Writing about the Grand Canyon hike made me realize that I'd never written about this one! So here we go, because this was a really good hike and worth the record.
In March, I flew to Utah for my grandmother's funeral. This was such a hard week. It was the culmination of a lot of really difficult things in what seemed like every single aspect of my life (except my marriage, thankfully--Neil is a rock and I could not have gotten through this without him). My parents' divorce was finalized the same week my grandmother died and everything just felt insanely raw (plus I had a biopsy waiting for me when I got home, so that was fun).
Anyway. My dad and youngest sister Rosalind and I slipped out one day to hike Khyv Peak. It had snowed quite a bit the night before and we were the first ones up the canyon, so we were breaking trail the whole way!
Rock Canyon is always beautiful but the snow is especially magical.
Rosalind and I taking photos of each other on the avalanche stretch (this part was a little tricky but not bad, but I'm glad I wasn't there when the avalanche actually happened!).
Looking forward on the trail after crossing the avalanche debris...
And backwards at the avalanche area...
Once we turned off the trail towards the campground and onto the trail towards the peak it got pretty difficult quite quickly. Here's Dad checking the route to make sure we were still on the trail.
It started snowing again which felt extra magical.
Honestly love a good peanut butter and honey sandwich for any kind of outdoor activity. It's my go-to pre-race and pre-ski breakfast as well.
This field looked so nice and level after a couple miles of slogging uphill but we quickly realized that the wind was SCOURING that meadow!!
Very happy to be back in the trees!
This is a good representation of how deep the snow on the majority of the hike was. It was exhausting breaking trail that we rotated every quarter mile.
And it got deeper the higher we went!
So gorgeous though and well worth the climb!
And cranberry bread at the top--peak happiness (in both senses).
Rosalind wanted some photos of her doing yoga for her business Instagram page and I really committed. I didn't have enough hands for the phones so when I totally went up to my hip in snow I ended up stuffing a huge hunk of bread into my mouth so I didn't drop her phone off the side.
We experimented with taking some photos of my dad for his dating profiles.
He's sure a good-looking guy!
I was so glad we went on this hike. It was some much-needed catharsis after a really heavy week.
Truly a great day in the mountains!
Posts
