how to feel small…on horseback….
Another view of Twin Peaks and Bells Canyon from a different perspective…and yes, there are horses with riders…tiny in comparison with the grandness of the mountains…but you can find them about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom…very close to the left edge of the photo….
A tractor for Timpanogos
There are acres and acres of fields just north of the Cedar Fort road that leads into the Cedar Valley of Utah County and beyond. A week or so ago, I shared a photo, “farm and mountain panorama,” that had a tractor in a field beneath the snow-covered Oquirrh Mountains, the range that provides the western border for the Salt Lake Valley…and contributes to the north-western border of Cedar Valley. I returned to the area the following weekend and made some photos while facing the other direction…toward the Wasatch Mountains in general, and toward this mass of rock and earth, specifically, that is known as Mount Timpanogos…a very prominent feature of the eastern skyline for much of Utah County…which is located directly south of the Salt Lake Valley…and Salt Lake County proper.
when I see them…
When my family and I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, a couple of years ago, a new dimension was added to our lives. My third son was introduced to and became near obsessed with road cycling…. It became his thing, his activity, part of his daily life…riding hundreds of miles each week, up and down the hills and into the mountain canyons that surround the Salt Lake Valley.
My son and his little family have since moved back to Arizona…and he has spent the last few months getting used to riding the desert roads and highways that criss-cross the greater Phoenix area, the Valley of the Sun….
While I was never inconsiderate or discourteous to cyclists when I encountered them on the roadways wherever I have lived, I became even more aware of their very pronounced presence in the Salt Lake area…cyclists are absolutely everywhere around here…and my son was one of them.
While he no longer lives here, I can’t help but think of my son when I see cyclists out on the road…can’t help but recall his recounting of rides that he took out into the countryside that surrounds the greater Salt Lake area…greening fields in the springtime with snow-covered mountains in the background…that solitary rider out there racing against himself and the wind and the angle of the roadway…that joy in his beating heart…riding…riding…..
East toward the Wasatch….
Another image for Gunta…situated near Eagle Mountain, Utah…west of Lehi and Provo…looking east toward the Wasatch Mountains….
Hiking toward Grandeur Peak…on a snowy Sunday in March….
I have been up here six or seven times over the last couple of years, but never under conditions such as these. The mountains had received somewhere between one and two and a half feet of new snow over the last four days…and while, yes, I am ready for true spring like the rest of us, I couldn’t believe the beauty of the snowy mountains and trees while I was out there. So here you are, more snowy pictures from Salt Lake City, Utah, USA…I hope you enjoy them as much as I do…..
mountains and water
This is one stretch of the Wasatch Mountains over The Great Salt Lake, as viewed from Antelope Island in the middle of February, 2012.
driven to…distraction….
I actually made this photo from the overpass on another road, but that is my exit from the freeway (toward the right of the image) on my way home after work in the evenings…sometimes I miss it…when I’m distracted…….
“…the view from up there…”
If you remember this post, living anyway, you might remember reading in the comments that Allen mentioned that he’d like to see the view from up there. Well, these photos are not from exactly up there, but they’re from a location that’s pretty close to being up there….
You’ll notice that the pictures in first to fourth order go from left to right in the landscape…and you’ll notice that it’s a little brown and bleak…but the photos were taken in November after an earlier light winter and dry summer….
The photos were taken on the ridge between Days Fork and Cardiff Fork, looking west and down into Cardiff Fork. The road was used for mining efforts over the years…which have been finished for about four decades.
I have photos of the mining artifacts from earlier in the summer…just haven’t gotten around to making a post yet…. If you’ll look closely (or click on the photo to magnify it) in the second photo, at the largest patch of snow closest to the bottom right-hand corner of the image, you can see a small rectangle…that’s the foundation remaining from the miners’ bunk house…you can also see it in the third photograph…but you might have to hunt for it a little bit…in the lower quarter of the image and toward the left side….
“It’s great to be alive in the West”
My late father-in-law, Gary, lived in the western United States for all but one or two years of his life. He was born in Montana and then headed down to Arizona to follow the love of his life when he was in his early 20′s. Gary traveled the West extensively while racing and riding motorcycles and dune-buggies, and flying hang-gliders and airplanes…he was an independent spirit who loved life. My sons remember working with their grandfather, painting the house or building a fence…out in the Arizona heat…and making comments about how hot it was outside…and Grandpa used to say “Yep…it’s great to be alive in the West, isn’t it?”
If you’ve been following or visiting my blog for any length of time, you might know or remember that I lived in the Phoenix area for over 20 years before moving to Salt Lake City a couple of years ago…leaving part of my family behind, and bringing another part of it with me. Those who remained in Arizona love the desert and its heat…and most of those who came with me, love the cooler, mountainous region that we now call home. So, while I have left the cactus, tumbleweed, and ungodly heat behind, I can still think fondly of Dad and my desert-dwelling sons and say that yes, it’s great to be alive in the West…but this is my view when doing so.
The mountain to the left of the cloud is Twin Peaks…the opening below the cloud is the entrance to Little Cottonwood Canyon…and the area that you can see below the ridge-line to the right of the cloud is Bells Canyon. I made the photo this morning while hiking/walking along the Dimple Dell Trail, a preserved natural area that runs from near the base of the mountains and into the southern neighborhoods of the Salt Lake Valley.
a change of pace
Snow is beautiful…and so is this…from June, 2010, Little Cottonwood Canyon trail…maybe you’ll enjoy a glimpse of Summer while you’re still in your Winter, wherever you are….
Dromedary Peak under Snow
It looks a little different than it did in this earlier post…but I believe it’s still full of an incredible and natural beauty….
Gobbler’s Knob from afar….
This bit of bowl-shaped terrain in the distance was named “Gobblers’ Knob,” supposedly, because of the abundance of wild turkeys found in the vicinity…. I made the photo from the trail on the opposite slope heading toward Grandeur Peak in Millcreek Canyon…another part of the Wasatch Mountain range that forms the eastern border of the greater Salt Lake Valley. ’Twas a beautiful winter morn’.
Wintery Wasatch Mountains
This is the south-facing ridge of the mountains that separate Big Cottonwood Canyon from Millcreek Canyon…as it appears when one is hiking Mill B South, the trail that leads to The Sister Lakes…. This is what you see when you turn around to check your back-trail….
