Red Butte Foothills

My work is right up against the foothills in Salt Lake. In fact we're almost at the mouth of Red Butte Canyon and I go up and walk along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail all the time on my lunch breaks. Lately though I've gotten a little more adventurous and started exploring the trails going into the foothills. I can't believe I've worked here so long and never gone up there. They are amazing. I'd never have guessed those barren looking hills could be so pretty. The fall leaves were great, the weather is perfect, there's lots of snakes and rabbits and weasels to see, the views and sunsets are fantastic, and I almost never follow the same trail twice. In fact I've started calling them the choose-your-own-adventure hills. I've gone down a trail and had to choose which way to go at a 5 way trail junction and then just around the bend I came to a 4 way junction. It's literally a maze. Sometimes it's hard to pick which way to go. It's almost impossible to not get lost, but with the city so close by, it's also impossible to stay lost. I tried to go to Beacon Hill once and ended up on Red Butte Summit. Usually I get back to my desk and look at google earth trying to figure out where I was. I hope I can still find time to go up there with the snow and the days being so short. Oh yeah, besides snakes, rabbits, and weasels there's the occasional tarantula.

This old homestead is in the boundaries of Red Butte Gardens, at the very back end. When I had a pass to go in there I didn't even know it was there.

Red Butte Summit (Megan should have been in this picture...)

This guy passed me going up the trail as I was hurrying to get back down before I ran out of light. I was wondering if he planned on hiking in the dark and then about 20 minutes later I saw him over my head, paragliding back down.

I don't mind the heat and I don't mind the snow, but I do hate hiking in mud when I have to go back to work after.

Winter Predictions

looking towards the Oquirrh Mountains (not the Ochre Mountains)

The sunset over The Great Salt Lake looking out to the island.

The last day I was able to hike up there before the real snow came, the kind that probably won't melt away again, and it was so incredibly windy!

Sitting at this spot has the best views, except that the highest rock point is covered in hawk poop.

This was the best sunset ever except it was the one day I didn't have my camera with me so I had to settle for a phone picture. My phone stinks at taking pictures.

Random Trivia: Did you know the Salt Lake Temple was originally going to be built out of the red sandstone from Red Butte Canyon? They decided the granite would last longer and started over and the sandstone they brought down was used to build the foundations of some of the older homes and a few churches downtown.

Sometimes there are horses in horse pastures

I really like looking out over the horse pasture towards the distant mountains. The clouds always look cool and unique each day and you may have noticed more and more pictures on my other blog are of the clouds over the pasture. Well, I also like feeding carrots and apples to the horses besides taking pictures of their field. Today I went to take a picture and one of the horses thought it was a feeding visit. He wouldn't stop and I couldn't stop laughing.

Donavon Frankenreiter

Candi and I went to see Donavon Frankenreiter. Currently the most frequently playing music at my house and in my car. It was so good. Small venue, not very crowded (read not very hot), they passed out fake mustaches so all the guys there were looking especially attractive (my opinion), and the music was even better than I expected. Sadly I didn't bring my camera though so unless Candi sends me one from her phone, here's a random one to accompany the post. Also, he didn't sing my favorite song, but I can't complain. I love concerts. *Candi sent me the pictures, but I still like this one. I took it way back on my river trip with Bryce down the Colorado. I think I'll leave it.

a big blue ocean to the right of me mountain peaks to the left open road in front of me And the past behind me that I left But I can't go back, it won't do any good I gotta live my life the way I said I would I'm gonna find myself in those song filled trees Gonna live my life on every ocean breeze cause it’s the only thing I know to do It’s the one thing in my life that keeps me true So why don't you come with me

Mt. Olympus is finally off my To-Do List

It was on my New Years Resolutions list to hike or climb Mt. Olympus this year. I climbed the North side in the spring and this fall I finally hiked the main trail. I've hiked on it a few times to the creek crossing, but never tried to go to the top. The other day I was walking along it intending to do the same thing and then decided to just go to the top. I'd skipped breakfast and didn't have any food with me and only half a bottle of water since I wasn't planning on a long hike, but the weather was perfect and snow was in the forecast for the rest of the week...and probably the year so I went for it. I thought of turning around near the saddle but I'd managed to make the hike so miserable for myself without food and water I knew if I didn't go to the top now I'd never want to hike it again. I got off a bit, making the hard scramble at the end more like a climb, but the view at the top was worth it and I'm glad I did it. I'm especially glad I did it on my own. It was nice to be up on that summit all by myself. Maybe that's why I have that funny smirk on my face...

The Summit Register

Views in each direction-

West:East:SouthEast:

South North:

The Lego Cake

Alicia and I made a Lego Cake for her son's birthday party. It was not very fun. We ran out of red food coloring and decided to not use the pinkish red legos, not that the other colors were totally accurate but they were less girly. The fondant was a little soft making it hard to keep the blocks strait and the dots seemed like they would never be finished. After all that, looking at these pictures I just noticed one yellow dot missing. Alicia finished it off the next day with a logo. The good news is that Alicia and I still managed to work really well together making it even though we were tired and not really enjoying ourselves. Maybe we really can go into business together. The week before that we made these fun cake balls for Halloween. They were a thousand times more fun to make.