Annagrams: May hikes

Tuesday, May 8: BST from Orson Smith trailhead to Corner Canyon (5 miles)

We hiked the Bonneville-Shoreline Trail, switched to Rattler, then took a shortcut up a hill to connect to Canyon Road. We walked back on the road until we connected back to BST.

We've never seen this wildflower before. I looked it up and I believe it is a stemless evening primrose.

Tuesday, May 15: Corner Canyon - Clark's to Ann's (5.25 miles)

I think it had rained on Sunday and Monday but we were surprised to find how muddy the trails in Corner Canyon were. It was so muddy that it slowed us down quite a bit and our shoes got heavy with mud. We passed a bunch of ladies who told us it was muddy the whole way and not to bother. We kept going anyway and it did actually get less muddy the higher we got. We felt a little bad because there's a sign saying not to bike & hike "if it sticks to your wheels or your heels" - in order to preserve the trails.

The canyon is filling in with spring green and wildflowers were starting to pop up.

Thursday, May 17: Red Pine to upper bridge (5.4 miles)

Jeff wanted to hike Red Pine to see how far we could get. About a year ago when we'd tried to hike it there was too much snow and we only made it to the lower bridge. This past winter wasn't nearly as snowy though, so we hoped we could get farther up.

We had to start hiking through snow probably a mile-and-a-half in. The snow wasn't too slushy though so we kept going, even though it was slow. We'd decided we wanted to make it to the upper bridge and we kept going till we got there!

While we were taking a selfie on the bridge the first person we'd seen all morning stopped and asked if we wanted her to take a pic for us. She was by herself and said she was going to keep hiking. She caught up to us a little while later and said that she hadn't made it much further up.

Tuesday, May 22: Jacob's Ladder to Second Hamongog (6.5 miles)

We drove the Canyon Road to the Jacob's Ladder trailhead parking lot and started hiking from there.

Alpine, Highland, and Utah Lake

We have only gone to a certain point on Jacob's Ladder before turning back. This time we decided to go farther to see what was next. It wasn't far before we came to a split in the trail. We could continue on Jacob's Ladder towards Lone Peak, or we could take Second Hamongog to wherever that went. Jacob's Ladder looked like it continued to climb and my legs were already tired so I voted for Second Hamongog.

I'm so glad we decided to go that way - it was such a pretty trail! And it had enough ups and downs that it wasn't as strenuous as what we'd been doing.

The wildflowers in this area were amazing! We kept seeing these wild sweet peas and a bunch of other flowers we don't normally see.

We crossed several small streams. The water was crystal clear and it felt so peaceful being out there in the middle of the wilderness with the mountain streams and wildflowers.

This was about the point where we turned around in the Lone Peak Wilderness. The photos I have in this area are labeled as Alpine.

Tuesday, May 29: Bear Canyon Bridge from Hidden Valley + canyon loop (3.4 miles)

We went to see Solo at the theater in the morning so we just had a little time in the afternoon to do a hike before school got out.

Thursday, May 31: Timpooneke Trail (8 miles)

We really wanted to hike Timpanogos before school got out for summer. We asked Vel if the girls could walk home to her house so that we wouldn't have to worry about getting home in time. We were all ready to go when we dropped the girls off at school so that we could drive straight to American Fork Canyon.

We'd checked All Trails and someone a couple days earlier had given a vague description saying that the trail was great. We assumed that meant it was clear of snow. I think it was that morning though that I saw a more recent post and the guy said he made it to the meadow below Emerald Lake with trekking poles and yak trax. It's the trail from Aspen Grove that takes you to Emerald Lake, but that sounded to me like we wouldn't be making it to the saddle even, especially since we don't have any snow gear. I was kind of relieved that we wouldn't be hiking the whole thing. I had Little Red in two days and didn't want my legs to be sore. Also, Ellie had a birthday party at 4 and I wanted to get back in time to take her.

A waterfall just east of Scout Falls. Scout Falls wasn't all that impressive but this one was very pretty!

The trail was mostly clear until about 3.5 miles up. And then there was a huge snowfield covering the trail. We guessed where the trail was supposed to go, slipping our way across the slushy snow.

This was one of the scarier parts of the trail. It doesn't look like it here, but there was a steep drop-off and cliff at the bottom of that little ridge. The snow was slushy and unstable, and one slippery step could have ended very badly. We held onto the rock and hoped for the best.

We got about four miles in when we decided to call it quits. The trail was covered in snow, and even with gear we weren't sure of the right way to go. There weren't any more tracks giving us clues. We both felt like it was the safest choice to turn around.