Saturday, July 15, 2006

Beauty In The Mountains

Yesterday, my son Bryan went away on an overnight scout camp. My daughter Amy wanted to go camping too, and was feeling left behind.


We decided to go on a daddy-daughter picnic up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Dawn Ann and Amy met me at my office, and we left at about 5:00 pm to go up the canyon. It was 104 degrees in the valley. At the top of the canyon, it was only 81 degrees. By the time we came back down, it was as low as 69 degrees at sunset. It was so nice to get some relief from the heat.

First we went for a stroll along Big Cottonwood Creek. We could feel the cool breeze coming off of the stream as it rushed past us. I let Amy lead the way, and we walked along the trail for a hundred yards or so.

(Click on photos for larger image.)




We drove up the canyon a little further, and started hiking up another trail. We found all kinds of wildflowers in bloom:


After hiking among the wildflowers, we stopped and at our picnic dinner. The we came across this beautiful meadow, which was illuminated by the late evening sun:



At sunset, we started back down the canyon. We played one of Amy's favorite games -- a Harry Potter guessing game. The game works like this: One player fixes something from one of the Harry Potter books or movies. (Amy has read all the books, and has watched all the movies numerous times on DVD.) The player announces which Harry Potter book(s) and/or movie(s) this particular thing is found. Then the other player(s) try to guess what it is. Each player is allowed to ask a question to narrow down what the person, place, thing, or object might be, (Kind of like the old game show "What's my line.")

Amy and I played this game all the way down the canyon, and then all the way home. She had a fun time stumping me, because although I have seen all the movies, and read all the books myself, I have not done so recently. She has read all 6 books during the last 6 months.

Later we would learn that Bryan had a great time on his camp out. However, Amy had a great time too as we explored Big Cottonwood Canyon together.

More photos from our trip up Big Cottonwood Canyon are available here.

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