Double the Peaks, Double the Pix

Best.

Hike.

This.

Year.

I have been on some totally amazing hikes so far this year. Last Sunday’s hike to Little Baldy was terrific. However, today’s hike was at an all new level.

Three things made today’s hike fantastic. First, Ann joined me. She is a good and adventurous hiking companion. Second, most of the hike was new. Third, the scenery was stunning.

We started today’s journey at the Squaw Peak Lookout in Provo. We then headed east on the Squaw Peak Back Trail. We followed that trail until we hit Squaw Peak. Along the way to stopped for a myriad of photos of landscapes and flowers.

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When we made it to the Peak, we thought we had seen and done the best thing of the day. Then we looked south from the peak, and saw another. This peak is called Buffalo Peak. We also saw a trail that appeared to go up its ridge. Yep, we just had to follow it.

So we headed down from the peak and followed the trail on a quest of discovery. We thought the trail was going to lead us to a path we saw while standing on Squaw Peak. But we turned out to be quite wrong. What we found, was so much better!

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After hiking for about another mile from Squaw Peak, we came to one of the most beautiful spots I have seen in Utah. It was the junction of the Squaw Peak Back Trail and the Buffalo Peak Trail.

Apparently there is a stretch of Squaw Peak road that was down the Buffalo Peak trail about .2 miles where people drive, park and hike up to the peak. There were a good number of people doing just that.

When we arrive we found campers breaking camp and saw some people coming down from Buffalo Peak.

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It was when we look south over the valley of mountains that we got the money views and pictures of the day. We could see mountains for miles, colors, snow, flowers, trees, and clouds forever.

Once we saw the south side of the mountain covered in flowers, trees, gnarly logs and branches, Ann and I spent about 45 minutes shooting our little hearts out. Ann really loved it which was pleasing to see her so excited about the imagery. She took some amazing pictures. I worked it pretty well too.

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We had fun taking pictures of each other in this beautiful setting. The first picture in this post is from this location as well.

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While we only hiked a total of 4.2 miles with an elevation change of about 2,700 feet, we took over 4 hours for the hike because of the many, many, many pix we kept taking. Below is a collection of the macro shots I took on the hike today.

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As Ann and I were making a quick descent down the mountain, we both agreed that this was our best hike yet and that we want to come back because there is so much more to explore. We could have stayed out all day but since we did not plan for it, we did not have any food and we only had limited water.

This was supposed to be a quick hike.

Ha!