Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Strolling the Tour de Suds

This week's Friday Afternoon [Hiking] Club involved a 4 hour walk in my favorite direction: downhill!

Through a Sunflower meadow:

Along a rocky trail, where brightly blooming purple Asters speckle the landscape:

Wildflowers exert a grand effort, feeling the competition on all sides. Suddenly everyone is in the mood to put on a pretty show:

Farther down the mountain, we abandoned the sunny meadows for the cool shade of an Aspen forest:

Where Monarch Butterflies munch wild Milkweed:

Black bears (oh, my!)* nibble on the plentiful berries:

And, flower lovers, such as me and KC, brazenly snoop around secret gardens ~ aka people's backyards in the Old Town neighborhood of Park City.

This Downhill Day
To do this much hiking without putting forth any effort at all, one must first make like tourists and ride the Deer Valley Ski Lift to the top of Bald Eagle Mountain.

From there, we meandered downhill to the legendary Tour de Suds hiking/biking/misbehaving trail that, sooner or later, drops you right in front of a brew pub. Long live our Mountain Trail Foundation. I mean... is that fantastic planning or what?

PS: I don't believe there are any bears around here. Squirrels, maybe, but I don't think they'll eat you.

4 comments:

Chloe m said...

I feel right at home looking at this pictures, all the plants we get here in the mountains. Love the fall, don't you? You have shown what the perks are!
Watch out for those bears.
Rosey

KC said...

What a lovely reminder of a lovely day. Great Pics Kate!

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Hi Rosey and KC;
Thanks for the notes. I do love the fall. It is my most favorite time of year.

I'm madly racing around cleaning the joint so my house sitting friends can't call me a pig. (I imagine they'll come up with an excuse to do so anyway :)

What to do with a blog when you're gone? Any good ideas? I refuse to bring my laptop on this vaca....

KC said...

Shoot, I was hoping to keep up with you through the blog. Guess we'll have to get the scoop when you return.