Santaquin Peak

On Thursday, July 24, I went on a hike with my dad and my brother Ben. I rode the front runner train down to Orem with Austin the night before and spent the night at my parents' house. Austin thought the train was pretty cool, and he happily pointed out everything he saw through the window to me during our trip. My dad was slightly late picking us up from the train station, but that turned out to be a good thing. I was glad to have the extra time to enjoy the beautiful sunset and take some pictures of it while I was at it. I felt lucky to have my camera with me.

My mom generously watched Austin the next day while the rest of us got up at 4:00, got ready, and drove out to the Loafer Mountain Trailhead. We arrived and started hiking around 6:00. It was a stormy morning. It rained a little on us, and it was very cloudy and windy. This made for some dramatic and beautiful scenery.

Looking out toward Mount Nebo

 

We actually saw a fair amount of wildlife along the trail. This included a couple birds, such as the fledgling and sage grouse pictured, that ran along the path in front of us for a ways as if they were also trying to reach the peak. Then right before our final ascent to the peak, we spotted four mountain goats on the peak just across from us.

Our timing for the hike couldn't have been better for seeing wildflowers along the way. I don't know if I have ever seen such a grand array of wildflowers in full bloom on a single hike before. We saw lots of horse mint, yarrow, paintbrush, flax, and buckwheat, as well as blue bells, lupines, columbines, and forget-me-nots, among numerous of other blossom varieties, many of which I didn't know. The meadows along the ridge line and on the mountain slopes were just covered with wildflowers.

Our hike turned out to be extremely windy. The cold wind along the ridge and on the peak felt like it was going to blow me off my feet. Once at the peak, we found a tattered U.S. flag tied to a flag pole and a battered mailbox with moldy notebooks in which we could sign our names. We ate an early "lunch" (around 10:00) there before heading back down.

 

View from the peak

Another view from the peak (looking at Nebo)

The sun did come out during our hike back down, and the day warmed up quite a bit. By the time we finished hiking, we had gone nearly 12 miles and climbed somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 through stunningly beautiful terrain. Overall, our hike was the perfect Pioneer Day activity