Timpanogos Hike

I went on an 18 mile (round-trip) hike up Timpanogos Mountain Saturday 8/9. It is the most beautiful mountain to me. For the previous 10 years, we lived on the other side of it in Orem. It has provided years of beauty and inspiration to me over the seasons. It never looked the same. It depended on the light, weather and time of year. "I love you", Timp. mountain. Some ward members and I started our hike at 7 a.m. This is the first look backward, over the mountains to the east. If you're not careful, you could hike all day with your head down, focusing on the trail and forget to look up, pause and savor the beauty and light surrounding you. It is like being bathed in precious oils and then dressed in a cocoon of cashmere. Ahhhhh!
We started our hike at 7, got to the "saddle" at noon. This is the early part of the morning. Look at the light coming over the mountain.

One of many waterfalls along the way. Several were laiden with beautiful green, mossy rocks.
O M G !!!!!

This is Amanda, a YW from our Lehi ward, she's a great girl. The fields were covered in gorgeous wild flowers like this. It was so beautiful. This picture does not convey extreme lushness and abundance of wild flowers experienced that day.
Scenes like this can be recalled forever and ever. Moments of shear beauty. This is what I dream about at night. jk -- I wish I could control dreams.
My Mattie and I met up along the trail. He started 2 hours before us with the YM. He was on his way down, I was on my way up.....this is right before the "saddle", so you can see I'm extremely red and hot! It's not that I'm out of shape or anything!!! ha!!
FYI the "saddle" is the top of the mountain, when you can look over the other side of the mountain at Utah Lake and Utah County. The "saddle" actually looks like a saddle, a little scoop out of the top of the mountain. Have someone explain this better to you, as I am at a loss for words right now, me?.... a loss for words?
Oh! this is a view from the top, or saddle, looking as far north as I could capture. If I had gone to the summit, I would've been able to see the great Salt Lake. I could see our new development, Ivory Ridge, the white indoor tennis tent -- look right in the exact middle of the picture, there's a white rectangle.
view from the saddle, looking SE -- of Utah Lake and southward. (PG, Lindon, Orem).
There was a family of 5 mountain goats! They were probably wondering, "hey, what are you doing here? This is my habitat. Move out of our way!" It was amazing to watch them ever so gingerly walking on the terraces of the mountain cliffs. wow!
See that little pointy tip to the left of middle of this pic? That is the summit. There is a shack up there, what you're seeing is the tip of the flag on the roof of the shack. I didn't want to go to the summit this time, it was another mile and 1/4, (up scary, rocky, brittle stair-step like ledges) so I just chilled and watched hikers do their thing, watch mountain goats, (and I had to change my feminine product when no one was looking around a secluded ledge!!!) ha!!! Ew... I know, but life has to go on, even at 10,000 ft. elevation. It was an issue. A man asked me what was back there when I came back around the corner.....I just said, another beautiful view.
At three O'clock on the pic above, if your eye went straight up from there, ... that would be the summit. In the green field straight out, a rescue helicopter had to come rescue a guy that was trying to slide down the glacier and broke his lower leg, (compound fracture), you could see into the guys leg, my ward friends said who could see it from the summit.
looking south and east at the saddle
That is the path to the summit. craggly and rigorous, but A-W-E-S-O-M-E! That word was made to describe the summit of Timp. It is well worth the trip if you've never done it.

Looking at Pleasant Grove, the green mountains. ....... ah.
Tanner & Julianne Clegg, me (wow), Amanda, Stephanie-Eric-Ben Rogers. Wendy and John Rogers & Beth Chun were still coming down from the summit, so we unfortunately were impatient and didn't get them in our picture. This Julianne is a new friend of mine in my new ward. She is so fun and crazy. She was David's Ma for the ward pioneer trek in June. She wrote me a touching letter about Matt and the twins. Wow. What a woman she is.