- Joined
- Apr 20, 2013
- Messages
- 1,307
I know that all of my reports have been local, as I have been stuck close to home with work and chasing kids around on soccer fields. I love the stuff coming from elsewhere, and it should not be too many years before I am back in some of those places again. For now, I am sticking to my backyard and allowing the love of these places to grow in my kids.
With that disclaimer aside, I had a weekend without a tournament and took my second kid, my eight year old son Gunnar, on a trip. He usually asks for somewhere we can fish, but his older sister had told him stories of her trip up Timp a few years ago, and when given a few choices this was what he chose and I was happy to oblige.
Timpanogos has had some other trip reports here, and is an extremely popular trail out here in Utah, but it is for a reason. I also see that @WasatchWill was just up there on the peak, but i think his was last weekend, and we went up on Friday, July 10. That morning I had Gunnar out of bed shortly after 5am, and we were at the lot just before 6, and just as the sun was hitting the peaks. Maybe because of the rain the night before and the chance of rain that afternoon it scared many people off, but we arrived the same time as two other small groups and otherwise the lot was empty on the Aspen Grove side. Something I call, Ideal.
After taking a couple quick shots, I told Gunnar we should just book it ahead of those two groups and we could be first on the trail.
After we passed the group I started getting spiderwebs in my face, a good sign that no one my height at least had passed through that morning. Sadly though, no moose the entire trip.
The Aspen Grove, Primrose Cirque, whatever name you call the trail, is in some ways a constant grind, and in my humble opinion a bit tougher to reach the peak than the Timpooneke side, but that is just my opinion. We were heading for the hidden lakes area to stay the night and hopefully avoid some of the crowd, so Aspen Grove fit the bill perfectly.
Climbing.
The second falls... pretty common shot, but still lovely.
I have been playing around with some stacked panoramas... still not great, but a more encompassing shot.
After climbing past some falls you just keep climbing. Since we were there so early in the morning, we had a nice cool morning, and stopped to take off our layers at the first falls and did not stop again until some upper falls to grab some breakfast. Little Gunnar was even leaving me sucking some wind, just trooping on up the climbs.
Don't sit on this log.
The trail goes right through this set of falls. We got some breakfast here, enjoyed the view, used the steripen on some water, and then I took a dunk under the falls. I could not convince Gunnar that it was enjoyable though.
Another stacked pan.
Onwards and upwards. It was not until about here that a couple of other groups finally passed us. Pretty good considering a half hour breakfast break.
We hit the hidden lakes area and continued on up to a good spot near the base of Robert's Horn. We went and loaded up on some more water, setup camp a bit, and gathered things together for lunch. Rain was due to arrive within an hour or so, so we trudged up to Emerald lake. We repeated that trudge between a couple of different bands of rain that came through and then again after dinner, just because Gunnar wanted to play up by the water and watch the goats. We also wandered around the Hidden Lakes area between storms, and during the longest storm I took a long nap.
Some photos from wandering.
This guy was a lot closer to us on the edge looking over the larger bowl, but I didn't take a pic that I liked.
Sure, they seem tame, but she was grunting as we went past her to get out of the rain. This is not zoomed in the least. This one was a good mom. She had these three kids, plus three other teens following her around.
And the reward for the willingness to hike when it is wet and stormy... I love watching clouds form or clouds race past.
The afternoon and evening were great, and a low key day after the climb was just what I needed. Some larger groups went by and were filling up the areas near Emerald Lake, but it was a Friday night afterall.
The conversations and games went through the evening. It rained again during the night, and sometime around 4am I woke up quite rested, but the tranquility was being broken by the bands of kids and people hiking up for the sunrise. I was once one of them, so I cannot really complain.
Just after 5am I setup the tripod from my sleeping bag and took this in.
As sunrise came near I climbed up a little bit higher, found a perch and enjoyed all of the sunrise, even the cheers from the about 40-50 people up on the actual peak behind me. But hey, I knew this was not going to be an alone kind of trip. From up here you can see Deer Creek and far off into the east.
A few other shots from sunrise, which was before it started to cloud up again.
At about 645, I convinced my son to get dressed and we hit the trail to the peak, passing the crowds coming down.
As soon as we hit the saddle we were met by a pretty stiff breeze, that was biting enough to make my eyes water and nose run. So we pushed on.
A shot of Gunnar looking down below.
On the way back down to the saddle, Gunnar took off ahead of me. I was hoping he was going to stop and wait for me at the saddle. He was literally running ahead of this trail runner and left me far behind at the "Stairs".
As I went to catch up to him on the last straight away before the saddle, I ran into a friend I had not seen in nearly a decade running past me. In the cold I couldn't remember his name, but he soon got my numbed mind back on track and we chatted for a few minutes in the blustery wind. I later saw him on the way down. Seeing familiar faces is probably the only advantage of the crowds.
Luckily when I hit the saddle I found my son curled up on the side opposite the wind, waiting for me.
We dropped back down, ate some food, packed up camp and started down past the theme park like crowds.
All in all, a well taken bit of time off. The area is beautiful, and I can ignore crowds at times. Especially when my son says it is one of his favorite trips, and we did not even remember to break out the pocket knife and whittle like he wanted to.
Featured image for home page:
With that disclaimer aside, I had a weekend without a tournament and took my second kid, my eight year old son Gunnar, on a trip. He usually asks for somewhere we can fish, but his older sister had told him stories of her trip up Timp a few years ago, and when given a few choices this was what he chose and I was happy to oblige.
Timpanogos has had some other trip reports here, and is an extremely popular trail out here in Utah, but it is for a reason. I also see that @WasatchWill was just up there on the peak, but i think his was last weekend, and we went up on Friday, July 10. That morning I had Gunnar out of bed shortly after 5am, and we were at the lot just before 6, and just as the sun was hitting the peaks. Maybe because of the rain the night before and the chance of rain that afternoon it scared many people off, but we arrived the same time as two other small groups and otherwise the lot was empty on the Aspen Grove side. Something I call, Ideal.
After taking a couple quick shots, I told Gunnar we should just book it ahead of those two groups and we could be first on the trail.
After we passed the group I started getting spiderwebs in my face, a good sign that no one my height at least had passed through that morning. Sadly though, no moose the entire trip.
The Aspen Grove, Primrose Cirque, whatever name you call the trail, is in some ways a constant grind, and in my humble opinion a bit tougher to reach the peak than the Timpooneke side, but that is just my opinion. We were heading for the hidden lakes area to stay the night and hopefully avoid some of the crowd, so Aspen Grove fit the bill perfectly.
Climbing.
The second falls... pretty common shot, but still lovely.
I have been playing around with some stacked panoramas... still not great, but a more encompassing shot.
After climbing past some falls you just keep climbing. Since we were there so early in the morning, we had a nice cool morning, and stopped to take off our layers at the first falls and did not stop again until some upper falls to grab some breakfast. Little Gunnar was even leaving me sucking some wind, just trooping on up the climbs.
Don't sit on this log.
The trail goes right through this set of falls. We got some breakfast here, enjoyed the view, used the steripen on some water, and then I took a dunk under the falls. I could not convince Gunnar that it was enjoyable though.
Another stacked pan.
Onwards and upwards. It was not until about here that a couple of other groups finally passed us. Pretty good considering a half hour breakfast break.
We hit the hidden lakes area and continued on up to a good spot near the base of Robert's Horn. We went and loaded up on some more water, setup camp a bit, and gathered things together for lunch. Rain was due to arrive within an hour or so, so we trudged up to Emerald lake. We repeated that trudge between a couple of different bands of rain that came through and then again after dinner, just because Gunnar wanted to play up by the water and watch the goats. We also wandered around the Hidden Lakes area between storms, and during the longest storm I took a long nap.
Some photos from wandering.
This guy was a lot closer to us on the edge looking over the larger bowl, but I didn't take a pic that I liked.
Sure, they seem tame, but she was grunting as we went past her to get out of the rain. This is not zoomed in the least. This one was a good mom. She had these three kids, plus three other teens following her around.
And the reward for the willingness to hike when it is wet and stormy... I love watching clouds form or clouds race past.
The afternoon and evening were great, and a low key day after the climb was just what I needed. Some larger groups went by and were filling up the areas near Emerald Lake, but it was a Friday night afterall.
The conversations and games went through the evening. It rained again during the night, and sometime around 4am I woke up quite rested, but the tranquility was being broken by the bands of kids and people hiking up for the sunrise. I was once one of them, so I cannot really complain.
Just after 5am I setup the tripod from my sleeping bag and took this in.
As sunrise came near I climbed up a little bit higher, found a perch and enjoyed all of the sunrise, even the cheers from the about 40-50 people up on the actual peak behind me. But hey, I knew this was not going to be an alone kind of trip. From up here you can see Deer Creek and far off into the east.
A few other shots from sunrise, which was before it started to cloud up again.
At about 645, I convinced my son to get dressed and we hit the trail to the peak, passing the crowds coming down.
As soon as we hit the saddle we were met by a pretty stiff breeze, that was biting enough to make my eyes water and nose run. So we pushed on.
A shot of Gunnar looking down below.
On the way back down to the saddle, Gunnar took off ahead of me. I was hoping he was going to stop and wait for me at the saddle. He was literally running ahead of this trail runner and left me far behind at the "Stairs".
As I went to catch up to him on the last straight away before the saddle, I ran into a friend I had not seen in nearly a decade running past me. In the cold I couldn't remember his name, but he soon got my numbed mind back on track and we chatted for a few minutes in the blustery wind. I later saw him on the way down. Seeing familiar faces is probably the only advantage of the crowds.
Luckily when I hit the saddle I found my son curled up on the side opposite the wind, waiting for me.
We dropped back down, ate some food, packed up camp and started down past the theme park like crowds.
All in all, a well taken bit of time off. The area is beautiful, and I can ignore crowds at times. Especially when my son says it is one of his favorite trips, and we did not even remember to break out the pocket knife and whittle like he wanted to.
Featured image for home page:
