Although mowing my lawn and taking kids to the park are great things to do on a perfectly beautiful autumn day, they didn't give the sense of satisfaction that I was looking for on one of the last good weekends of the year. I wanted to get into the canyon. I wanted to hike. I didn't leave Alicia's till almost 5 so I didn't have time to go anywhere far but I did have time for Willow Heights. I had the place to myself. I didn't see anything bigger than a duck till I was almost back to my car and passed 7 hikers on their way up. Though, the ducks were friendlier than any of the hikers I passed. I took my time and took lots of pictures and enjoyed the weather and the peaceful scenery. It was perfect.
Willow Heights is such a pretty trail. It's a little less than a mile each way but steep. You hike most of the way through the most ideal and picturesque aspen forest I've ever seen. It's not just a pretty grove of aspens or a hillside, it's a forest of aspens that goes on forever in every direction. I love it, and they were just turning gold. 
Suddenly the trail flattens out and the aspen forest ends. Abruptly. You step out into a wide open field. It's like the meadow in Bambi, although I hope this meadow doesn't experience such tragic horrible things as the one in Bambi does. The meadow isn't the prettiest thing in the fall, but I still like the sudden openness of it.
I'm getting good at taking my own picture. A useful skill when hiking alone.
Briefly you enter another grove of aspens and then...poof. You're at the lake. It's not a very glamorous lake with dramatic shorelines, but the reflections are serene and beautiful, especially in autumn.
Then the ducks came. I don't know what was up with these ducks. They were like little puppies that follow you to the bus stop. As soon as they saw me, they got in and swam over. I couldn't imagine that they get fed so much up here that they expected me to give them anything but they came over just the same. I decided to take pictures of them till they got scared...but they never got scared. They didn't expect food, they got out of the water and just stood by me like my cats do when I'm in the kitchen. They started eating by me and didn't run away when I stuck my camera right in their face to get a picture. I didn't ever have to zoom in, in fact I had to set the macro on my camera to focus as such a close distance. Sometimes I even had to snap my fingers to get them to look at me. They followed me around the lake and watched me go back down the trail when I left. I think they were just lonely and wanted someone to hang out with.
I started to walk around the lake, but about halfway I hit a wall of death. Something was rotting. The smell was so powerful I couldn't keep going. If I took one more step I'd vomit. I didn't even want to open my mouth to breath afraid I'd taste it. I don't know what was dead further up the trail but it smelled like about 5 moose and maybe a herd of elk. I was kind of curious to find out, maybe it was a person and I'd have to call the police, that would be exciting, but did I really want to be the one to find a dead body in the woods? What if it was a baby moose, I'd be so sad. I couldn't stand the smell anyway so I left and now I'll always wonder.
I was hoping these trees would be yellow so I could get the reflection, but they weren't yet.
A perfectly wonderful hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon and a great way to end my weekend.
Briefly you enter another grove of aspens and then...poof. You're at the lake. It's not a very glamorous lake with dramatic shorelines, but the reflections are serene and beautiful, especially in autumn.
Then the ducks came. I don't know what was up with these ducks. They were like little puppies that follow you to the bus stop. As soon as they saw me, they got in and swam over. I couldn't imagine that they get fed so much up here that they expected me to give them anything but they came over just the same. I decided to take pictures of them till they got scared...but they never got scared. They didn't expect food, they got out of the water and just stood by me like my cats do when I'm in the kitchen. They started eating by me and didn't run away when I stuck my camera right in their face to get a picture. I didn't ever have to zoom in, in fact I had to set the macro on my camera to focus as such a close distance. Sometimes I even had to snap my fingers to get them to look at me. They followed me around the lake and watched me go back down the trail when I left. I think they were just lonely and wanted someone to hang out with.
I started to walk around the lake, but about halfway I hit a wall of death. Something was rotting. The smell was so powerful I couldn't keep going. If I took one more step I'd vomit. I didn't even want to open my mouth to breath afraid I'd taste it. I don't know what was dead further up the trail but it smelled like about 5 moose and maybe a herd of elk. I was kind of curious to find out, maybe it was a person and I'd have to call the police, that would be exciting, but did I really want to be the one to find a dead body in the woods? What if it was a baby moose, I'd be so sad. I couldn't stand the smell anyway so I left and now I'll always wonder.
I was hoping these trees would be yellow so I could get the reflection, but they weren't yet.
A perfectly wonderful hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon and a great way to end my weekend.
I love taking pictures of 
I spent the last weekend of the summer up at the cabin in Brighton. The fall colors were just starting to come out and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Alicia and James came up with their family on Saturday and Nate and Carrie spent the night and Sunday morning there as well. I've always been scared to sleep up there alone, but I finally managed to do it on Sunday night and it wasn't so bad at all. Of course the highlight of the weekend was hiking everyday I was there.
Saturday it took awhile just getting up the canyon because I was driving behind this car. Cool for the first mile or two and then just...incredibly...slow.
I brought up some of the bounty I bought at the farmers market that morning and we ate some with our dinner and breakfast. 
I also brought up some of the stuff I've been making with the apples I picked in Idaho. An apple pie flavored with maple pumpkin butter and a deliciously moist apple cake. 
For the Saturday hike, Alicia, Quinn, Zoe and I hiked toward Solitude and came back around on the loop down to the Twin Lakes Trail. Alicia 
The trail to Lake Mary used to be my favorite when it weaved back and forth across the stream, but they changed it to go up the ugly ski slope to prevent erosion. I can understand that, but I still miss the old trail. I still like to go up there because I think of all the Brighton Lakes, Lake Mary, sitting in it's bowl of tall peaks with it's big granite boulder shoreline is by far the prettiest of all the lakes...
This is what is used to look like...almost the same, except for all the trees.
I'm always impressed to see the old stumps still rooted so firmly even though they're under water and ice most the year. These stumps were right in the middle of what was obviously the original division between the lakes. I wonder if they're in the old picture.
I walked out to one of the islands you normally have to swim to and took a nap in the sun.
I thought this one looked like a mermaid but with kind of a long pointy head. Maybe like a broom handle head...like 
I think because I thought the other one looked like a mermaid, it made me think this one looked like a merman...only without a hand...
