Saturday at Stewart Falls
Yesterday was one of those rare Saturdays where we didn't have to do anything, leaving the day wide open for whatever we wanted to do. Tired of being tired, we spent the first few hours sleeping in, making up for many lost hours this week. Then, tired of being cooped up inside, we spent the next part of our day hiking up Stewart Falls.
The trailhead is up the Alpine Loop, just above Sundance and Aspen Grove, UT. In the parking lot, we met a rather suave man with a turtleneck and an Enzo Ferrari. He was nice enough to humor our requests to take a picture with his roughly $700,000 toy.
We got started on the 2-mile trail around 11:45am; the sun was up and warming the earth, but there was still a fall chill in the air. The first part of the hike is really wooded, and it reminded us a lot of the southeast, minus the bugs and humidity.
After a little while, the trail opens up to amazing views of the surrounding mountains, before winding back through stands of aspen trees (more aptly nicknamed quakies) and then back through open meadows.
Everything was so very colorful. We even found a colorful, fuzzy caterpillar (destined to become a spotted tussock moth). He's probably poisonous; just look at those spiky hairs screaming 'don't eat me' to any would-be predators. Luckily for him, we weren't interested in lunch, so, luckily for us, he was quite friendly as he crawled all over Drew.
Finally, we made it to the waterfall. It falls in two tiers and is frigid cold. We spent some time at the bottom, then climbed up a little higher to see the sights closer to the top.
We played around the waterfall for about half an hour and had a snack before heading back down the trail. Drew commandeered the camera at this point, so it's all me from here on out. He captured some great shots of the colorful leaves, though. They were simply magnificent.
We had a great time and made a plan to do a hike a month. [We'll see how said plan holds up when winter arrives.] It's good for our lungs and legs and liveliness to get out of our usual surroundings and see new parts of this beautiful world every once in a while. These mountains and all of the life they contain are there, doing their thing, constantly changing, even if we aren't there to see it. It's an important perspective reset to spend a few hours witnessing something so enduring. Important and healthy and amazing.
The trailhead is up the Alpine Loop, just above Sundance and Aspen Grove, UT. In the parking lot, we met a rather suave man with a turtleneck and an Enzo Ferrari. He was nice enough to humor our requests to take a picture with his roughly $700,000 toy.
We got started on the 2-mile trail around 11:45am; the sun was up and warming the earth, but there was still a fall chill in the air. The first part of the hike is really wooded, and it reminded us a lot of the southeast, minus the bugs and humidity.
After a little while, the trail opens up to amazing views of the surrounding mountains, before winding back through stands of aspen trees (more aptly nicknamed quakies) and then back through open meadows.
Everything was so very colorful. We even found a colorful, fuzzy caterpillar (destined to become a spotted tussock moth). He's probably poisonous; just look at those spiky hairs screaming 'don't eat me' to any would-be predators. Luckily for him, we weren't interested in lunch, so, luckily for us, he was quite friendly as he crawled all over Drew.
Finally, we made it to the waterfall. It falls in two tiers and is frigid cold. We spent some time at the bottom, then climbed up a little higher to see the sights closer to the top.
We played around the waterfall for about half an hour and had a snack before heading back down the trail. Drew commandeered the camera at this point, so it's all me from here on out. He captured some great shots of the colorful leaves, though. They were simply magnificent.
We had a great time and made a plan to do a hike a month. [We'll see how said plan holds up when winter arrives.] It's good for our lungs and legs and liveliness to get out of our usual surroundings and see new parts of this beautiful world every once in a while. These mountains and all of the life they contain are there, doing their thing, constantly changing, even if we aren't there to see it. It's an important perspective reset to spend a few hours witnessing something so enduring. Important and healthy and amazing.
Comments
Post a Comment