Maple Canyon

Happy hikers make all the difference! Could have been that we hit the trail pretty early in the morning. Could have been that the bag was sufficiently loaded with granola bars. Whatever the reason, you'll notice that our most recent hike, Maple Canyon on our way out of Sanpete County, was filled with many more sincere smiles!

We first attempted the "Middle Fork." Supposedly, an amazing arch becomes visible a short ways in. Well, we passed unique walls that looked like piles of round rocks held together in concrete. We went through shadows and past small patches of remaining snow. We carefully scaled a very steep slope of wet mud. That's when we turned back. Things appeared more like a dead end into muddy trees. Add a 30 lb pack and two girls underfoot, and we called "uncle" before seeing any claimed arch.

Once back at the starting point, the day was still young and the kids wanted to try the trail "across the bridge." Better titled the "Left Fork Trail." Rock climbers from all over come to this area to scale these mountains. Left Fort offered more close-ups of the strange geology. We passed many climbing clips that remained mounted and left behind. We did some careful rock jumping across a small creek (not deep or rushing speeds, thank goodness).

This trail felt very much like Spring to me - moss covered rocks, petite wildflowers trying to grow, and random runoffs dripping from above. It turned out to be a hike where hands could be put into pockets and the flat path could be enjoyed (at least for the small portion of it we walked, who knows the size of boulders one has to scale once in the "box canyon" section...).