Trails 2 Travel

About: Why 100? Why hiking? Well let's just say I have a favorite hobby, and that hobby is hiking. I love the feeling at piece with nature, the exercise from climbing up hills, the general sense of adventure in seeing new places AND having those places to yourself, and lastly the people in the hiking community! I really love it all (even if I still complain on the steeper trails) How to accomplish the 100 hike challenge If you haven't tried the 52 hike challenge yet, give that a go! It aims at getting you to hike once a week for a year. (I was hitting the goal easily by October every year so I wanted to push myself even more and aim for 2/week)  They don't all have to be hard hikes! My only requirement for myself was that it was a mile long and got me out in nature (no urban hikes ) and I tried to make them as different as I could but with changing seasons, the same trail can look many different ways.  DO try to use this challenge to get a little out of your comfor...

My last Carbon County post: last but not least as the little town of Helper is up there on one of my favorite parts of the area. If you like small towns with artsy vibes, historic buildings, amazing locals, and delicious food, this town is for you! 

First and foremost: Let's start with the food  GROGGS Pinnacle Brewing Co.  Our first night in town we headed to the local brewery/ pub (because after ATVing all day, that seemed the natural progression). GROGGS while sounding medieval, turned out to be quite delicious. They had decent prices, and fantastic food. I got my usual bacon cheese burger (which I would put on top 10 burgers ever) and Katie's in-house smoked prime rib sandwich looked pretty fantastic as well. This place is open 7 days a week (though closes at 8 on Sunday) so if you're looking for a place to eat, particularly on Sunday, I recommend.

Everyone knows I can't go on a vacation without checking out at least one hike and in this case, the Gordon Creek waterfall was calling my name.  Trail Stats: Distance: 2.5 miles RT if you go all the way to the top of the falls Elevation gain: 250 feet (there's one decent up and one down each direction) Kid friendly, dog friendly, ATV friendly.  

Fall Carbon County ATV Tour Let me start off this post by saying that not only did this tour far exceed my expectations, but the entire area did. If you hear Carbon County, most people immediately ask "what is there to even do there," "where is that?" Then you mention "Price" which is on all the road signs when you head from SLC to Moab and you get a few nods.  WELL, time to change that.

52 Hike Challenge What is it? 52 HIKE CHALLENGE IS A GLOBAL MOVEMENT EMPOWERING YOU TO TAKE A PERSONAL JOURNEY TO DISCOVER THE PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND SPIRITUAL BENEFITS GAINED THROUGH HIKING ONCE A WEEK FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR. THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ALL AROUND THE WORLD ARE TAKING THE CHALLENGE TO HELP CHANGE THEIR LIVES IN A POSITIVE WAY, ONE STEP AT A TIME.

Let's talk about one of my new favorite hikes! Diamond Fork Hot Springs in Spanish Fork. (now that I'm about to go again tomorrow night lol) My friend over at Katiewanders.com and I went a week before the road opened hoping to have the place less busy and to catch the hot springs while it was still chilly! And we chose a gorgeous day to do it! When the road is closed, it's about 13 miles RT to the springs which made for a pretty long day but I have to say I'm grateful we did it this way. The road is gorgeous and hiking along that was honestly one of my favorite parts (of course until the way back that is..) The dogs ran free in the wide open space where we didn't have to worry about cars coming and could keep an eye on them.. and we really did have it pretty much to ourselves on the way there! Plus there's this cool little pit stop area (pitured below) where the bathrooms were already open and the scenery was so different! Awesome! We were ...

Let's get you caught up on another triad of random happenings this winter. The new Provo City Center Temple had it's open house and I had the immense please of going twice! First I went with Braden and my mind was blown! It is absolutely gorgeous inside! I mean really classy and well done. The second time I took my gal pal Katie (same one from the Ice Castles and half my other posts) and again had a splendid time. We capped that visit off with breaskfast at Kneaders so I could give her the full Utah morning routine while she's out here... she needed to experience it at least once. And for me.. I need to experience skiing in Utah... at least once. Well gear up friends for yet another. traumatizing. tale. I got Snow bird lift tickets for Braden and I for extraordinary good behavior at work and we were both so excited! Even though I've been working graves, I woke up early, Braden took a half day at work, and we headed up the mountain by noon. We stopped i...

Next post: ICE CASTLES!!! Dun dun dun... So ya I've been wanting to go to the Ice Castles pretty much since I moved to Utah, but like most Winter things... I just never got around to it until it was like Spring... not not possible anymore. So when my girl friend asked me if Braden and I wanted to join her on a week night (less busy and MUCH cheaper) I jumped right on the band wagon! They had a couple really cool running fountains (the one at the top and the one to the right) All in all I'd say the castle felt more like an ice canyon and the fountain to the right reminded me of a picturesque water fall, but castle works too! It started off not too cold but as the sun set and things started to chill, we helped ourselves to some hot chocolate at the cute little stand inside the ice castle. They had cinnamon rolls and other snacks and the prices were really actually decent which made the hot chocolate all the more sweet! Then it was off to explore! We circled the p...

Ok so this post is kind of just a hodge podge of my life on grave shifts. Above photo is the what I claimed as my 1st hike of the 52 and I went with my good friend Mya and her dogs! It was actively snowing and the best part was, since we both wore snow pants, we actually slid down most of the trail on our bottoms! It was a blast! To the left: Ollie passed out after the adventure. He sure loves cuddling with (on) Braden. To the right: Just about every night that I'm home on my night's off, I usually stay up till around 4 in the morning so I'm in between shifts and Monty cuddles like this with me on the couch. I sit on my computer with the tv on, and he climbs in between me and the couch! What a snuggle bug! Below: How Ollie copes with the grave shifts... he sleeps in "his" chair. Such sweet kids! And because how could I not post photos of the progress at Battle Creek Falls, here is a photo from probably a month later (hike 2) with another gal pal!...