs) on our hike - and we are happy to say that only three of them passed us, either going up or going down.  We are less happy to say that despite being promised that the Timpanogos Basin is practically overflowing with mountain goats that are unafraid of people and will often come within 20 yards, making for perfect photo-ops, we only saw six mountain goats at a distance that made binoculars a necessity.

There's goats in them thar hills (really!)

Make no mistake: Timpangogos is a big ol' hunk of rock.  To give my eastern readers some perspective: Timp has, as I mentioned, 4,389 feet of elevation gain; Mt. Washington, from Pinkham Notch to the summit, has 4,256 feet of elevation gain.  And what's extra cool:  the Timpooneke trailhead, at 7,360 feet, is 1,072 feet higher than the top of Mt. Washington.  Very excellent mountain, very excellent hike, very excellent day.