M.K.Duke

Dan and Kathy came back down to visit us on their way to Southern Utah, luckily I had a few days off so I was able to tag-along with them while they explored the SLC area.  Jas was able to hang out a little bit since the ambulatory clinics at the VA were not too demanding unfortunately he is back to doing the 30 hour call schedule every fourth day.  While they were here we went to the Red Butte Gardens which are just a mile or so from our house, they had several different themed gardens I think the favorite was the Children’s Garden; so many cute ideas! Here is a picture of Kathy and I hanging out in one of the “playhouses” they had for the kids…

You can see the cute little chairs they had carved out of stumps and the plants were trained to grow over the wire fencing which provided the structure for the playhouse, it was so nice and cool inside because of the plants perfect for hiding out on a hot summer day!  They had a large tunnel trellis that was shaped like a snake, you entered through his mouth and then you could wind through his whole body like a maze, here is a picture of the inside of the snakes belly…

The next day we went up to Big Cottonwood Canyon and did a hike to Solitude Lake, here is a picture of Jason going out on a limb…

It is so different seeing the white bark of the Aspen trees, sort of looks fake to me…

We ended our day by driving down into Heber City on the other side of the Canyon and then swinging past Utah’s Bridal Veil falls, it was impressive but my goodness were there a lot of people standing at the base of the falls sort of like going to Multnomah falls but worse because here people were splashing around in the water, sort of takes away from the beauty.

The next day we went up to Little Cottonwood Canyon (this is for sure my favorite canyon) I love the steepness of the peaks, it really makes me feel like I am in Switzerland.  Dan, Kathy and I did a hike to Cecret Lake which is in Alta (Jas had to work )…

It was a nice little hike although it will probably be even better in early fall once all the kids go back to school.  Then we went over to Snowbird and took a ride on the tram which takes you up to the top of Hidden Peak which is 11,000 feet!  It was sort of scary but awesome at the same time here is a picture of Dan filming our ascent…

And a view from the very top…

Our chariot…

Can you believe that thing fits 125 people!  Our friend Joe from Ohio comes out to ski in Utah every year, he tells me that it is insane in the winter time, they pack skiers and boarders in there with all their equipment, you can barely even move!  It is much less crowded in the summer lots of elbow room and you can walk around to get all the different angles, not sure how I would handle being packed in there in the winter.   We ate our lunch on the top of Hidden Peak…

Then we took the chairlift down to the bottom, I was so hoping that we would see another moose but we didn’t, I think I may have spoiled myself because now every time I go up there I am going to expect to see one!  We had a great time with you guys, thanks for coming out again!