Happy Trails

I just had a maaahvelous weekend with one of my most favorite of all people.

My friend Jon came to visit for a couple of days. He lives in Nebraska. They don't have mountains there. As you may know, Utah does. Serious mountains.

So it only seemed natural that we go on a couple of hikes and enjoy them while he was here.

Before I continue, I'd like to take a moment to point out that, when we weren't trudging over mountain trails, THIS is the sweet ride we used to get around in all weekend. I think Jon would smile if I shared with you the fact that I mistook it for a Mustang at first. We rode around for about an hour before I realized I was in a Camaro. Oopsie. I'm a girl. Sorry.
Ok, back to business. Here's the photo log:

This is our first hike up to Stewart Falls near Sundance. The trail was a bit rough for a novice such as myself. In my defense, he thought so, too. Lots of loose rock and pretty much travelling on the edge of a cliff for a good portion of the hike. But still fun, with a sweet reward at the end.

I happened to like the view in both of these shots. (o:

We made it to the falls!

Day 2 hike: Sunset Peak, from Little Cottonwood Canyon

This was a really pretty hike with a pretty well-maintained trail most of the way. The forecast had been calling for hot and sunny all week. On Saturday morning I woke up to cloudy skies and drizzling. We would NOT be deterred, though! No, NEVAH!!!

When we got to the trailhead in the Alta parking lot, the temp was in the fifties--at the BOTTOM of the trail, mind you-- completely gray, windy, and raining. Still, we forged ahead.

I took this pic at the beginning of the hike. He's a little wet, no? His face here pretty much tells the story. We were wet and cold for most of the trip. Still had fun. Still glad we did it.

A view on the way up:
This is a view from what I THOUGHT was the top of the trail, the END of the hike. Jon had news for me. "Oh, look, there's more trail over here!" growl...

We still had about another .2 miles to go. Doesn't sound like much, does it? SAYS YOU! Try it at an uber-steep incline on a completely sandy trail. Sand good on beach. Bad on hiking trail. Holy calves workout, Batman!

But oh, the reward at the top. Yup. That's snow. Yup, it's July.

I think we spent approximately 3 minutes at this lookout point. Did I mention cold? And wet? And windy?

In summary: between two hikes in 24 hours' time, one comedy club, one Star Trek movie (yeah, that's right, I saw a Star Trek movie. There's only one person on the planet who could get me to do that), two family get togethers, lots of driving around in a SUPER hot car that is definitely NOT a Mustang, a healthy dose of sleep deprivation, and one bout with an energy drink-induced tummy ache from hell, I believe I speak for us both when I say the weekend was a success.

Love you, Jon. Thanks for another great time.