October Hiking

The leaves have been a bit on the finicky side this fall, but we have managed to get out and enjoy the hiking anyway!

3 October 2019: "Overlook Trail" (Pineview Trail) at the North Arm Trailhead 

Gregg was out of town for a conference, but that didn't stop us from taking a lovely after-dinner hike on our favorite trail.  The leaves were lovely and the highlight of this hike was the owl we saw in a tree above the stick fort along the trail.  It had a snake in its beak!

bonus video!

"leaf toss"

I was attempting to get a portrait style photo we
could use on Grandma's wall - he's not in fancy
clothes, but I think this might work?

Love these guys!

Callie was starting to go down the trail to the
little stick fort when I noticed a ball of feathers
right above our heads.  At first I thought it was
a turkey, but then quickly realized it was a
Great Horned Owl!  We watched it for a minute
and realized it had a snake snack dangling from
its beak.

When we moved back up the trail to get a better
angle, it flew off to a further tree.  But we were
so close for a few minutes!

4 October 2019: Art Nord Trailhead Mini Loop

I revived the tyke hikes for a few days so I had an excuse to get out as much as possible during peak leaf time.  I was dying to get up to Art Nord, so I made it happen on a Friday morning.  We had Erin, Eric (his first tyke hike!), Charlie and Logan, and Megan and Finn join Sam and me on the trail.  While most of the kids were pretty cranky at one point or another along the hike, we all managed to have a good time and got to take in the lovely fall views.

BFFs Charlie and Sam.

Wowza!

Group shot!

I just had to include this outtake because it makes me smile.

Still not sure what critter made these tracks.  My first instinct
was moose because they were huge - as big as my hand!  But
they seem too wide and not long enough and then we saw some
cow pies on the road as we walked back to the car, so maybe a
moo cow?  I still don't know.

Down the road go the boys.

It was so pretty - my photos don't seem that vibrant, but man,
it was lovely.

I pulled over on the drive out to snap this pano. Why does it look blurry?
Ugh!

7 October 2019: Art Nord Trailhead Mini Loop (again!)
Callie wanted to see Art Nord in fall, too, so we took her and Gregg along for a Monday Night Hike after he got back from his trip to NJ/NY.  We were surprised to see so many cars in the parking lot and soon discovered that everyone and their dog (literally) were having family pictures taken that evening in the same spot!  We're probably going to show up in someone's background (along with the other groups - there were so many!) as we hiked along.  We were just a bit late for the good light, but it was a lovely hike with the fam in the shadows.

I like that the grasses change colors too.

8 October 2019: Wolf Canyon (aka "Machinery") Trail

I wasn't about to let another clear day (even if it was chilly) get away from me so I sent out another Tyke Hike text to meet me on a Tuesday morning.  The leaves were amazing here!  I'm so glad we went.  We only had Erin and Eric and Charlie and Logan with us, but Brenley did show up late with her kids and we passed them on the way up the trail.  Small numbers is fine by me, though.  We always like to hike with the Larsens!

I love how Nordic was perfectly framed by these trees.

14 October 2019: Monte Cristo Campground

We wanted to check out the aspens at Monte, and I knew that we were probably late since we usually go in September to see them in full glory, but it was really depressing to see so many leaves still on the tree, but the were mostly brown or gray or even black.  It was cool, so we made a quick walk around Loop A and then hopped back in the car and drove to the top of Mount McKinnon nearby to watch the sunset (and have an FHE lesson in the car).

This was, more accurately, a bike hike, I guess.

Cal in the black leaf aspen bush.

If the light hits them just right, then it looks
a bit yellow.

bonus video!

"crunch"

(check out this flashback post to see tiny toddler Callie doing the same thing!)

Our post-hike, pre-sunset FHE consisted of Sam
touching every button and knob and lever he could
reach in the driver's seat.  This is Gregg's "calm
down now" maneuver.  It seems to have worked.

Oh my!  What a face!

Sunset action.

Bonus!  We saw two moose on the side of the road as we
drove back home.

{INSERT OUR HIKES AT CITY OF ROCKS HERE}

18 October 2019: Pine Creek Nature Trail in Wasatch Mountain State Park

Our Friday of fall break was spent in Heber with Heather and Grace and Grandpa and Grandma.  We decided to check out a trail in Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway, and while it wasn't the trail we thought we were hiking on, we did have a lovely time (mostly, if you forget the part where Sam body slammed Callie who knocked into Grace and it was quite the collision!).  Fun to hike in a new place with fave peeps!

Cute cuzzies at the creek.

Looking down into Deer Creek Reservoir.

Here's the "trailhead" for the nature loop, but we didn't even take
it since we had hiked half a mile to get here and the kids were tired
and we needed to get home.  Next time!

We walked back to the car through the campground.

Heart eyes for this one!

24 October 2019: A Mom and Sam Adventure at the Lake

One morning after getting home from taking Callie to school, Sam and I decided to head (him on his bike, me on my feet) to burn some of his pent up energy.  We ended up at the reservoir and wandered down to the old highway point that is still very much under water.  Then we walked along the shore toward skip rock beach and then we kept on going.  We came to a little alcove (is that what I should call it? probably not) that had lots of little streams of water running through the sandy bank into the lake.  These were fun to jump over.  I decided from here that it would be fun to head up the hill to the trail that we often walk on to just this point only higher up the hill.  We had had snow so I knew the grass would be damp, but I was not prepared for the standing water we encountered as we scrambled up to dry ground.  I had to carry Sam the last few steps to keep him a bit drier (he was still plenty soggy in the shoe department).  And then we walked cheerfully back to the parking lot on the "high road".  It was a beautiful morning exploring with my boy!

Last year we could walk across the lake at this point on the old
road.  Plenty more water this year, that's fo' sho!

Just look at that mirror!

Splash!

Lots of water seeping out of the ground in many spots along the
shore.  This is just past skip rock beach.

Jumping over streams was fun.

Getting soggy - but we didn't go that way, thank
goodness.

We cut up the hill at about 4:00 in this picture - that green grassy
part was Very wet!

Back on the regular trail.

Adventure buddies.

One last look back.  Our route from this view was from the
shore to about 10:00 through those weeds.

Riding back home down our street.

24 October 2019: Wolf Barn Short Track
My friend Erin had told us about a relatively new bike trail that has been built near the Wolf Barn just down the road from her house.  I think it's owned by Wolf Creek Resort.  We met up with her and her boys for a little after-school hike one afternoon.  We especially loved the cool tree house gazebo thing that is along the trail and the playground near the picnic area after we finished walking.  It's a fun little loop (probably a mile or so) and right in the middle of town!

25 October 2019: Bird Song Trail

Callie was out of school on this Friday, so we took advantage of a free morning with her to meet up with Charlie and Logan and Erin again for a hike on the Birdsong Trail.  We've never done this one in the fall and it was a treat!  Most of the leaves are down, but it made for a beautiful carpet to hike on!  And once we were out of the wind blasting from the canyon, we had a jolly time!

Still some color in the distance as we traverse "the scary part".

A fun stick house at our stopping point by the "waterfall".

This was my favorite part of the trail as we
headed back - that yellow tree had the biggest
leaves I've ever seen!  They were beautiful!

And that wraps up our October Hiking month. (Though we did do another one mid-month as a family that I didn't even bring my phone on - if there are no pictures, did it really happen?! - but we had a marvelous time on the Pineview Trail and made a loop out of it similar to our snowshoe one, only this time we had to make a bridge to get over the stream on the way back.  Epic.)  What will November have in store?