Jason and I hiked Mt. Olympus yesterday, for those of you who don’t know Mt. Olympus is one of the prominent faces of the Wasatch front in SLC. This hike has not been high on our list simply because it is not the best rated climb there are much more beautiful hikes in the area but we needed to do it for the sake of saying we did it! It is a very steep hike, there is a 4,200 foot gain to the summit at 9,026 feet, the whole hike is only 6.4 miles round-trip but it takes a solid 6 hours to complete. All of the hiking books recommend this hike for late summer to fall because you are in the sun nearly the entire way, there is no source of water anywhere on the trail and you are heading up hill for 4 hours to the summit which is a scramble over large boulders at the top. Why do we do this?! Here is Jason at the top…
Jas at the top!
There is a mailbox at the summit where people have stashed journals to keep logs of all of those who have made it to the top, The Hindu god Ganesha sits on top of it…
We had brought 3 liters of water with us and by the time we got to the top we only had about 250ml left. We ended up running out of water on the way down and the last few miles we resorted to focusing on getting back as fast as possible because we were both so thirsty, it was a little miserable and both of us were happy to be down from the Mt. and back in the car heading towards cold drinks! We didn’t take very many pictures on the way up because it was such a tiring climb, but on the way down we were noticing all of the wonderful fall colors…
It is hard to imagine that in just a few weeks these mountains will be covered with snow again!
Here is a picture of Olympus in the winter…
we ate outside on our patio and enjoyed an early summer thunderstorm, everything turned out so well it tasted so much like Thai food from a restaurant I am so excited to make this dish again…
Chicken Satay:
Peanut Dipping Sauce
Yum!
We had some delicious “Happy Cakes”…
These pancakes had everything on them and then they drizzled them with an apple cider syrup, it was so good…
Erin drove up from Corvallis and we toured the Japanese Gardens…
We also got to visit with Corey, Alyssa and the new addition Carson! I didn’t get any pictures but man is he a cute one, I enjoyed cuddling with him, so tiny! I miss you Oregon and everything and one that lives there!
And then one coat of Lemon Chiffon…
a shot without all the tape…
I am so happy to have it done, it really does brighten things up and it is so much fresher than the old wallpaper!
a few more tulips are popping up late to the scene…
I planted some calla lilies along the driveway strip that we cleared out last summer, I am still working on that area so no pictures yet but I will be looking forward to my sorbet assortment of callas to pop up in the late spring/early summer. Jason and I had some friends over for a bbq yesterday after yard work and a long bike ride. I was in the mood for pie so I tried out Jason’s Great Grandmother Atwood’s no fail crust recipe (thank you Kathy for the recipe cards in my Christmas stocking!) it turned out great! I was really hoping for peach pie but those aren’t in season yet so I went for apple instead…
Some of the glyphs date back to pre-columbian times but as you can see the “wheel” was most likely done during the time of the pioneers. Either way it was pretty cool, I love the little goat glyphs. We drove back through Arches on the way home and caught a glimpse of Delicate Arch, the parking lot for the hike up to the Arch was full, ugh, so we went to the other parking lot for the viewpoint…
So we are going to have to go back for a more close up picture perhaps even earlier in the season to avoid the crowds. We also hit up the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands to see Mesa Arch. I think this was probably the most impressive view/arch that we saw and again we were one of two cars in the parking lot which made it even more excellent…
