19 - Squaw Peak

So that's a picture of Squaw Peak from google. I've taken lots of pictures of it too, but I don' have my camera with me right now.

On May 26th, my oldest sister begged me to go with her on a hiking trip up rock canyon and to the top of Squaw Peak. I had been wanting to do some local hiking for a while, so I decided I'd go. She got really excited, because people rarely want to go on big hiking trips with her I guess. So I loaded my backpack with my camera and personal water bottle. My sister supplies additional water and lots of yummy snacks like protein bars and rice crispy treats. Some were yummier than others.

But just like the Grand Canyon experience,  had not exercised in around a year. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. It wasn't even half as bad as the grand canyon though. The hike to squaw peak is not nearly as much of an elevation climb (or descent) and the weather is way cooler up there than in the Grand Canyon during the summer. The hike was actually pretty great. The mountains blocking the sum and other mountains with sun still on them, the distant snow melting, the river rushing through the canyon, it was all great.

One thing that surprised me about the hike is how you reach the quaking aspen level and think you're almost there, but somehow you keep climbing and climbing nearly the majority of the time up there. Then once you do reach the peak, you hardly realize it. That is, until you look over the edge. Yeah, then you know you're at the peak. Apparently there used to be an American Flag marking the top, my sister informed me, but it wasn't there anymore.

My sister and I saw a lot of rock climbers on the way up, and something funny that my sister pointed out is that there are literally rock climbing anchors on the steep side of squaw peak (the side in the picture). I'm afraid of heights. I would never ever ever ever do something like that, oh my goodness. So at the top we had other people up there take pictures for us while we stood a good distance from the edge.

Oddly enough, one of the hardest parts about the trip was going back down. Going up was tiring, but going down, especially trying to run down, hurts your toes, ankles, and knees so bad if you don't have proper footwear and foot placing! By the time we got to the bottom, it was nearly sunset and my sister pointed out that humming birds come out at this time. So we looked around, and sure enough the cricket sounding birds were flying everywhere and we even saw a baby calling from on top of a tree. They're so tiny, oh my goodness.

The hike was great, and afterward I took several days playing games to let m legs recover. They hurt when used... I really need to get in shape.