We were up at 6:45 this morning, and ate a big breakfast to fuel us for a day of hiking. Our chosen trailhead was only 36 miles away, but it took well over an hour to drive those miles on the winding mountain roads. We love it when we drive high enough to start seeing mountain peaks peeking over the road. We were getting some views of the Wasatch Mountains, and especially the tallest--Mount Timpanogos. Can you spell that mountain? Because it keeps showing up in our time around Salt Lake City.
It was interesting that we didn't meet a single early-morning car on this first highway. But we did pass a number of bicyclers heading up that steep grade. This tandem bike had twice as many legs to pedal up the road.
We were planning to hike to Scout Falls, but this was the same trail head used to hike to the summit of Mount Timpanogos--the highest mountain in the Wasatch range of the Rocky Mountains. Because parking was not allowed along this narrow paved road, this trail head was in high demand on the weekend. So the forest service started a policy where reservations were required to get one of the coveted parking places on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We were lucky to get a reservation at rec.gov for a Sunday morning parking spot. The reservation costs $12, but we got $10 off with our senior life-time pass. We were surprised to see a ranger on duty at the entrance of this remote parking lot, asking for our reservation receipt and turning people away without one.
Our parking reservation was good for twelve hours--from midnight last night until noon today. This reservation system cuts back on the crowds on the trail. Most of the people we met on the trail were actually coming down from their hike to the summit of Timpanogos. One friendly group explained that they had parked in the lot at midnight, hiked up the eight miles to the top in the dark, so they could see sunrise from the summit. Now at 9:00 a.m., they were almost back to the bottom where the aspens grow.
Timpanogos is well-loved by the locals, who call it "The Timp" for short. Even though we were only an eight-mile hike away from the summit, we couldn't see this tallest mountain from this part of the trail. But the smaller, closer mountains were lovely.
The surrounding scenery was beautiful in these Wasatch Mountains, and we had to stop frequently to admire it as we hiked higher.
Our destination was Scout Falls, a lesser-traveled spur off the main trail. We had to scrambled over, and crawl up a series of tree roots to get to the falls.
Mark walked the narrow ledge and actually went through the waterfall to take this picture of Denisa (who was smart enough to stay dry on the other side of the falls).
You can see droplets of water in the air, as Mark took pictures from behind the waterfall. You can also see how narrow the trail gets between Mark and Denisa, before it slips into the steep canyon below.
We had a beautiful view of a ring of mountain tops surrounding us at Scout Falls.
A fellow hiker had recommended that we continue a little higher above the falls for even better views.
We got our first view of The Timp and the mountains around it. Our short hike this morning stretched to 4.6 miles long with over 1,000 feet in elevation gain. Then we had to hurry down that mountain trail, because we had another Timpanogos reservation to keep this day.
We had reservations to tour Timpanogos Cave, and we were supposed to check in at the National Monument visitor center at 12:00. Our tour of the three caves--Timpanogas, Middle, and Hansen Caves doesn't actually start until 1:30.
You have an hour and half between the check-in time and the tour time because you have to hike to the top of the mountain to get to the entrance of the first cave. What?!? We didn't realize it was that tall mountain?!?
We had laughed when we read that they allow 1.5 hours for people to make the 1.5 mile walk to get to the top. We are experienced hikers, and we should be able to bang out a paved hike to a national monument in just thirty minutes or so, right? Wrong! That paved hike was steep with 1,600 feet in elevation gain, and it was hot! We were glad for some occasional shade when we passed through rock tunnels on the way.
We stopped to chat at the bottom, and didn't start right at 12:00. Then we had to hustle to make it to the top by 1:30. Whew! We shouldn't have underestimated that hike up! We arrived at the cave entrance with three minutes to spare, and we were sweating from all the exertion. The work to get to the entrance of the cave really limits the number of people that can tour here, and we were the oldest people we saw at the top.
We were glad when our tour ranger unlocked the wooden doors, and led us into the first cave. Ahhh! It was a cool 43 degrees inside.
Our ranger started pointing out different cave structures. We saw the usual stalactites (that are attached TIGHT to the ceiling) and stalagmites (that you MIGHT trip on since they are attached to the floor). When the two meet in the middle you have a column. He also pointed out some ribbon-like stalactites that they call cave bacon (in the upper right hand corner of the picture below).
We took a close-up of the finely curved small structures on the ceiling, that he called cave macaroni. This 1:30 tour was making us hungry for lunch with all this talk of bacon and pasta!
We've toured bigger caves with grand ballrooms and special lighting. But this one seemed more natural. Some of the prettiest parts of the cave were only visible when the ranger shined his flashlight on them.
The three caves were discovered at different times in different ways. Early explorers to the caves broke rock formations and removed them to sell. Then the caves came under protection as a national monument. Surprisingly, the forest service blasted the walls that divided the three caves to make them into one continuous cave. But they found that this changed the moisture level and characteristics of the caves. So now artificial air lock doors have been installed between the caves. We had to carefully open the door, move into the open space, and then close the door behind us before opening the next door into the middle cave.
It had a lacy collection of soda straws and stalactites.
As we walked up that hot trail to the top of the mountain, it seemed silly to be carrying a jacket. But after an hour inside the 43-degree caves, we were glad to have those jackets.
As soon as we opened the door to go back outside, the heat hit us. Yeah, we took that jacket off in a hurry.
We enjoyed the views more going down because we didn't have to hurry and it was so easy. We actually ran part of the way down because it was easier than trying to put on our brakes all the way.
The afternoon temperatures warmed up, and we lingered in the tunnels on the trail for the shade. We got another four miles of exercise, and another 1,600 feet in elevation for our day's total.
After almost nine miles and 2,600 feet in elevation gain, we were tired. But we made a loop drive to see more new areas. We wanted to drive down Provo Canyon Road, and the recommended stop was at Bridal Veil Falls. We've seen waterfalls with this name all over the country, and this bridal veil was just as beautiful as the others.
But it was also very popular on a warm Sunday afternoon. When we panned out to show the crowds at the bottom, it wasn't quite as picturesque.
Normally, we would have hiked to the top of the falls, but our feet refused. So we braved the crowds at the bottom to soak our feet in the cold water coming off the waterfall.
Our feet also refused to hike when we made the stop at Sundance Mountain Resort. Robert Redford purchased this land in 1969, after filming scenes from the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." He developed a resort and named it Sundance after that movie. It was impossible to take a good picture of the resort (especially since our feet refused to walk to the trail.)
So Denisa took a picture of the unusual wildflower near the pickup, and we took our tired feet home to our campground. It had been a beautifully interesting and tiring day spending time with the two Timpanogos--the mountain and the cave.
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