2011-08-14 Albion Basin Hike

This year's wild flower festival begins on 7/29. My friend Masami went hiking in Alta on the opening day and told me that there were just a few flowers. So based on the date of the wild flower festival, we can determine that the peak should occur 1 or 2 weeks afterwards. My family and Mark Lam's family went to visit the Albion Basin on Sunday afternoon around 5:30 pm. There were still plenty of light to snap lots of flower photos. This year was extra wet and snowy, making the flowers bloom later than usual. The flowers at Albion Basin were gorgeous and vibrant. I did not bring GND filter, tripod and remote shutter release, but the pictures still turned out pretty, though not as good as if I were to use those equipment.

2011-07-31 Brighton Silver Lake Hike (#9)

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We had an early monsoon season (usually occurring in mid to late August in Salt Lake City). However this afternoon's moisture did not ruin the hiking fun after the rain. Because of mud on the trail, we didn't go to Lake Solitude/Twin Lakes as planned. But, Silver Lake was quite different and beautiful. We had a great time at Silver Lake and saw a moose gazing the plants around the lake. Kids also had great time rock climbing and thanks to Jarek for a great job helping these little kids climb up and down. Sister Li Qin (李清) reported seeing a mother moose and 2 baby moose just outside Brighton parking lot when they left, but we missed that because kids needed to make a pee stop. We also welcome Shaofeng back and hiked with us this afternoon.

2011-06-26 Emigration Canyon Ridgeline Trail 2 (#6)

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We were planning on hiking the Great Western Trail to Big Mountain in the East Canyon area. However, due to an extremely wet winter weather, highway 65 from mile posts 3 to 13 is closed through end of June. We made a quick turn back to the Little Mountain summit to hike the Emigration Canyon Ridgeline trail for the second time as a group. Wild flowers in the lower portion of the trail have becoming dried, but upper portion still has different kind but similar color wild flower in full blossom. What a beautiful scene! Randy and I biked the trail. But since there were so many ups and downs, I ditched my bike half way. Randy almost make it to the summit, but had to be held back because we needed to go back and take Mark to dinner. I picked up my bike and headed down on a somewhat steep hill and flipped upside down. Luckily I only had a few scratches on my arm. My knee hit the ground and bled a bit. I had a big bruise on the back side of my right leg that I had no idea how that happen when I fell. Anyway, I was ok and continued to bike down the trail. When we went back to the trailhead, a sister told me that they saw a snake on the trail. I am glad that we did not encounter it on our hike.

2011-06-18 Emigration Canyon Ridgeline Trail

Knowing that Father's Day (6/19) will be a rainy day, we decided to hike the Emigration Canyon Ridgeline trail because both Lijue and Phoebe missed last time (6/5). The wild flowers were still blooming and the sky was dressed with quick-changing clouds.

2011-05-22 Salt Lake Lookout via Pipeline Trail (#4)

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I went hiking with my church friends on Sunday (5/22) afternoon. The trailhead called Rattlesnake Gulch is 0.7 mile from the fee station at the Millcreek Canyon. The name sounds scary, but we didn't encounter any snakes on the trail. The first 0.6 mile on the trail gains the most elevation (around 700 feet). Then you will be at the trail junction. Take the left (going west) on the Pipeline trail. It is about a mile to the Salt Lake valley lookout. There were lots of wild flowers called arrowleaf balsamroot at the lookout. You get a awesome view of the valley (west) and snow-capped Mt. Olympus (southeast). Some indian paintbrushes were blooming on Pipeline trail as well at this time of year.

2011-05-15 Bells Canyon Hike (#3)

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I went hiking with church friends on Sunday (5/15) afternoon. There are at least 2 trailheads that I know of leads to the waterfall. We took the trailhead at Wasatch Blvd (10245 S.) We only made it to the first waterfall (which is around 1,400 feet elevation gain) due to snow on the trail. It was a windy day, but the wind was less felt in the canyon trail.

2011-04-24 Avenues Twin Peaks Hike (#2)

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I went hiking with my church friends on Sunday (4/24) afternoon. It was a cloudy day with mild temerature. We stopped at the Richland Dr, where the trailhead is located. It is a 4-miles round trip hike with elevation gain of about 1,000 feet. There are other trails that leads to the Avenues Twin Peaks as well. We could see people hiking on those trails while we hiked the west trail leading to the Twin Peaks. There were some flowers blooming at this time of year on the trail.

2011-03-13 Livingroom Trail Hike (#1)

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My church friends can't wait to start hiking after the long winter months. So I chose a trail that snow has mostly been melted. We went to the livingroom trail near the Univ. of Utah on Sunday (3/13) afternoon. The trailhead is located at Colorow Dr. It is a 2.5 miles round trip hike with elevation gain of around 1,000 feet. I love the far-away snow-capped mountains on the trail.

2010-11-07 Ensign Peak Nature Park Hike

We thought we were done with hiking for the year. But my church friends felt the weather was still mild and wanted to do the last hiking. So we went to the Salt Lake avenue area's Ensign Peak park for a short hike. It was a bit of windy, but temperature was warm during the day. We went on Sunday (11/7) afternoon. The view of state capitol and Salt Lake downtown was great!

2010-10-17 Willow Lake Hike

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My church friends really want to do another hiking before the weather turns cold. We also want to see the fall foliage before the first snow falls. We went to a lesser known trail called Willow Lake (or beaver pond) in the Big Cottonwood Canyon. The trailhead is in a residential area. We parked the cars in the ski rental shop and walked through the neighborhood. It is a short 2-mile round trip hike with about 800 feet elevation gain. It was a pleasant day that Sunday (10/17) afternoon. The view of the lake was awesome! There were still plenty of golden aspen leaves for our eyes to enjoy! On the way back, I stopped by the Big Cottonwood creek and took a few photos.