This is an awesome hike, especially this time of year with the wild flowers in bloom. If possible, do it on a week-day, as Saturdays are crowded.Be sure to pick up a pay envelope at the booth and hang a tag on your rear-view mirror to show that you have paid the $6 fee. There is a box at the campground that you can deposit it in. We drove up American Fork Canyon, right when the timp half marathon was going on. It was entertaining to watch the runners, but a slow process to get to the trailhead. The parking lot was full, (and had been since 6 AM.), so we had to drive a mile past the trailhead to park on the road. We signed in at the trailhead, and were rewarded with an amazing view, and blessed with a mostly overcast day. The air was chilly at the summit, probably in the 40's, which felt great to me, but not to most people. Clouds rolled in quickly, and it started raining fairly hard, and we did not want to experience lightning in the summit shack, even though it is grounded, so we descended quickly. Shortly after leaving the summit, I was feeling pretty good, bounding down the rocks like a mountain goat, when some other hikers rounded a bend in the trail, and a girl said, "Wow a mountain goat!" I was about to say, "Thanks," when I followed their eyes over my shoulder, and a mountain goat was right behind me! By the time I got my camera out, it wasn't too close, but I got a pretty good picture.
The gps says our moving time was 7 hours 27 minutes, we hiked 17 miles, and our total ascent was 4,346 feet. (Some of that was the steep climb back to our car on the road.) I carried 3 liters of water, but I still ran out, and this was a cooler day. If it had been warmer, I would recommend 4 to 5 liters. I had a water filter, but the only sources of water other than Emerald Lake, which would be a big detour, were streams about 3 miles from the trailhead, so I just continued on back.
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A nest in a crag on a cliff. I wanted to put a peanut m&m
in for the picture, but didn't want to disturb it! |
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| Summit looks a long way off! |
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| The wildflowers alone were worth the hike. |
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| Amazing view of Utah Lake from the saddle. |
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| You feel like you are in an airplane at 11, 749 foot summit. |
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| The mountain goat that snuck up behind me. |
I love the nest with the little eggs!!! This post made me really excited to hike it in 2 weeks! I hope the flowers are still so amazing!
ReplyDeleteLook nice, I need to do that one again.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe your amazing pictures! am so sad I haven't been up hiking yet. Every time we've tried to go it's been rainy.
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