Sunday's hike was up Mt. Superior from Alta with my daughter Karly. It's been a long, hot summer so we decided to go high to find some cool air, but apparently so did half of SLC. While driving up Little Cottonwood Canyon at 7AM, every trailhead was already overflowing. At the White Pine trailhead, likely at capacity all night, the cars were parked along the highway at least a half-mile both up and down the canyon from the turnoff. Gone are the days when I could pull into White Pine parking and find only two or three cars and I'd wouldn't see another sole while hiking the Pfeifferhorn.
Karly is my third baby and second daughter, and she has given me two beautiful grand-babies, Harper and Madsen. Words cannot express the joy that Harp and Mads bring me. In a world full of contention and endless bickering, even from friends that should be an ally, the love coming from a grandchild is pure, sweet joy. I'm in heaven when they run up spontaneously and bear-hug my legs. Hiking with my daughter is a distant second on the joy list. Sorry Karly, but it's your fault.
American Fork Twin Peaks, the highest points in the central Wasatch (west peak 11,489ft, east peak 11,433ft). Timpanogos and Nebo are higher.
Pfeifferhorn (11,326 ft.), dead center.
Fuzzy Pfeifferhorn, the Doug Fir sharp . . not the needles, just the photo. My Dad use to tell me the best way to determine if it's a fir, pine or spruce is to back into the tree. If you say SHIT! it's a pine or a spruce. If it feels soft and silky it's a fir.
Sorry for the repetition, the Pfeifferhorn view is stunning. The drainages seen here from Mt. Superior, Red Pine, Maybird Gulch and Hogum Fork.
Beauty all around when I could stop looking at the Pfeiff . . .
. . . but you know what captures my attention.
Karly high above Alta on the final approach to Mt. Superior's summit. We hiked the Little Superior ridge from Cardiff Pass.
Humming Bird at 10,00 feet. How much more must they beat their wings in the thin air?
View into Cardiff Fork and Cardiac Bowl, the ski run dropping off the NE side of Mt. Superior.
Daughter and her Dad.
Karly is the hero today! View SW from the summit of Mt. Superior (11,050 ft.), and of course the Pfeifferhorn just off Karly's elbow.
No joking about the crowds, those cars are the overflow from the White Pine trailhead.
Two weeks out from surgery to repair a ruptured bicep tendon. The weird brace is to keep my arm from fully extending, bringing many stares and whispering from other hikers. "What the hell was that." Overheard after passing another group of hikers.
Two hikers topping out on the south ridge of Superior, a classic Wasatch scramble.
Yes Bishop, we did go to church today.
