Our Big Blast of a Weekend in Bryce Canyon National Park

Mike and I took a few extra days off work leading up to Labor Day weekend to head down to Bryce Canyon National Park to do the backpacking trip and biking we wanted to do earlier this year but was canceled due to bear attacks. (Yeah, I was okay with it being canceled under those circumstances.) The bears were relocated and the trail was re-opened so we headed down for try number two.

Thursday we took a quick stroll around the Navajo Loop in Bryce Canyon National Park. Then we biked Thunder Mountain, which is normally done as a shuttle to avoid the seven or so miles on a paved bike path and the couple miles on a dirt road, but since it was just us and my one little Subaru, Ruby, we biked all that for a total of 15.6 miles. Thunder is so fun. It's as if you are riding your bike through Bryce Canyon National Park - with red sand and dirt everywhere and even some hoodoos. Then we followed ride that up with a 4.6 mile mountain bike tour of Kodachrome State Park - where you can indeed ride your mountain bike on a couple of the hiking trails there - although they weren't wonderful trails: very loose and sandy. We were wiped out by the end of that day.

on Thunder Mountain

on Thunder Mountain

on Thunder Mountain

@ Kodachrome State Park

@ Kodachrome State Park

Friday we shot over to Brianhead ski area to catch a shuttle that would take us to the top of the 11-mile Bunker Creek trail at the top of Brianhead Peak. Thats when we discovered that we could get a single lift ride to ride one of the mountain biking trails at Brianhead Resort. It was.... fun.... and anticlimactic. Brianhead only has three trails you can ride - one beginner, one intermediate, and one advanced. We were down the advanced trail in 20 minutes and that includes the 15 minutes it took us to ride the lift to the top. But hey, it was free so we did it. Bunker Creek was a blast. Awesome views. Some technical spots. One split in the trail where you can choose your own adventure - one side was steeper and more technical, the other more "flowy" and less technical.... ha ha ha! We took the more "flowy" route and it was okay on flowiness but still quite technical. I kept repeating the whole time we were going down it, "I'd hate to see the other side!" It was challenging for sure. Then the trail ended on a dirt road that connected us to our car. We made our lunch there at the car and ate on a grassy spot by a little creek.

Friday evening we hiked down a one-mile connector trail from the main road in Bryce Canyon National Park to our campsite on the Under-the-Rim trail to cache 5 gallons of water for us and our three friends that would be backpacking on that trail for the next 48 hours. We had heard that there was very little water down along the trail so Mike had the brilliant idea to stow some water in some bushes just off the trail by our campsite. And he ended up stowing our tent down there too! Then our other three friends, Steve, Tessa, and Joel, joined us that night.

caching the water

cairns to remind us where we cached the water

Saturday morning we started our backpacking trip on the 23-mile-long Under-the-Rim trail in Bryce Canyon National Park. Interestingly, when Mike and I were getting the permit to do the hike the park ranger was surprised we planned to do the whole thing! So maybe the whole trail doesn't get hiked all that often.... which became apparent on our first day when we saw how many trees were down across the trail and how many landslides/washes had taken out the trail. And we laughed at the elevation profile that the park provides because they do not show you all the ups and downs between the different points, they just give you the point elevations and draw a straight line between them. The trail, on both Saturday and Sunday, was up and down and up and down and up and down. So it was a challenging 23 miles. We camped at Right Fork Swamp Canyon, which was perfect because we had some views of the canyon walls above and it was just a little over halfway - oh and we started at Rainbow Point and finished at Bryce Point. Every campsite had signs about bear and cougar sightings.... scary! But lucky for us, we didn't see any bears or cougars. On our second day, we actually did see some clear water! We had a big climb to get back up on top of the canyon wall but it ended up not being too bad.

Joel, Steve, Tessa, and me

One of the landslides/washes we had to cross

What Bryce looks like from the Under-the-Rim trail

The "Hat Shop" near the end of our trip

All told we biked and hiked over 50 miles that weekend. We were pooped but loved it.

Denver to Visit Mike's Dad

Mike had been feeling an itch to drive out to his home town, Denver, to visit his dad, Marty. His dad still lives in the house that Mike pretty much grew up in. So when Mike invited me to go with him, I just had to go so I could see his old house, the town he grew up in, the old photos of Mike that surely his dad would still have hung up in his house (which he did not disappoint!), his old haunts, all of it. So we left on Thursday afternoon and arrived late Thursday night. I've never been or driven to Denver, and the drive along I-70 was amazing! All those steep passes and through all those mountains! I loved it. It was also fun to drive past a bunch of big Colorado ski resorts: Vail, Copper Mountain, and to see signs for Breckenridge, Aspen, and Steamboat Springs.

While there, we hung out with his dad by driving to the top of Mount Evans (which boasts the highest peak that has a paved road go all the way to the top - at 14,000 feet), driving around Rocky Mountain National Park and doing a 7-mile hike to Cascade Falls (where we saw an amazing and huge bull moose!). We also visited the flagship REI in Denver and went to dinner with Mike's sister-in-law. Then after spending a little time at the driving range with his dad on Sunday morning (where I actually hit some balls!), we headed home to Utah. Short but sweet trip.

Mike and his dad, Marty, at the top of Mount Evans

Marty and me at Rocky Mountain National Park

Sundance Summer Theater: Fiddler on the Roof

As is tradition, Mom came down to go to the Sundance Summer Theater with me (and now that I've been dating Mike, he tags along too). This year they showed Fiddler on the Roof. Mom and I had seen it before, but Mike hadn't. It was wonderful! And so well done. And like usual, we also enjoyed their catered BBQ dinner before the show and ate at tables with red and white checked picnic table cloths on them and the they were scattered amongst some towering pine trees and a little brook. I so love that little area. The food was delicious, the show was amazing, and the company was superb. :) Sadly, no picture of mom.

Sawtooths for Pioneer Day

Mike and I took a little road trip to my home state for our next outdoor adventure. It felt so good to come home to my mountains and forests. When I was growing up, I didn't spend any time in the Sawtooths but they remind me of the forests that I did grow up in - where the forest floors are covered in huckleberry bushes and there are trees on all sides of the mountains (as opposed to just the north-facing slopes like it is in Utah).

We drove up Wednesday afternoon and secured a "base" car-camping site for the whole weekend. And then we started our backpacking trip into Baron Lakes Thursday morning. We took the shuttle boat from Redfish Lodge across Redfish Lake to the trailhead. Then we hiked the 9 miles in to Baron Likes passing huckleberry bushes, water falls, brooks, and wildflowers all along the way. We stopped to eat lunch at Alpine Lake and then made the push into Baron Lakes after that. We were hiking in to Baron Lakes with four other parties, so Mike and I discussed it and decided to send Mike sprinting ahead to get the campsite in the meadow that my boss told me about. He got to the meadow first, dropped his pack, and then came back looking for me to take my pack, but we missed each other because I was on a high trail headed to the meadow while he was down closer to the lake. But we met up again later at the meadow. We set up our tent and went exploring around the area and to this overlook rock. After that we started cooking our dinner of massaman curry, but while we did that we noticed the temperature drop drastically. Since I was worried I might be cold in my 25-degree bag that night, we went up to the top of this knoll where there was another campsite and we discovered that it seriously felt 10 degrees warmer up there! So we moved our camp up there. ha ha!

Lunch at Alpine Lake

Campsite #1

Campsite #2

The next morning we ate breakfast and then headed up this other area to explore it and came across this way cool frozen lake in a cirque, and we played with the ice for far too long! Then we returned to camp, packed up, and headed up and out of the basin to head back to our base camp. All told we probably hiked about 20 or 22 miles in those two days.

Looking back down on Baron Lakes

That night we made tin foil dinners while we waited for Mike's friend, Lane, to join us for the rest of the weekend. He showed up late and we made some s'mores on our camp fire. The next day we did a 3.5-mile hike into the spectacular Goat Lake. For some extra fun, Lane packed in his pack-raft and we took turns paddling around the lake and checking out the snowfields that were sloping down into the lake. Sadly, it was on this hike that I either got too much sun, drank too little water, ate too little food, or all the above because I started feeling like I wanted to throw up as we hiked out. Mike was awesome and stayed with me the whole time - making me drink water and eat some food. I made it back to the campsite and took a nap!

The steep hike up to Goat Lake

Goat Falls

Goat Lake

Lane, me, and Mike

On our last day there, Mike and I went mountain biking on the Fisher Creek Loop trail. We showed up at the trailhead at the same time as another lone mountain biker and lucky for all three of us, we decided to ride together and shuttle the ride! Otherwise we would have had to bike down the highway for 2.5 miles and then up a dirt road for 6.5 miles. Yuck! So instead we took my car up to the top of the dirt road and started from there. It still ended up being a 10-mile ride. The ride was pretty cool - the first part was really sad since it was through a burned area, but then the downhill was awesome and through a nice green section. After that, our new friend took me up to get my car while Mike waited at the trailhead.

After that Mike and I headed home to Utah.

Rides to Document

Mike and I took a mountain bike ride up the upper Fifth Water trail and it took us to an amazing view over Strawberry Reservoir and a field of pretty yellow flowers. And it was the perfect time of night for lighting too. So we just had to take a picture of it.

And then my dear friend, Kendra, came to town so we had many rides and took some fun pics.

left to right: Katie, me, Janie, and Kendra

One Mad Momma Cow

On the fourth of July, Mike and I went for an early morning mountain bike ride up the Cottonwood trail in Diamond Fork Canyon. While up there we came across two adult female cows and their two calves. I mentioned to Mike just as we passed them how docile cows are - cuz they just sit there and stare at you while they chew their cud and we can ride on by with no problems with them. Little did I know how that statement would turn on me! Shortly after seeing those cows, we turned around and came back down the way we had and we came across those "docile" cows again. This time they were a bit down the trail and we were moving a little bit faster since we were going downhill. The adults got off the trail pretty quick, but the two calves just ran down the trail in front of us for a while. Eventually they got off the trail too so we really picked up speed at that point and headed down the trail at our normal speed. But a minute or two later, I heard a bunch of crazy mooing behind me so I looked back and . . . saw one of the two adult cows CHASING after us mooing wildly all the while!!! It was crazy. I freaked out. So I started pedaling to go even faster, which is scary when you're on a twisty, turny, rocky trail! I yelled at Mike to pick his speed up because a cow was chasing us and all he did was start laughing!! But he didn't have the cow right behind him, nor was he having the visions of the two ton cow ramming him and then trampling him! I was thinking of all my contingency plans.... could I jump off my bike and get a tree between us? Would she trample my bike? Would she give up when she couldn't get to me because of the tree? Or would I have to climb a tree?! Thankfully, I didn't have to resort to my backup plans because we maintained our distance and that fat momma cow tired out after a minute or two of chasing us, but she kept mooing wildly for a while after she quit chasing us! All we could think was she was either mad at us for chasing and scaring her calves and wanted to teach us a lesson, or else she thought we were still chasing her calves down the trail. Ha! We've biked past a bunch of cows, but we've never had one chase us before!