Hiking Photo Link
This year's weather is a bit extreme in the sense that we had a wet year, which pushed the wild flower to bloom at least 2-3 weeks later than usual. But recent unseasonably warm weather helped turn the leaves right after the flower's bloom. A friend of mine at church went to Silver Lake and Twin Lake on Saturday (10/1) and showed me the photo of aspen leaves turning golden there. I scouted the Mormon Pioneer trail on Tuesday (9/27) and thought the leaves should be prime on Saturday, when we planned to hike this trail. However, we had warm temperature the following 4 days and on Friday we had record warm temp of 91 degrees. We went hiking as planned on Saturday and the leaves were in deed falling fast. But still the view was beautiful. We went for one mile hike to the Affleck Park and enjoyed the beautiful surrounding at the park. Kids were having fun playing around and in the creek by the park. The view was still very spectacular.
The weather was warm for our #20 hike this Sunday. We went hiking at the Bells Canyon trail in Sandy. Leaves are a bit dried but still beautiful. The water was clean and everyone enjoyed a nice day out in the beautiful Wasatch mountains. Probably the last hike in 2011. Praise the Lord for the 20 hikes we've gone on this year. So many fond memories and highlights. So much breathtaking scenery.
The warm weather continued this weekend and high temperature reached 72 degrees. We went hiking almost like in our backyard since the trail head is just above the Olympus Cove residential area. By the time we arrived at the trail head, the parking lot was quite full. On our way up the trail, we met with brothers and sisters from Faith cell group, who started the hike at 1:30 pm. There were still plenty of fall foliage on the trail and the scenery was gorgeous!
After some above normal warm temperature last week, the weather cools down, and suddenly snowed on Thursday (10/5). Ski resorts got about a foot of fresh snow. The wet weather dried out late Saturday evening. Sunday was sunny and warm (still below the average of 68 degrees though). Our group met at church parking lot at 2:30 pm and headed to the trail head in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We had over 40 people hiking this lesser-known trail, but absolutely picturesque lake. This is the third time we hiked this trail. This time, the scene is quite unique: snow plus fall color. The cloud broke after we got to the lake. Our group had great time sharing snacks.
