4th of July

We got to watch the local parade from the comfort of the front porch of where we were staying.  David - enjoying a local brew.

The marching bands are always my favorite.  This is the local high school marching band.

This one is a little hard to see, but it is a snow cat with about 10 people on the top of the vehicle.  You can see how high they are above the crowd on the street.

Lots of local businesses with pick ups pulling trailers with waving kids.  I think this was a rafting company with a giant bird float on top.

This one is the torch of liberty on the back of a large decorated trailer.

Local brewery - Cheers to the Red, White and Brew

Junior Sailors Association - pirate float!

Our parking lot during the parade

After it was over.

Hiking near Brighton Resort

Driving Guardsman Pass toward Big Cottonwood canyon has got to be one of my favorite views in the whole area.  

 We settled on a shortish loop trail off the hwy over the pass.

 There was more snow on the mountains than we have seen during the past few years.  This snow pack that David found on the side of the trail was very compacted and not really "scoopable", so I was saved from getting hit with a snowball.

 We found moose tracks in the area.  Quite large!  Its a good thing we didn't actually find the moose.  We are told they are quite aggressive and can likely charge at you.  They can run up to 35 miles an hour.    They weigh up to 1600 lbs.  Their hair grows up to 10 inches long in the winter.

 Crossing the stream

 Wild flowers were beautiful as always

 We brought a picnic lunch and sat by a stream to eat and read for a while.

 After our loop hike, we went to Silver Lake at Brighton resort and walked the loop trail around the lake (along with about 20 million other people).  It was not particularly peaceful and quiet, but was still quite pretty.

Driving / hiking near Timpanogos

We decided to drive the Alpine scenic drive past Sundance and Mt Timpanogos today, looking for a good trail to hike and knowing that my sprained ankle would only be good for about 2 miles and 500-700 ft elevation gain.  We settled on this trail up the canyon near Timpanooke campground.  I took about 8 pictures of this same view from different elevations as we hiked the trail.  Each time we came out of the trees, I was just struck by the beauty of the view!  There was a very high waterfall coming down off the peak through the canyon below.  

Here is a more clear view of the waterfall.

 Thunderheads starting popping up at the end of the day, but we were already driving the scenic route back home and avoided the rain.

Looking toward Provo canyon near Cascade Springs headed toward Heber.

7 million gallons per day flow out of this artesian spring in the mountains. The water temp is 47 degrees year round.  The water flow was lower than average when we visited, however, and some of the spring pools were low.  A very unique ecosystem around these mini wetlands in a very arid region.  

 There were too many people walking around on the boardwalks here to find it a very restful spot.  There were also only about 5 benches total in the whole area.  We had hoped to relax and read by the springs, but decided to move on instead.

Deer Creek reservoir

 Deer by the side of the road on our return trip over Empire Pass to Park City.

Hiking around Park City

Since David had flight delays, he arrived (stand by) in the morning after spending the night in Houston.  We decided on an easier day of hiking, buying a lift pass for Park City and taking it to the top of the mountain.

We decided to start at the top of the Crescent Lift.

We hiked up the access road to the peak you can see in middle of the picture.  There were 3 more lifts that went to that peak (not running in the summer).

View of Deer Valley Resort

 Park City

 Fun monster sculpture on the ski run.

 We managed to get on a seat on one of the lifts that were not running and just enjoyed the view.

Amusing or ew?

Looking back down the access road at the top of the lift we rode up.

After hiking in Park City, we went over to the Canyons resort and used our lift pass to take the gondola to the top of the mountain.  You get a sense of how high the canyon is that the gondola runs over.   This resort was the "play ground" for the very serious dirt bikers.  They had professional helmets on and came flying off the mountain on their off road bikes. 

We found a short "nature trail" loop and enjoyed some time by a stream.