Adventures in Park City

I promised I’d get the details from our adventure up soon. And here I am, makin good on the deal

First things first, we hit up the Starbucks in the village to start our day – His, Hers and his: two PSLs and a kids hot chocolate.

We decided to take Guardsman Pass over the top of Park City into Brighton – then follow it into Big Cottonwood Canyon – which is apparently a great place to see all the leaves changing colors.

THIS is guardsman pass - a dirt road covered in snow, no guardrail

But the view was amazing. I sort of hate when you look up a hike and there are pictures posted of the view from the top. I feel like it sort of ruins the secret. Instead I’m posting some of the things we saw along the way:

Near Empire Pass

: Stopped for some rock climbing at Storm Mountain

This is off a trail at Storm Mountain Quartzites. I would really like to come back and do this hike/climb with the kids. Unfortunately, we were ill-prepared for anything like this and had nothing to carry Spencer in. Next time, Storm Mountain. Next time.

And some rock pondering

And a stop so this little guy could stretch out a bit

Near Alta Ski Resort

The interesting thing about this trip is how we drove through multiple “seasons”; When we left Park City it was cool and crisp, but sunny – a perfect autumn day. As we drove the Guardsman Pass up to Brighton, the ground was snow covered, it was cloudy and breezy – winter. As we got into Cottonwood Canyon it was altogether dreary (and there weren’t nearly as many leaves as one might have anticipated) – end of autumn, that icky part. Going back up Little Cottonwood Canyon towards Snowbird and Alta, it was cloudy and looked as if it might actually snow – winter again. While we were out doing ”fall festivities”; there were people at the mountain skiing and snowboarding – decidely winter activities in my mind.

Skiers at Alta - looking down towards Snowbird

As we drove back down Little Cottonwood and then reached the freeway, it was once again a perfectly sunny, crisp autumn day. It was so much fun to get out and explore the area. It seems like ever since we moved here, all we do is drive to work, to the grocery store and home. It was really nice to take some time and venture out. I’m hoping it stays nice enough to drive on these passes for a little while, I can’t wait to see the mountains when they are totally covered in snow.

We finished the day with a quick 2 mile run at home, followed up by a Salmon BBQ The perfect ending to Nick’s birthday weekend.

What was YOUR weekend like? Gone on any adventures lately?? I wanna hear about it!