Hiking Timpanogos for the 1st time!

So this year I hiked Timpanogos for the first time ever! I hiked it with Jason and a few of his friends. It was amazing. "Timp" has an elevation of 11,749 feet and you feel it when you get toward the top--I was quite out of breath! We hiked to the top via the Timpooneke (pronounced timp-e-nookie, don't ask...) trailhead which is 7.5 miles one-way to the top. We gained 4,580 feet on the trail. The trail was beautiful! We even saw a moose. It was the most perfect day to hike because the high temperature forecasted for Provo that day was in the mid-60s. Soooo, perfect! And the wildflowers...I couldn't believe they were still out and really, they were in their prime. So beautiful. The view from the top was amazing (as you can see). We went to the "Glass House" shack up top. I don't know why they call it that, but basically it is just a tin shack with 4 white walls and a pointed red roof. There was a sign in book inside, but we didn't sign in. It was actually snowing when we got to the top.

Then we walked around the front of Timp and slid down the "glacier" (really it is just a snowfield) and hiked back down via Emerald Lake on the Aspen Grove trail which is 6 miles long. While hiking down Life Flight flew by several times and we wondered what was up. I called my friend Lindsey (who is on the Search and Rescue Team) to find out what was up. She didn't answer. So we kept hiking. We finally came across a lady on the trail that was in a lot of pain and had thus called for Life Flight to come pick her up. Did you know that Utah County Life Flight only bills you if they take you directly to the hospital? Good grief! She got a free ride off the mountain down to the trailhead where the not-so-free ambulance was waiting for her. (An ambulance would be a cheaper ride to the hospital than Life Flight, I imagine.) The hike down to the Aspen Grove trailhead was so steep--it hurt my knees. But I had a greeting party at the bottom!! Lindsey was there at the trailhead as part of the Life Flight rescue so she was there with the rest of the Search and Rescue team to welcome me to the bottom! (Life Flight was gone by then.)

I highly recommend it for any of you that are interested; however, I might have to wait a while to do it again. It was a hard hike!!