I had a chance to do another nice hike with my friend Jim yesterday afternoon. Squaw Peak is the prominent peak above Provo, and the backdrop to those pictures of the Provo Temple you often see. (Speaking of pictures, here’s a link to the whole hi-res slideshow on Flickr.) After the trip up Provo Peak two weeks ago, I was a little gun-shy; that was more than I expected. My conditioning is still not great, but I think it’s getting better each week as I keep lifting weights and working my heart at the gym. Jim brought his dogs, who are a bit old and fat, so we were able to take our time. Still, we made the 7-8 miles in just about 3 hours.
The trail starts at the mouth of Rock Canyon, which was one of my favorite haunts as a kid. It seems like I was up there all the time once I was able to drive. My best friend David and I even started to get into rock climbing a little bit, playing in some of the easier routes. I don’t think I’ve been in Rock Canyon more than once or twice in the last ten years.
I forget what a remarkable place I live in. Here is a terrifically beautiful place, right in my backyard, and how often do I remember to go and enjoy it? It’s been great to get back in the mountains a little more. Click the link below to see all the pictures.
I took some days off this week, so I thought I’d spend a day with each of the older children. When I asked them what they wanted to do, Isaac wanted to go to a mountain far away, and Charlotte wanted to look at fish.
So Thursday morning, Isaac and I set out for Arches National Park. It’s not the best for mountains, but it’s accessible in this cold spring. When we set out, we had a solid foot of new snow; I had to put Grandpa’s truck in four wheel drive to get out of our driveway. Things were sloppy on US 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon and on into Price as well.
That little Toyota is probably the finest piece of 20th-century automotive technology. While it’s a little underpowered and noisy at any kind of speed, it’s pretty near indestructible. With 275,000+ miles on it, it’s still sporting the original clutch, transmission, and motor. On top of that, any trail I’ve thrown it at (and I confess I haven’t gone too nuts) has been no problem. There are some quirks; as we hit Soldier Summit, the right side wiper popped off. A helpful clerk at Checker Auto in Price got us the right part (these pick-ups don’t have j-hooks for the wipers, so you need an adapter) and got us on the road again.
When we got to Arches, Isaac and I headed up to Delicate Arch. Isaac is a chatty kid when he wants to be, and he had questions and thoughts about everything. I use a pair of trekking poles when I hike, and when they’re not extended, they’re just the right size for him to use. He calls them “hikersâ€, and talks about how the help us not to fall over. Any time we’d go up a hill or along a ledge, he’d talk about how we were helping each other not fall. We would look for the cairns of stones
Isaac is a good hiker. Delicate Arch is 1.5 miles each way, and he did just fine.
After we hiked to Delicate Arch, we went down and roamed around in the Double Arch area. He was a pretty fearless climber there, and scrambled all over the rocks.
The GPS recommended the Willow Springs road to get out of the park, and I figured since we had the truck, we could give it a try. It was very bouncy, and by this time, the boy was very tired. Even going slow there were a few obstacles that tilted the truck a lot or bounced it. Once we hit pavement again, though, he got a nap in. Then it was off for home.
Charlotte wanted to see some fish, so we went to the aquarium in Sandy. It was very crowded, and while they had a few nice displays, it was just a little underwhelming. Charlotte still liked it, though. She especially liked one of the Amazon displays, where they had little caiman, turtles, and fish swimming together. I showed her an octopus; it made her very nervous, though. When we were done with the aquarium, I took her to Cabella’s so she could look at a lot of fish without a crowd. She fell asleep on the way up and on the way back, so I didn’t push it; we’ll have lots of times together if I have my way. Unfortunately, it was really dark in the aquarium, so my pictures didn’t work out well. Here’s one of Charlotte helping me admire a spider.
