October 2019 - Hike time, last visitors & Halloween

Ingrid, Geert's mom, was here for a few more days ... just enough time to take her on 2 of our favourite fall hikes here in the neighbourhood & show her the Fall Foliage 🍁 Utah is known for.
This year wasn't the most beautiful fall we've had here. The colours startied showing later than other years, and then it all went very quickly. Probably thanks to a few very cold October days (coldest since 1971).
But it was beautiful anyway!
We did 'The Wind Cave Trail' in Logan & 'The Farmington Creek Trail' in ... Farmington 😏.
The 'Farmington Creek Trail' leads to a pretty waterfall, and along the way you have gorgeous views into the canyon and the valley, and you pass some old wrecks of cars that plummeted off the small mountain pass road, located about 100 feet above the trail. 
To get a good view on the waterfall, you need to descend to the base with a rope, but that was a bit too adventurous for Geert's mom.

 

 

 

 

The 'Wind Cave Trail' leads to a delicate triple arch and natural cave in a limestone outcropping, also known as the Witch’s Castle. Along the way you're spoiled with stunning views on the China Wall geological formation @ the other side of the canyon.

 

 

 

 

But the best view is definitely from the cave.

 

 

On our way home we stopped for a coffee @ a charming coffee house in Logan, called 'The Westside Coffee Company'.

The next morning we introduced Ingrid to our favourite breakfast dish, 'Californian Eggs Benedict', at the 'Black Bear Diner'. 

That same day, it was also time for goodbyes!

Thanks to the mild temperatures and gorgeous colours, October is thé hiking month here in Utah. So during the week I planned hikes with the spouses, and during the weekend with Geert and friends.
I did the Farmington Creek trail ánd the Wind Cave trail again with the spouses, and explored some new trails with Geert.

Beautiful wasp nest @ the trailhead of Farmington Canyon Trail

 

 I descended with 2 ladies using the rope to the base 

With the water of the Salt Lake being warmer than the air, we got this amazing view when the sun was lighting up the rising steam

@ the trailhead of the Wind Cave trail

@ the Wind Cave

With Geert I did the 'Sunset Peak via Brighton Lakes trail' in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's a pretty strenuous hike, with some elevation gain that will kick your butt 😅! But definitely worth it!! On the top you get a gorgeous view on the 3 of the 4 lakes you pass during that hike. Instead of going back the way we came, we made a detour via Twin Lakes, to maximise the lake factor 😆. In total we did 13,5km (8,4miles) and 750m (2460ft) elevation gain.

 

Dog lake

Lake Mary

Lake Martha

Lake Catherine, with our summit in the back

View on Lake Catherine, Lake Martha and Lake Mary from the summit

 

On the way up and down 

Twin Lakes, with the last ray of sun touching the trees

We're always on the lookout for wildlife during our hikes here, but we only spotted this guy:

The following weekend we did 'Lake Desolation Mill D North trail', also in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and again we did a little detour on our way back to check out Dog Lake ... a different Dog Lake than the one on our previous hike. Lots of dog lakes around apparently, which is kind of funny because no dogs are allowed on any of the trails in this canyon 😆. In total we did 14km (8,7miles) and 656m (2152ft) elevation gain.

 

 

 

 

Desolation Lake

 

Dog Lake

 The next day we did 'Horsetail Falls Trail' in Sandy with some friends. A 6,3km (3,9miles) moderate hike with 493m (1617ft) elevation gain to a beautiful waterfall.

 

 

Still some nice fall colours at the beginning/end of the trail

As variation is important 😏, I also organised a bowling evening for the families of the F-16 international community, and a lunch with the spouses.

 

The next weekend, 2 of my favourite (ex-)colleagues (and because of the 'favourite', they have become friends 😊) Ali & Roel would arrive. They would stay with us for a few days before heading to the South of Utah, after which they would return to our place again for a few days before heading to Yellowstone.

But as it was a long weekend, we decided to do a quick trip (1 night, 1 day) to Zion National Park (NP) to finally hike 'The Narrows'. We've already been so many times to Zion, but we never got the chance to hike them, and it's one of those hikes that you just need to do. So we left Thursday after work and arrived in the dark @ our glamp site on the Zion Ponderosa Ranch, about 30 minutes from Zion NP. Since we did not foresee to cook at the tent because of our late arrival time, and as it is kind of desolated place, there's really no other choice than to eat at the restaurant of the resort. We wanted to enjoy the bonfire we were planning to make at the tent as long as possible, so we just took a pizza, which was not bad.

Although it was a pretty cold night, it was nice and warm in the tent. You've got a real bed in there with down blankets and even an electric fire place ... that's of course why it's called glamping (glamorous camping). A very different experience than the backpacking I'm used to, where you practically sleep on the ground, and because of that almost freeze to death (ok, ok, yes, I'm a cold sufferer 😬), and where you have to take a dump in a hole in the ground ... which you have to dig yourself (that's if you're lucky, because sometimes you even have to carry your 💩 out)! But don't get me wrong, I definitely still prefer the backpacking, but let's just say this was a nice alternative.😇

The next morning we got up early, since we still had a 40 min drive + the rental of our equipment to take care of + another 40 min annoyingly slow Zion Canyon shuttle drive to the trailhead. On top of that we had to be back in time, as we had to pick up Roel & Ali @ the airport that evening ... about 4 hours from the NP 😅.

The equipment we rented included: waist high dry pants, canyoneering boots, 5mm neoprene socks and a wooden hiking stick. We were very glad we did, because the whole hike is through a river, and at that time of the year, the water is pretty cold! And while the water your hiking through is usually just ankle deep, we did encounter a handful of pockets of butt-deep water! But the fact that you must get wet to see the goods, makes it that more fun of course!

You first have to walk the easy Riverside Walk trail (green part on the map below) and then continue hiking right up the Virgin river. You can choose how far you go into the Narrows, but with the time we had available, we hiked up to Wall Street and then took a right into Orderville Canyon until Veiled Falls (blue part on the map below) after which we turned back. This took us about 4 hours.

I already apologise for the overload of pictures that will follow now, but it's just extremely difficult to limit it, because everything was so breathtaking.

   

 

 

 

 

 

  

Our timing was definitely perfect, because when we were approaching the airport in SLC, we were even next to each other at some point (red plane are them, and blue dot are us on the map)! 😆

The next day, we had a long breakfast (with home made Californian Eggs Benedict 🤤) as we had a lot of catching up to do, after which we started preparing for their trip to the South: grocery shopping and picking up their RV in SLC. On Sunday they already left ... a bit sooner than foreseen, to escape the bad weather that was coming this way.

Californian eggs Benedict: a muffin with spinach, tomato, avocado, bacon, poached egg and Hollandaise sauce

That day we kept ourselves busy by carving our Halloween pumpkin. Sunday = funday, right?

 

 

A few days later I was carving again, but this time with the International Spouses.  

On Friday, we had a Halloween party with the International community. You don't have to dress up scary for Halloween, and as we were in 'Peaky Blinders' mode for the last few weeks, this is how we dressed up:

 

Our favourites, ánd the winners of that evening was the Norwegian couple. I mean, it cannot get much better than that!🤩

 

 

 

 

 

We finished the party at our place with the Norwegians (probably waking up Roel & Ali who had returned that night) as they seem to have the same problem as we do ... the party is never long enough 🤪

The next day it was the yearly bizon round-up @ Antelope Island. It's a true Western experience as hundreds of horseback riders, or let just say 'Cowboys', round up nearly 700 bizons from around the island into the holding corrals north of the Island. The animals will receive a health check and treatment as necessary. Most will return to the island, while some will be auctioned to reduce the herd size to 550 ... and to fill the special meat section of our grocery store 🤭.

Waiting for the herd to come ... and the hangover to disappear 😆

 

 

 

 

  

We finished the day with an apero at our deck and a Utah Jazz vs Sacrament Kings NBA game.

 

On Sunday we took them to a local breakfast place that we like, Sill's Cafe, to have a lavish breakfast, ánd a little drive with the Mustang.

 

The next morning I would take them to one of my coffee get-togethers with the International spouses which was Halloween themed of course that month. So in the evening we had fun preparing bloody finger cookies, as those get-togethers are mostly potluck.

 

on our way 

 

group pic with the ladies ... and Roel

 

When Geert came back from work, we took them on one of our hikes in the neighbourhood, Farmington Canyon trail ... that would be the third time for me that month. This time almost all leaves were gone, and at the top there was snow and the waterfall was partly frozen. What a difference with 2 weeks before. It was clear that winter was coming!

The obligatory pic in the wreck 😏

 

Photo chain shoot 😆

 

Pic with the last fall colours ... one with and one without a photo bomber 😂

On Tuesday we had the first real snow in the valley, just when Ali & Roel were headed to Grand Tetons & Yellowstone. Time to get does cute hats out for the last goodbye picture:

 

Roel de-icing the car with Ali warmly in the car 🥶

2 Days later, the last day of October, I left for a short trip to Belgium. 

November 4th is Hendrik's birthday ... perfect moment to surprise him! I hadn't seen him since July 21st! It was time I could hold my oldest boy again in my arms!! 😊