7-25-09 Lake Blanche

So, we love to hike and almost every weekend we are hiking....somewhere.

For a long time now Sven has wanted to hike to Lake Blanche which is in Big Cottonwood Canyon at the S-Curve.

Though we love to hike I really didn't know if we could make this one. It is 6 miles round trip but to the lake is an elevation gain of 2400 feet which is about a mile straight up, but over 3 miles half medium, half heavy gain.

Oy.

Melanie watched the kids for us so we could leave early in the morning and hike in the cool. It took us an even 3 hours to reach the top and it was well worth it. Absolutely GORGEOUS!

Pictures do not do it justice. The colors of the rock vs the spread of wild flowers up there were amazing. Breath taking. We could even see over the mountain tops out to the Great Salt Lake. We had our trail sandwiches. (Sven's favorite type of lunch ever) and headed back down, which took us about 2 1/2 hours. It was sad, when we were about a mile from the bottom we came across a family with small children that were cleary struggling, their kids were crying and the mom was sitting down not doing well with the hike at all. They asked us how much further to the waterfall.......(insert crickets chirping here..there is no waterfall on our trail). Sven who knows his trails & maps in his head helped them figure out where they had intended to go vs where they were. They were crushed. The walk they had intended to go on with their small children was a short easy hike to Hidden Falls. :( I felt so bad for them. Anyway it was a great experience for us. We did it!

We couldn't walk well after but we did it! Now Sven wants to summit Timpanogos this year.....(again insert crickets here). I am sure we can do it, but overnighting with 35 Lbs Packs, 18 miles round trip again seems a little daunting. So we shall see...