Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Timpanogos

Doug loves to go hiking and climb up mountains. I have a minor fear of heights--so it makes our hiking pretty lively and interesting. In September, we climbed up Mt Timpanogos. We started at 3:30 or so in the morning and summited around 9:00 am. It was breathtaking...literally. As we hiked from the saddle to the summit, I had a few moments where I felt like hyperventilating. There was shale the entire way and I thought I would step wrong and slide down all eleven thousand seven hundred and fifty feet...a long way down. It was amazing.


The guy taking the photo was laughing with Doug because I kept telling this stranger to hurry up and take the photo. If you could see my hand better you'd notice that I was gripping Doug's arm. I don't like looking away from my feet at this altitude.

Beautiful view of the Uinta National Forest...

I think I am trying to find some mountain goats--needed some binoculars.


Would you believe that there is a building at the summit? Yes, there is. I don't know it stands up to the wind. But, it holds a book where you sign that you've summited.

I was a little afraid to stand straight up at the edge of a cliff. So, I had a leaning problem. Below is the photo of the cliff behind me.
Whew...can't believe I took this photo.
You can see in the middle of the top of the mountain a white speck...that's the building at the top.
Doug on a glacier. Evidentally, people can slide down the snow like penguins other times of year--pretty crazy.
This is Emerald Lake--filled with glacier water. It's just below the summit and the water is freezing! People were swimming that day (and screaming as they did it). The previous photo of the tiny white building was taken from this point to show how close it is to the summit.
We were almost down the mountain and had gone down a different way then we came up. Our car was about 12 miles from the parking lot we'd be getting to at the bottom of the trail...so what do you do?? HITCH HIKE! It was so funny and we met a really nice family on a scenic drive.

A water fall toward the bottom of the trail...so pretty. Loved it.