July 30, 2017

Peak. Wasatch. Wildflowers. OMG.


Even if you HATE winter, you have to love the downstream effect of 600+ inches of snow this season - absurdly beautiful wildflowers going off for the entire month of July! And if you hate wildflowers as well, then there is no hope for you :-)

We spent the weekend doing what we do best this time of year, running and hiking in the Central Wasatch. Friday evening was a nice run on the Wasatch Crest trail before seeing the Utah Symphony at Deer Valley, and then we spent the rest of the weekend running and hiking in the Alta vicinity (spending the night at the Alta Lodge). There's no better place to be in the world right now - that's the story we are telling! We even saw 4 moose and a golden eagle. It didn't seem like the flowers could get any better than they were a week or two ago, but they somehow got more vibrant.

This is a gigantic wildflower photo dump... you have to take advantage while you can...







































July 28, 2017

Paintbrush Cascade Canyon Loop in Grand Teton National Park


To call this one of the best dayhikes in North America might actually be an understatement. You could run most of it, but I wouldn't recommend doing that the first or second time - its better to go slow and really enjoy everything this zone has to offer. It has A LOT to offer. Lush forests, cascading creeks, snowfields, high peaks, wildflower meadows, alpine lakes... its simply as good as it gets.

Depending on how many detours you take (like going to Holly Lake or going around Lake Solitude - and you should do both of those) the loop is roughly 20 miles. Twenty wonderful miles.

We did this almost exactly 5 years ago and got caught in a thunderstorm for the second half of the day. This time we had clear blue skies and perfect weather all day.















Quick flashback to almost the same spot 5 years ago, when we were young...

OK back to 2017...