September hikin' was grand. Great weather, leaves starting to change, good times all around. Here's where we went:
4 September 2018: End of Stringtown Road to the Lake. So maybe not exactly a "hike" per se, but it was on a dirt trail for a little bit before hitting the rocky/sandy beach. Fun to see another angle of the lake as the level keeps dropping.
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| Hiking in. |
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| Skipping rocks. |
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| Hiking back out. Badda bing. Badda boom. |
5 September 2018: Skyline Trail. We attempted a Wednesday Night Hike to find some leaves on one of our favorite leaf-finding trails. Every time we would drive through Ogden Canyon and look up at the hills by the dam (where this trail runs - eventually) we thought it was so red and bright. The part of the trail we hiked, though, wasn't really that exciting color-wise. Oh well. Any hike is a good one.
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| One red tree! |
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| It's trying! |
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| Cal found a few good ones. |
10 September 2018: Beach Access Trail on the South West (ish) Side of Pineview Reservoir. This is a spot we've never been to before. There's a big parking area on the side of the highway, with a trailhead sort of sign, and as we drove by one day, we said let's stop and check it out! So we did. Since the water was so low, there was a bit of a hike to get there. But then we had endless packed sand and smooth rocks and beautiful light to enjoy. We'll be back to this side again for sure!
12 September 2018: Pineview Trail from the North Arm Trailhead. Grace and Heather came down for the afternoon and joined us on an early fall hike on our favorite trail. (I'll say it again - I love that we can hike this one again!) Three silly kiddos make for quite the entertaining hike. We had a great time!
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| I spy a red tree! |
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| A bridge! (An excellent landmark on any trail.) |
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| Checkin' out where the old bridge used to be (and the reason why we haven't been able to hike this trail for so long, especially when there is water in the river). |
14 September 2018: North Fork River Trail. I had promised the Tyke Hikers I'd try to organize some leaf hikes once fall came, and it seemed to come a bit earlier than I expected (last year peak leaves were in October!). So pretty last minute I sent out a text calling any interested hikers to join us on a Friday afternoon leaf-spying adventure. Nobody showed, but Cal and Sam and I still had an enjoyable time on the trail and were successful in finding some leaves to photograph.
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| Puddles and ponds and streams are major hiking highlights for the younger set on our hikes. |
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| I love these bright orange (mountain ash, I think?) berries! |
15 September 2018: Old Highway Roadbed Across the North Arm of Pineview. Many times have we walked out on this old roadbed till we couldn't cross the water that always is flowing through the middle. And many times I have wished that I could walk all the way across on dry ground. Well, this certain Saturday in the middle of September during an extreme drought season was the day! What a thrill! (haha - simple pleasures, I guess.) And a definite check on my Ogden Valley Bucket List.
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| Last year we couldn't even walk out that far on dry ground - we had a LOT more water then! We've heard from Valley long-timers who say they haven't seen the water this low in 16+ years! |
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| We did have to jump over a little stream running under and by this old bridge. But we had never made it this far before, so I was excited! (This is taken looking back toward where we started from the west side of the bridge.) |
17 September 2018: Wheatgrass Trail at Causey Reservoir. We hiked this one last year during the fall for the first time and loved how quiet and un-hiked it was. We enjoyed the same again this year on a delightful Monday Night Hike with the fam.
And then it looks like our hiking died off mid-month. It didn't, really - we "hiked" through a deserted campground, and hiked to The Paper Airplane with Heather and Grace, and "hiked" to see the salmon at Porcupine, which were all blogged about on their own posts - but we also had colds and Gregg traveling and earlier sunsets that made our short, little, impromptu after-dinner hikes fizzle away for a couple of weeks. I hope they aren't gone for good!
