Pictures up the Canyon

To see the amazing photo shoot D'Arcy did for our family today, check out her site! Thank you D'Arcy, for being a wonderful photographer. And thank you little Atticus, for being such a cooperative guy.

Fall in Big Cottonwood Canyon

This photo doesn't do the leaves justice, but it's the reddish-orange ones I love the most. A perfect drive.

Clouds on Mt. Olympus

I love watching how the clouds will change Mt. Olympus and Twin Peaks. They will filter, reflect, and hide light on the mountains and bring snow or rain to change the entire color palate. What a cool canvas.

On a related note, when I drove to work this morning on the I-15 corridor, I looked straight ahead but I could not see one inch of downtown. There was just one dark curtain of a cloud that they freeway went through, with a rainbow right in front. Rainbows in Utah in December are certainly a rare sight.

Evening at Silver Lake

I've been thinking about mountains and water, and so Kevin and I decided to take this gorgeous autumn stroll around Silver Lake this evening. I can hardly believe this is so close to our home. The aspen color is better than I've seen it in years, and you can see the snow that's coming down the mountainside.

A View Through the Curtains

A 12-minute drive and a swift hike up a steep, steep canyon puts it all into perspective. It is amazing this is all it takes to get above it all.

Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.

I mean look at us. We're ants.

Fall in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Admittedly, this comes a little late, but here are our fall pics from Big Cottonwood Canyon. Despite the drought, which drains the trees and dulls their color, we still found beautiful patches this fall. Isn't it odd how it just creeps up in little patches?

Lake Mary, Pass Lake, and Albion Basin: Two short hikes and a stroll through wildflowers

In the last month or so, I haven't had much chance to go far away to hike, and July is not necessarily my favorite time to hike my favorite places in the Southern Utah desert, but I have been able to get away for an hour or two to the nearby canyons.

Near the end of June, I went with a neighbor and some of her friends up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Lake Mary. It's a supposedly short hike, and I'd done it before years ago, but the beginning of the trail had changed, and there was a lot of snow and flodded meadows, so things looked different. We overshot the trail a little bit and ended up approaching the lake from the east, but it was beautiful. The shutters of my camera weren't open all the way, hence the blocked view.

The weekend before the 4th of July holiday Kevin and I went up to the Uintas with my dad to go on a trail past Scout and Pass lakes. I love this hike. It was perfect for a July afternoon--short enough and high enough to produce pleasant temperatures. In just 3.5 miles, this loop trail takes hikers through forests, past several lakes and streams, above the timberline (where there were still plenty of ice fields), through high wildflower meadows, and through lower grassy meadows. It's a great way for me to enjoy most of the things I love about the Uintas in an afternoon, and it doesn't have switchbacks, of which I've become less fond during my mountain backbacking trips.

This weekend Kevin and I went to Albion Basin to see the wildflowers in bloom. This is where I learned to ski, and it still takes me back to my childhood to go up there and see the lift to Sugar Loaf, my favorite ski run, and the way to Cecret Lake. There are so many beautiful wildflowers this time of year.