Day 8 Mount Timpanogos Hike

 Today we chose to hike to Mount Timpanogos, probably the hardest hike of our trip so far but we heard from many locals that it was beautiful and worth the effort.  Viewed from Heber Valley to the northeast, Mount Timpanogos resembles the profile of a sleeping woman. Various legends are told of an Indian maiden who died of grief after her lover was killed, with one version the basis for a ballet,  but there is no evidence that any of these are actual Native American myths. It is possible the romantic story was created in the early 1900s by Eugene Lusk "Timp" Roberts, a professor at Brigham Young University who initiated an annual hike and pageant intended to "sell Timpanogos to the world."

Mount Timpanogos (profile of sleeping Indian Maiden)

We started at the Aspen Grove trail head, 6910 ft. and hiked to Hidden Lakes 10 miles round trip, max elevation 10,300 ft. with and elevation gain of 3,470 ft.  The peak itself has elevation of 11,752 ft. and is the second highest peak in the Utah Wasatch Range.  The mountain displays many examples of textbook glacial process.  Ice age glaciers mantled the peak until relatively recently and dramatically shaped the mountain into an alpine tableau of knife-edged ridges and yawning, u-shaped amphitheaters.  We saw one of the last remaining glaciers on the mountain on our hike. 

Ice Glacier

On our journey up the mountain we experienced some very steep narrow trail ledges causing myself a few heart palpations, but survived and were rewarded with the most amazing views, beautiful  

waterfalls, great wildlife, Elk & Sheep, and an adventure we will never forget. We also won’t forget the few wrong turns on the unmarked trails, and the thunderstorm and rain storm for the last 2 miles down the mountain!

Saturday we left Park City, Utah making our way to our next destination Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We were amazed by the vast amount of open space as we drove from North Eastern Utah and up the Western border of Wyoming.  As we continued our drive into Wyoming we loved the views of the canyons surrounding the Snake River and stopped to watch a view of the white water rafters .We are looking forward to our stay in Jackson Hole.  Stay tuned.