eester

Sunday was pretty much a carbon copy of Saturday.  Up at Alta, H never once waited in line after the initial waiting-for-the-lifts-to-open line.  No new snow, of course, and it never got crowded - when he left midday, the Wildcat base parking lot was about half full.  Folks have moved on, is the general consensus.  This was also the last weekend for the ski bus: H will have to drive himself for the remaining ski days (except for closing day, since parking reservations have long been all spoken for).

Not a cloud in sight

Down in the valley, A and M did their Dimple Dell walk where the biggest moment of excitement came from spotting a CAT chasing a SQUIRREL.  That silly dog didn't know which to freak out over.  It was another quiet day on the homefront (no weeding yet again, which I will likely regret in the future but was happy about in the moment).  Housecleaning, meal prepping, hummingbird nectar making and feeder hanging, laundry.  Dinner was a vegan Greek avgolemono soup, which seemed suitably Easter-y, and a foccaccia.

No foccaccia photo but it was a pretty good one

And we also did the first garage tailgate of the season, much to our neighbors' chagrin.

sixteen years

Happy moveiversary to us: we moved to Utah SIXTEEN YEARS AGO!!!  On every moveiversary, I like to do a year-end summary post; like last year and the year before, this year has also seemed a little diminished.  H again preferred to focus on his trail running, so we hardly did any hiking together.  I didn't get a ski pass this year and, to be honest, didn't miss it all that much.  We are very lucky people, we know this.  And despite getting older and set in our ways, we are lucky to be able to continue to be as active as we are.  Here's what this past year - we count our "years" from October through September, given when we arrived in Utah - looked like.

October - We always start our "year" with a vacation week (ten days, really) in Moab, with hiking and MTBing and H's really successful trail marathon, plus a coyote sighting on Pipe Dream, hanging with our neighbor and cheering on the Moab 240; bought a new washing machine.

November - First snowflakes in Moab and SLC; A doesn't get a ski pass but H does get to sublet the ski locker again; new bar (to us): The Midway; A starts baking in earnest; Thanksgiving in Moab; Alta opens with a 21" base.

December - Friendsgiving with E and K; the ski bus starts; skiing for H (cold and not much snow); A's college friend and her family are in town; Christmas in Moab (porcupine tracks in Mill Canyon).

January - H takes the week between Christmas and New Year's off to ski (crazy long lines); A makes a vegan Wellington for NYE dinner; snow; coyote sighting in Dimple Dell; H has a 3.5+ hour ski bus ride home one stormy ski day; MLK Jr. long weekend in Moab (hiking and it's cold).Fe

February - Skiing and long lift lines; A gets a new library card; M enjoys going to work with H; President's Day weekend in Moab (6.5 hours and hellish driving to get there); Alta finally gets some snow; skiing.

March - A goes to Maine for a week and H and M go to Moab, missing her terribly; we do our first Sandy garage tailgate (and get chilled); turning to spring in Moab; storms at Alta; skiing.

April - Days of unhealthy air in SLC; successful foccacia baking (!); spring skiing; Easter Jeep Safari in Moab; trees in bloom in SLC; wildflowers beginning in Moab; Utah Royals game; Alta closing weekend and 534 season inches at closing.

May - Traditional spring break week in Moab (flowers, hiking, cycling, seeing N and L when they're in town for a wedding, Moonflower Co-op and renew Sand Flats annual pass); backcountry/snowshoing day at Alta; Memorial Day weekend in Moab (cookout with C and F); Dimple Dell walks for A and H; H trail-runs and cycles.

June - Yardwork begins (overdue); Pride party at E and K's; Dimple Dell walks; starting to get hot; we make our hike list hahahaha; Juneteenth in Moab (M catches a ground squirrel); H trail-runs/cycles.

July - A hikes at Alta and Snowbird; CSA starts; July 4 holiday in Moab (hiking - including return to Gold Knob - and cycling, cooler than normal); H trail-runs/cycles; Pioneer Day holiday weekend in Moab (wildfires, bowling alley beers, cookout with C and F).

August - A goes to Maine for a week and H and M go to Moab, missing her terribly; Dimple Dell walks with M; A and H get summer colds; wildflowers in the Wasatch; A hikes at Alta (including ridge run); H trail-runs/cycles.

September - Labor Day weekend in Moab (hiking, cycling, yard work); A finds new trails to hike at Alta; backyard hangout with E and K; more time in Moab; Dimple Dell walks with M; A bakes strawberry jam bars; H trail-runs/cycles.

And now, October 3rd, happy new year!

another milton appreciation post

 Our weather pattern has definitely changed, bringing storms and rain (yay!) and snow (!!!) to the higher elevations.  This is fantastic.  We need all the moisture we can get and we are not complaining about it at all.  Except that we wish that the storms would happen midweek when we are trapped in the office, instead of on the weekends when we want to be out doing stuff.  These weekend storms are really impacting the content here at We Went West.

And so, because of the current lack of content, here is a Milton appreciation post because he is absolutely the best dog ever.

Neighborhood watch

Under the table at Grid City

and sunday things

 Sunday was cloudy but not as cold.  H went up skiing again and reported that it wasn't quite as crowded either.  At 8:15, he was parked in the front row at Wildcat base, but all the way down at the far end of the parking lot, basically at the Peruvian.  This time he went straight to Supreme and did three runs there before it got busy: Challenger was a bad idea (rock hard and skied off), as was Upper Big Dipper; Three Bears is still full of rocks.  He gave the Ballroom a go as well, and regretted it as well too - none of this is surprising and fairly typical for early season skiing.  Although it doesn't seem all that early, does it, with Christmas just days away.

Wintry scene from Supreme

Down in the valley, Milton (who seems confused to have me home but not H and who alternately sleeps on our bed, ignoring me, or is my shadow and entirely underfoot) and I had our list of things to do.  After our walk, I cleaned two bathrooms, vacuumed and swiffered, did two loads of laundry.

I love baking (and am trying to get better at it)

 For more fun, I made a rustic loaf - olive oil bread - and chana masala for dinner.  Both recipes are again from Isa Does It because when we were down in Moab last weekend, I read that cookbook cover to cover and marked all the recipes I wanted to try.  Fair warning: you may be seeing a lot of food photos here this winter.

redemption

About a year ago, we did a 14+ mile Alta Dry Fork/Mineral Basin loop and it kicked my butt.  I bonked HARD on the final climb - from the base of the Mineral Basin chairlift to the top of Hidden Peak at Snowbird.  We've done a decent number of longer hikes but what makes this one tough is the uphill finish.  I didn't manage my nutrition well at all last year and suffered for it.  Ever since, I have been determined to do it again and not bonk.  When our anniversary rolled around last Friday, we decided to take the day off and do that hike again.  You know, to celebrate.

Virga overhead

So that is how I happened to wake up an hour before I usually do on a weekday morning, all so we could be hiking at 6:20 a.m.  We parked at Snowbird's Entry 2 and walked up the Little Cottonwood Canyon Road to Alta, continuing along the dirt Summer Road for a little bit (and encountering Alta rush hour: two cars and a squirrel, all within the space of one minute) before turning off to the Albion Meadow trail.  We saw a mule deer and a coyote but no moose.  We didn't see any people either, other than the two bow hunters headed back to their car after a morning's scouting.

H at Sunset Pass

We paused for a snack at the top of Catherine's Pass.  After that, we were very good about our calorie intake, stopping approximately every hour for more food.  I had brought Payday bars, granola bars, dark chocolate, dried fruit, peanuts and raisins, plus Sour Patch Kids and some energy shots/bars.  We were desperate for something salty by the time it was all over but we were able to keep our energy level in a good place, despite shredding the inside of our mouths with those darn Sour Patches and dried pineapple.

Alta Dry Fork is scenic

After Catherine's Pass, it was a short climb to Sunset Pass (where we saw two other hikers, the only other people we would see for about ten miles) before the long descent.  Seriously - we lost a LOT of elevation, going down the Great Western Trail through Alta Dry Fork, then continuing to go down through aspen groves towards American Fork.  We descended for over an hour and a half before turning and starting the climb towards Mineral Basin.  The American Fork River that we had been able to rock-hop last summer was noticeably higher this year, and rather than risk wet feet for the second half of the hike, we took off our boots and socks and waded across barefoot.  That water, coming out of the mountain as it does, was very cold - like early spring Maine ocean cold, like ice cream headache for your feet cold.  But, after we'd dried off and put our boots back on, our feet felt great, rejuvenated for about a mile.  I highly recommend a cold soak midway through a long hike!

Cliffs and meadows (and me)

We followed the rough road (dry-ish river bed, really) up to the bottom of Mineral Basin, where Snowbird's Hidden Peak, our finish line, loomed above us.  We paused for one more snack - and this time I downed a vanilla energy shot which would give me a quick 400 calorie boost - and charged ahead.  The climb up Mineral Basin is completely exposed but it wasn't as hot as it could have been, with a decent breeze cooling things off.  H soon outpaced me but I didn't care: I was slow, stopping occasionally to admire a marmot or a pika or the still-impressive wildflowers, but I was steady and I was not bonking.  We started to meet tourists with about a quarter of the way to go, clean people who had ridden the tram to the top.  I smiled and said hello to them, but kept my head down and kept grinding my way to the top.  I joined H there just a few minutes before 1 p.m., just under seven hours after we started hiking.

Cold!

The Snowbird tram is free if you get on it at the top and we gladly availed ourselves of that option; after 14+ miles, my knees and back were grateful for not having to hike back down to the cold beer waiting for us at the car.  Still, we were in better shape than we had been last summer: no blisters or hot spots, no afternoon naps, and enough energy that evening to walk to the local pizza place for veggie 'za and a toast to an anniversary well-celebrated.

Just gotta get up there

Hike stats:  14.58 miles walked (16.33 miles total, including the tram ride down); 5 hrs 21 minutes moving/3.1 m.p.h. (6 hours 48 minutes total/2.4 m.p.h. overall); 5,108' elevation gain.

Redemption!

2017 ultimate challenge (and tour of utah, stage 6)

Stage 6 (8/5/17) Soldier Hollow to Snowbird, 61 miles and 7,700 feet of elevation gain.  The race organizers have been mixing it up with the Tour of Utah this year.  For instance, Stage 6, the "queen stage," is much shorter this year, clocking in at only 61 miles.  It was nonetheless challenging: starting at Soldier Hollow and going around the end of Deer Creek Reservoir before climbing up the Alpine Loop behind Sundance, descending through American Fork Canyon, sweeping around the Point of the Mountain and then finally the grueling climb up Little Cottonwood Canyon for a Snowbird finish.   Stage podium: Guilio Ciccone (Bardiani); Simone Sterbini (Bardiani); Neilson Powless (Axeon).

Note those climbs

The stage winner did it in 2:45:38.  This is notable because Stage 6 is also the route of the Ultimate Challenge, where citizens are allowed to test themselves on the same course as the pros.  H, apparently because he hadn't tormented challenged himself enough with the Crusher, signed up for the Ultimate Challenge as well.  And then spent the week prior looking at the course profile and shaking his head mournfully.

Ready to go

We had to organize carefully because we would be gone all day, so that involved (a) H's ride gear, (b) my hiking gear, (c) H's post-ride gear, (d) my post-hike gear and (e) beer.  We left the house at 7:15 a.m., driving south to Orem, through Provo Canyon and up to Soldier Hollow, parking in a big field with all the other citizen riders.  After collecting H's hospitality tent wristband, he got himself ready to go and headed for the start.  I left at that point - since there were somewhere between 600-700 riders, I did not want to get tangled up with them on that road around the reservoir.  And it was a bit of a tangle, H reported later.  Even though this was merely a ride and not an actual race, there was an awful lot of aggressive passing and jostling for position during the first miles.

Heading to the start

This faded away as soon as the climbing started and H, who is in pretty good shape right now, managed to distance himself from the hordes, passing lots of people.  The climb up to the top of American Fork Canyon from the Sundance side - a steep, narrow, twisty road that we've driven many times - wasn't actually too bad.  There weren't many cars (the course was not closed for the Ultimate Challenge although it would be for the Tour of Utah riders) and it was largely shaded.  H had been anxious about the descent - again steep, narrow, twisty - but said that it wasn't bad at all.  He's been practicing his descending skills; he was able to ride most of it alone, without having to dodge other riders; and signs were on hand to warn of the biggest corners where speed needed to be reduced.

Lining up for the start

Once out of American Fork Canyon, things started to heat up.  Literally - since the rest of the ride would be entirely exposed with no shade.  The riders had a whole stretch of road to themselves through the Alpine area, came around into Draper and started up Highland Drive/Wasatch Boulevard to the Little Cottonwood Canyon Road.  As the climb started, H again passed a ton of people.  He said he was feeling good right up until gate B in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  At that point, the heat started getting to him and even though he needed fuel to sustain himself for the climb, he just didn't feel like eating.  The last four miles of the climb were absolutely miserable - and not just for H: people who could keep riding were wobbling all over the place and lots of riders were walking - but he pushed on through.  By the time he hit the final 200 m. stretch (downhill into the finish), he said he was barely pedaling.  But he made it, finishing in 4 hours and 15 minutes, with the last climb up LCC taking an hour.  H's results:  123 overall; 19 out of 99 age group; 116 out of 544 men.

Approaching the finish

While H was on his bike, I had booked it up to Snowbird, nabbing a prime parking spot along the creek.  Wanting to get a little exercise, I did a short hike up Peruvian Gulch to the top of the Peruvian Chair [Note: the Peruvian Ridge trail we did at the Wildflower Festival is much prettier than just trudging up the gulch trail.].  I made it up in 1 hour and 10 minutes, then got chilled on the chairlift ride down because I had worked up such a sweat.  Back at the car, I got texts from H at the Highland Drive feed station and at the mouth of LCC, so I knew approximately how much time I had.  I changed clothes, packed H's stuff in my backpack, grabbed the cooler and went back up to the finish line.  The crowd was growing and each Ultimate Challenge rider got a lot of applause as they came through the chute.

Finished!

After H finished, I managed to find him in the crowd.  He was a little shaky at first, from the exertion and heat and lack of nutrition and hydration.  But after a half hour of sitting in the shade drinking water, we moved over to the hospitality tent where he got some food.  As I wasn't a rider, I had to stand outside the fence, so after he ate, H joined me, continuing to work his way through a series of diet Cokes and Powerades, and we watched the Stage 6 finish on the Jumbotron.  Lots of other UC riders opted to do that as well, despite the finish line being just behind us in person; I overheard a lot of conversations where riders said, "I felt really good until we started climbing LCC!"

As the Stage 6 podiums were being announced, we collected H's bike from the bike valet and made our way back to the car.  It looked to be slow going getting out of the parking lot, as the race vehicles and viewing public were all trying to leave at once.  H had fully bounced back by now, so we sat in the shade and had a beer, recapping the day while the crowd dispersed.  Contrary to what we would have thought, H thinks that if he had to choose, he would rather do the Crusher again instead of the Ultimate Challenge (although we wonder if that would have been the case had the weather not cooled off so drastically for the Crusher).  Luckily, he doesn't have to decide any such thing any time soon ... and can just be glad that both rides are over for this year.

visitors: sundance

We've had house-guests in town: G, H's friend since kindergarten, and T, his awesome wife.  They came in late Friday night and despite our keeping them up even later, got up and were ready to go explore northern Utah.  Since they live practically at sea level, they did ask us to take it easy on them with the hiking; it's been so beautiful out that we were happy to oblige, just glad to get a few more days in the sunshine before the weather turns its thoughts to winter.

On Saturday, we took them over Traverse Ridge and up American Fork Canyon, driving the Alpine Loop through its gorgeous groves of golden aspen.  We landed at Sundance which was super-busy: it was the last weekend of summer activities, so there were lots of MTBers and sightseers riding the chairlift.  In addition, since we were last at Sundance they have put in an amazing zip line park - with the third longest span in the country - and there were tons of people doing that too.

We opted to simply ride the chair up and take a short mid-mountain hike, chatting with the zip line operators and watching the zippers fly around overhead.  While it did look like fun, some of those spans were REALLY high above the ground.  Sundance's zip lines put both Snowbird's and PCMR's to shame.

Motley crew

We were in need of sustenance at that point and scored a corner table in the Owl Bar.  Some beers and an amazing order of nachos later (seriously: those nachos were superb), we headed home for the rest of the afternoon and evening which we spent catching up.  Both G and T said they could feel the effects of the altitude so we wanted to ease them into it - we had plans to take them up to 10,000 feet the next day!

bear canyon loop

I just don't get to sleep in anymore.  Way back in high school and college, I was all about sleeping in until 9 or 10, whenever I could.  I don't do that anymore.  My back gets too stiff if I lie in bed past 8:30 a.m., plus there's no time for sleeping late when we've got to get out and get doing stuff!  In the winters it's not so bad: we can get up at 7 or later, depending on the roads, since Alta doesn't open the lifts until 9:15 a.m.  But in the summer, we like to get an early start to avoid the crowds and the heat of the day.  And when you pick a hike in American Fork Canyon, which is a much further drive than the hikes along the Wasatch Front (and well away from the valley smoke caused by the 13,000+ acre Antelope Island wildfire), you have to get up at 5:15 a.m. to leave the house at 6 a.m. to get on the trail at 6:50 a.m.

Backside of Timpanogos with

moon in the sunrise

Things were just starting to get going in American Fork Canyon as we parked at the Pine Hollow trail head.  We had thought that this hike - an 8.4 mile loop that we found on utahmountainbiking.com - was further up the canyon but we really only had to drive in to where the road closes in wintertime.  We were armed with our GPS, a good map and a print-out of the loop, plus the backside of Timpanogos was looming overhead at all times, letting us know where we were.  We didn't figure that this would require any navigating but we don't know this area as well as the canyons closer to home and thought it would be better to be prepared.

Almost moonset

The trail out of Pine Hollow is fairly steep right away, nothing I would want to try riding.  (Actually, except for a short stretch on the Great Western Trail up on the ridgeline, this loop would be very challenging on a MTB: not only with the Pine Hollow climb, but the final descent into Mutual Dell is very steep, loose underfoot and narrow, dropping 1,300 feet in two miles.)  After the climb, we turned right on the GWT towards Salamander Flat.  At this point, the mileage in our trail description seemed off, but the trails were well signed and since we knew we were doing the loop clockwise, we just kept turning right.

Timpooneke Road #056

We  stayed on the GWT for a while until it brought us to the Timpooneke parking area, overflowing already at 8:25 a.m. with people hiking Timpanogos.  We turned left out of the parking lot, following the Timpooneke road (identified as #056 on the signs and our map) past some campground loops, where it turned to gravel.  Our trail description said that we would stay on the road for 1.25 miles and then turn right, downhill, onto some single track that was signed as the "East Bear Canyon Trail," which was listed as #174 on our map.  Walking on this dirt and gravel road was quite pleasant, however, steadily climbing uphill and mostly shaded, so we decided to follow it out a ways, keeping an eye out for single track but mainly looking to put some extra easy miles on our legs.

Sure is purty out there

We turned around when #056 turned a corner and started heading into a totally different drainage.  When we got back to where we had found single track heading down into Bear Canyon, however, it was not signed as either "East Bear Canyon Trail" or as #174: we found #178 and #179 instead, neither of which were on our map.  We checked the GPS coordinates which were close but not exact to what was on our trail description and then decided to just take a chance on #179.  It was heading the right way and we figured that even if it wasn't exactly what we wanted, it would eventually dump us out on the American Fork Canyon road and we could figure things out from there.

A rare flat spot in Bear Canyon

This trail turned out to be the west fork of the Bear Canyon trail and it joined up with the main Bear Canyon trail before too long.  Whoever built this trail didn't mess around too much with switchbacks, instead opting for a steep, straight descent that was rocky and often loose.  It was pretty, though, entirely shaded as we moved through pine forest and aspen glades.  We came out at the LDS Church-run Mutual Dell campground, then crossed the main canyon road and climbed (steep, loose, more exposed to the sun) the short connector trail back to the truck.

Same photo as the first one: less the

moon, plus the beer

Post-hike beers and sandwiches were on the tailgate, with an excellent view of what we'd just hiked spread out in front of us.  The extra distance we'd gone on the #056 road gave us enough mileage to be a little tired; the fact that it was a MTB-able trail meant that it wasn't too rugged for walking; and while the inconsistencies with the trail description, map and signage had been a little annoying, it certainly hadn't mattered in the long run.  Again today, it's all good, out there on the trails.

Bear Canyon Loop (plus extra #056 lollipop)

Hike stats:  9.2 mile loop; 3 hrs. 27 min. walking plus 41 minutes of gawking/eating/etc.; 2.6 m.p.h. moving speed; 3 mule deer spotted;  1,900 feet elevation change.

Hike profile so you can see how steep the

descent to Mutual Dell was

spring is the new winter

All that moisture that we wanted back in January, February and March?  We've been getting it in May.  In addition to the unsettled weather we had in Moab, the last two weeks have been literal wash-outs in northern Utah.  On average, Salt Lake City has 1.57 inches of rain through this point in May.  This year's May (month-to-date):  3.87 inches of precipitation and eighteen days of wet weather.  Last weekend we didn't do anything out of the house (other than breakfast at the Cottonwood Heights Cafe in its new Highland Drive location).  By Sunday of this past weekend, we had cabin fever enough to get out and try a new hike, inclement weather be damned.

H at Silver Lake Flat Reservoir

The first order of business was to find a hike.  We wanted (a) something low enough that we wouldn't be trudging through too much (if any) snow and (b) something totally new, which ruled out Millcreek Canyon, which we feel we've been in rather a lot of late.  H got out the books and the maps and we settled on hiking to Silver Lake (no, not that Silver Lake) in American Fork Canyon, above Tibble Fork Reservoir.  We drove up the canyon and past Tibble Fork Reservoir, parking at a small parking area just before the entrance to the Granite Flats campground.  The road continues, pavement ending, up to Silver Lake Flat Reservoir but we went on foot on a hiking/horse trail, thus avoiding the traffic (cars, pickups and ATVs) on the dirt road.

View across Silver Lake Flat Reservoir

The trail also cut off close to a mile of distance that the road has.  It was fairly steep in spots, and rocky with loose stones, and eroded from the rush of seasonal water hurrying down the hillside.  For a good chunk of the trail we were actually walking in a creekbed, picking our way carefully to keep our feet dry.  It was pretty chilly at 48F (and would only warm up to 52F) and wet feet seemed like a quick way to misery.  We saw tons of deer tracks but only one deer, standing at distance across a wash; there were also lots of dog paw prints (and, later, dogs) which might explain the dearth of actual deer.

Standing on mine tailings, looking back from whence we came

We came out across the access road at the end of Silver Lake Flat Reservoir, an unexpectedly beautiful man-made reservoir ringed with trees and snow-coated cliffs peeking out of the low clouds above.  We walked along the gravel shoreline to the far end, briefly consulted the map at the trail head and continued up towards Silver Lake.  It was cool, very humid and very green, initially winding through aspen groves before starting to climb via switchbacks on the south-facing slope.  We gained elevation quickly - the whole trail is a steady climb, right from where we parked - and there were a couple of creek crossings which required a little bit of focus.

Approaching Silver Lake - it's 

actively snowing/raining at this point

The ponchos had to come out about halfway up and as we ground up the final steep and rocky stretch, the rain came down in earnest, switching to sleet/snow just as we got up to the lake.  Silver Lake is a very pretty little alpine lake, reminiscent of Cecret Lake at Alta, but we didn't linger there at all; worried about the weather, we took a couple of quick photos and started back down.  It was slow going at first since the rocks were a little slippery.  Descending was chilly too and although the snow/sleet/rain stopped before too long (the weather would not move out entirely, however, and by the time we were back down in the aspens, we could see that it was precipitating up at the lake again), we kept our ponchos on for a while, just to stay warm.

Silver Lake in the snow/rain

Silver Lake Flat Reservoir was busier by the time we walked around it on our return, picnickers and fishermen braving the changeable weather - some teenagers were even swimming!  We weren't the slightest bit tempted by that and continued to retrace our steps back to the truck.  After changing into dry clothes, we drove down canyon a little bit until we found a vacant picnic spot.  The prior inhabitants had not completely doused their campfire (always douse your campfire! if it's too hot to touch, it's too hot to leave!) so we huddled up to it to stay warm for our post-hike beers.  We decided that we had liked that hike and would like to do it again, in the fall to see the aspens, but next time drive up to the trail head at Silver Lake Flat Reservoir and then continuing to hike past Silver Lake to another, smaller lake, Silver Glance Lake, a mile further on.  Next time!

Just trying to stay warm

Hike stats:  7.97 miles RT; 2,181 feet of elevation gain, topping out around 9,000 ft.; avg. speed 2.4 m.p.h.; 3:16 moving time, 4:03 total hike time.  And look, a map of our actual hike:

october visitors

Our recent house guests were H's parents, back to visit for a record sixth time.  We lucked out on the weather for a change: it has sometimes been hit-or-miss, with 5 F in December, 60s in St. George in May and early fall snows for some of their prior visits.  This time it was clear and cool, with the rains holding off until the day of their departure.

Because of the nice weather, one day we were able to take a scenic drive from American Fork to Sundance, up and over the Alpine Loop.  We took a chairlift ride to admire the stunning scenery (and H and I marked out another hike to do at another time) and then admired the old bar at the Owl Bar over beers.

Visions in blue

Another day found us on a moose hunt, driving over Guardsman Pass to Park City, then over the Jeremy Ranch Road to Morgan County, looping around to come back down Emigration Canyon.  Moose count: zero. We didn't let this get us down too much, however, and went up to Snowbird for Octoberfest.  The place was mobbed with people, largely due to the spectacular weather.  We enjoyed beers, kettle corn, polka music and a tram ride.  H's parents, who live in upstate New York, figured that 11,000 feet was as high as they'd ever been with their feet on the ground.  Again, the views were stunning and we were able to point out to them some of the places we've skied.  Moose count: zero, but several big mule deer were spotted from the tram.

Atop Hidden Peak with Alta in the background

Their last day out here I had to go back to work, so H, his folks and B went out to Antelope Island.  Moose count: zero, but hundreds of bison, pronghorn antelope, mule deer and birds.  Maybe next time we'll bag H's mom her first moose (visually speaking, not with a gun) - we'll need to since after six visits we're running out of new stuff for them to see in the greater SLC area!

girls' weekend

This past weekend, my two bestest girlfriends came to SLC to visit.  It is practically criminal how long it's been since the three of us have gotten together, so we made up for lost time by practically talking nonstop from Friday evening when they got here until just about now when we dropped them at the airport.  Neither of them had ever been to Utah so it was fun to do the introductory tour.  We began, of course, at the Porcupine for nachos, beers and burgers - because that's how you start vacation.

On Saturday, while H escaped for a road ride and a self-guided fishing expedition up Big Cottonwood Canyon, the girls and I leisurely breakfasted at home, then drove up to downtown SLC for a (free - see prior post) visit to Red Butte Garden, the fabulous University of Utah botanical garden.  The sun was out, clear and strong, so we happily wandered through the gardens, pausing in the shady spots ... except for where the rattlesnake was hanging out.  We snapped a photo there and then moved out without disturbing him.  We were hot and parched after that, so we stopped by the Desert Edge brewpub at Trolley Square for a light lunch, and then hit a shave-ice stand for frozen treats - I had the sour pink lemonade which was quite good.

Cheers for beers!

We packed beers and a supper picnic and drove up to Snowbird for that evening's Cool Air concert, snagging a prime umbrella'ed table for our make-your-own chicken, black bean and corn burritos.  The chairlift rides close at 6:00 p.m. so instead we bought tickets for the tram ride to the top, spotting a cow and a calf moose far below and then enjoying the fantastic views all around from the 11,000 ft. summit.  When we descended, we enjoyed a couple more beers in the pleasant cool as the live music (Marshall Crenshaw himself!) wound down and the sun slipped over the western mountains.

Sunday morning found us up and at 'em and at the Silver Fork for breakfast, then taking a stroll around Silver Lake at Brighton to watch the numerous fishermen not catching a thing.  Guardsman Pass from Brighton to Park City is finally open so we drove over that - LEY spotted a huge bull moose grazing in the aspens - but didn't linger in Park City as it was swarming with people for the PC Arts Festival.  We went to Sundance Resort instead for a beer at the Owl Bar, then continued up and over the Alpine Loop beneath Timpanogos, exiting through American Fork Canyon and returning home in time for cleaning up and snacks before the girls had to be back at the airport.

Top o' Snowbird, under the tram

I'm so glad they came to visit - I'm so glad the monsoon thunderstorms gave us a break this weekend - and I hope they had fun.  I know I did, and I really enjoy showing off my new home to old friends.

cuteness

These little guys didn't make any of the prior posts but they're just so cute that I had to include them.  Both were taken on H and Paul's excursions.

This fuzzy, adorable, little raccoon, clearly a juvenile, was scrounging around in American Fork Canyon, digging up worms or grubs or something:

And this Uinta ground squirrel - a "potgut," in local parlance - popped out of his Butler Fork hole and posed long enough for H to take his portrait: