Recent Hiking Trips

We did two hikes in the last week, one last Sunday and one yesterday. The first was one of our favorites, Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's an easy hike that we'd done last summer and the kids had already done this year with camp. The end of the hike is a great place to hang out and enjoy the cool water. This year I noticed way more little ground squirrels and chipmunks foraging around for people food...and judging by their guts, people are quite generous :( It makes me think camping in that canyon could be quite annoying!

Keely and I at the base of the falls. It was cool enough for sweatshirts, a really Fall like August day. Quinn doing a funny face...
We've never seen the top of the falls and the reason for the name but this time James hiked up there and snapped some pictures so we all could see why they call it Donut Falls.
Here's the kids and I at the end of the hike back to the car. I think we posed on this same log last year :)
Yesterday we again headed up Big Cottonwood...this time to beat the 100 degree heat (yes, that's our crazy weather here, fall one weekend and then summer the next!). We went all the way to the top and parked in the ski lot for Brighton. We've been on hikes from this area before but not in this direction. This ended up being our longest hike with the kids, at 2 miles each way! It also gained 1100' in elevation so it was no easy feat. It packed a lot of punch with not one but four destinations along the way plus some walking through water which always makes it more fun. The destinations were all lakes...Dog Lake, Lake Mary, Lake Martha and Lake Catherine. We actually didn't veer off to Dog Lake but saw it from above between Martha and Catherine.

The kids enjoyed playing on this rock on the way up to Dog Lake.
And posing nicely for the camera with a nice Alpine view behind them...
Keely took this picture (obviously) of us on the way up to Lake Mary.
Keely and I are relaxing at the first stop off, Lake Mary. We enjoyed our picnic lunch here and rested a bit. But not too much because James was anxious to get to the final destination.
An aerial view of Lake Mary. Oh how we wished we could jump into that crisp cold water! And some people did but technically it's not allowed because it is ultimately our Valley's drinking water.
Keely again with a great view behind her...
After passing by Lake Martha and then getting an aerial view of Dog Lake, we ended up at the final destination. Lake Mary and Lake Catherine are the largest of the 4 lakes. We've actually seen it from another hike we took from Little Cottonwood Canyon a couple of years ago...but we'd never been at lake level. We hung around on the beach to rest and relax before the descent.
Then it was time to head back down, it was already after 4 PM! Keely did great on this hike and I'd say she walked about 90% of the time. And because she walked the entire way down (2 miles!), we celebrated with dinner at Porcupine's :) This was a great hike, and definitely the hardest we've done as a family!