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I have always loved looking at picture books, so consider this blog post our Timpanogos Hike picture book, with some commentary.

Here we are at the beginning of the hike–so hopeful and relatively clean:

Our hiking group consisted of Zach, myself, Mickey, Isaac, Charlotte (pictured above) and David, Kiersten, and Mercedes (pictured below).

Isaac, all geared-up and looking concerned:

Charlotte, determined and adventurous:

I have to admit that I hate pictures of myself.  I almost always look weird in them.  I can’t seem to not make weird faces, not the funny kind of weird ones either.  There is a whole page in our last family reunion picture book devoted to unfortunate pictures of me (thanks family).  Anyway, I decided not to completely avoid the camera, but embrace the experience and hope that at least a few pictures came out without weird expressions.  That is why this set of pictures has more pictures of me than I’ve allowed anyone to take in a long time and now that I’ve pointed it out you’re going to look for the weird faces, but I specifically picked out the least weird ones so I’ve spoiled your plans.

Somehow we managed to catch a picture of a rainbow in the background without even noticing it:

Parts of the trail were still covered in snow: Here we are at “The Saddle.” We took a lot more pictures on the way back then we did on the way up.

Isaac was rather miserable at this point.  He was worn out and pleading with us to let him quit, but he muscled through his exhaustion and made it to the saddle.  After a rest, he hiked all the way to the summit with little complaint.

This is the shack at the summit.  There’s a rock inside for sitting on and a log book to sign:

Isaac signing the log book:

The view from the top, including us vandalizing the shack at the summit.

Pointing out our graffiti:

Views from the top: Here’s our whole group at the summit.

Waving to Grandma, but I don’t think she was looking (she was at home).

Charlotte:

Here you can see the width of the summit:

On the descent looking over the valley:

Looking back towards the shack (the pointy thing with a flag on top).

Most of the stretch between the saddle and the summit were really exposed and steep.  You couldn’t look at the view and keep walking at the same time.  You can faintly see the shack with the flag in the background:

There were parts of the climb with steep drop offs and narrow ledges of rock:

Other parts of the trail were covered with wild mountain flowers:

There was one toilet along the trail.  It wasn’t right on the trail, you had to follow a little side trail with a sign that said toilet:

I expected to be able to cruise down the mountain, but all the children were exhausted and kept requesting stops.  There was lots of whining and crying.  Charlotte didn’t whine and cry, but she started having pain in her lower abdomen.  Isaac puked several times along the way back down.

Charlotte was the first to spot this moose.  The moose would stare at us for awhile and then turn it’s head to eat, then stare at us again.

The children were miserable and worn out and the descent seemed endless with children doubling over or sitting down as often as they could to rest their weary feet.  At one point Charlotte’s stomach pain was bad enough that Zach carried her for a short stretch.  Then we let Charlotte lead and she pushed through the pain, motivated by an end to the torment and she just kept walking and we all kept following her and eventually made it to the parking lot with triumphant cries of relief.

We left the house at 4:30 AM, started hiking around 6 and returned to the cars a little after 7.  We hiked for 14 hours.  My Fitbit stats after the hike were: 20.37 miles, 426 flights of stairs and 49,604 steps.  We crossed rocky ledges, snow, waterfalls, and dirt.  Now we’re all a little stiff and achy.