Mt. Timpanogos Hike

This was one of the craziest, most adventurous hikes of my life! We planned it one day in advance luckily getting grandma to watch Autumn. I felt kind of guilty leaving her all day, but it was a hike we've been wanting to go on since we've been married and we knew it was the last summer for a while we could do it since we were planning on getting pregnant the next year. We woke up bright and early and headed down. We started the trail on the Timpanooke side of the mountain. When I hiked this mountain last time we started on the Aspen Grove side. I was excited to see the difference. 

Turned out to be just as beautiful! A little bit more narrow but equally as fun. 

A little cold on the way up, but it warmed right up as soon as the sun came up.

Spencer and I love to hike together. We always have so much to talk about. It's like when we were first dating. Conversation has always easily flowed between us, which is something I have always loved about our relationship!

There was some VERY beautiful greenery and waterfalls. 

Richard is so awesome. He is my favorite!

About half way there!

We finally made it to the meadow. Our legs were a bit tired at that point, but not nearly as tired as the way down!

Traveling across the rocks

At the saddle!

Finally made it to the top! Such a great feeling! It was a little scary walking from the saddle to the top. Reminded me of Angel's Landing. On the way up we walked past Ben Woolsey who last August made his 600th summit in his lifetime. When we went to sign the book we saw his name and couldn't believe how often he had been up there. He keeps track and care of the sign in book. It's like his mountain. So cool!

We were so excited to be at the top!

After eating our lunch we decided to take the route down the glacier. It had already halfway melted. No on else was hiking down that way. I had slid down the glacier back in 2008 with my friends and we had a blast. 

View from the top of the glacier. Not much of a glacier now!

I slid down with little problem. I did not wear my garbage bag because it fell off (luckily). My pants got very wet and I stopped myself with some snowpack before I got too far down. I used my hands to stop me and it felt like a thousand needles going in my hands. Richard went next and if I could take back what happened to him I would in an instant. He DID end up wearing the garbage bag and it made him slide down A LOT faster than me. He not only went fast, he went UNCONTROLLABLY FAST. Dangerously fast. I thought he was going to break a hip. He ran into a rock going sideways and then started skiing down! I was laughing at first and then frightened! He finally stopped and we all suddenly realized the giant mistake we had made taking the glacier route. 

I couldn't move because I was stuck on some ice and if I moved too much I would slide down even more. Richard ended up being ok minus a few scratches and bruises. I yelled to Spencer and told him it was very dangerous and not to do it. He didn't listen, but knew he had to go down super slow. He ended up being just fine by digging his feet into the snow and using giant boulders to slow himself down. 

The next part was super tricky. We decided to hike across the loose rocks so we wouldn't be on the ice. Big mistake! The loose rocks were even more scary. I thought I was going to die and prayed for help. I was holding on for dear life several times, thinking about how I was trying to hold on with both hands and trying not to slip. I felt so guilty for taking them all down the glacier. We finally made it across one by one and started the LONG hour long hike down to the lake. It took forever! 

When I made it to Emerald Lake I was never more grateful to be safe in my whole life. I was so glad no one got seriously injured. It was a completely dangerous route we took! Never go down the glacier when it's mostly melted. 

We took about a 20 minute rest and then headed down the mountain. We saw some really beautiful wildlife while hiking: mountain goats, deer, and even a moose!

This moose was blocking the path. Someone ahead of us had warned us. The moose had been standing there eating for about 20 minutes. We waited another 15 and then decided to go around the trail so we wouldn't run into the moose. We had a GPS with us so we could easily find the trail again. We hiked through the game trail which was a lot higher than we were tall. I got super claustrophobic at some points because we weren't getting out into the open. Finally we made it and got back onto the trail. Phew! Last obstacle. Now just making it down the mountain without our legs giving out on us :) My hip was hurting at the top and got worse as we descended. 

Spencer was so tired. He was the most happy to be done :) We did it! Such a fun and adventurous trip!