The Last Days of Summer

We've been enjoying the last days of summer for me as school officially starts this upcoming Monday July 23, 2007 - but more on that as it begins. We just most recently came back from camping at Whitewater State park this past Monday.

Whitewater State park is the closest park for camping from Rochester, it is about 40 minutes away by car on a paved road that passes farms, farms, and nothing but farms (corn and soybeans), and seems to exist only to get to Whitewater.

Whitewater is a conservation project that started in the early 20th century that was mediation from erosion caused by local slash and burn farming, as such everything was re-vegetated. For less than a hundred years it's done a good job becoming dense and green again and features 12 miles of hiking and even a man made beach (although nothing to compare to our California adventures - I mean it's on a river).


We picked a bad night to go camping though as it was muggy, rained, and our campsite wasy, raided by raccoons (two families of 3 each I think) every hour on the hour from 12-4 am. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. We enjoyed a hike though, and Mikey seemed to like the beach, and drinking the river water to our chagrin. We'll have to redo the camp in the winter and I think it'll be a lot more fun!

Squaw Peaked

So unbeknown to many a person is the actual location of Squaw Peak. Many people will drive up Provo canyon, see the nice road sign and suddenly decide to venture to a parking lookout about 20 minutes up the paved road. Little do these people actually realize however that they've been conned as have so many countless romantics who go up that same road to woo their dates in the cacophony of chugging car engines and spluttering mufflers - perfumed by the heavenly scent of carbon monoxide.

Here's a tip lover boys: try taking your date to the real Squaw Peak and see if she's all that in your five and a half hour hike up there with her. Our hike today was in the intent to go somewhere new and when we passed by the rock labeled "Squaw Peak Trail" today on our third hike of the summer up Rock Canyon we decided to go for a try. Little did we know that our hike which began at 3:00 pm would last until 8:30 pm before we dragged our broken bodies off the mountain traveling over 10 miles and ascending and descending 2206 feet. Thanks to our friend Google Earth we were able to see exactly where we ended up in our trail of tears.

Our perseverance paid off today though as into the third hour we hit a clearing at the top of the mountain about the size of a baseball field and decided to make a b-line for the west ridge of the mountain where the faint sounds of motorcycles were wafting up in the mountain air.

We trod through a patch of peculiar lettuce-like plants marked "plot 2" and forged our own trail through the brush and growth of the alpine terrain. Not more than fifteen minutes later as we hiked over the last ledge and felt a gust of brisk wind hit our faces, the vast expanse of Utah county revealed itself below the rocky outcropping that we found ourselves on. In the presence of three mountain goats and 2206 feet above humanity this was Squaw Peak --not some paved parking lot drive in.

Google's done a good job trying to simulate the view, but I think I've done a little better.

I didn't realize that our camera could do exposure lock.
We'll make a trip up there next time to get some better pictures for a better panorama