A Golden Day

Tim is grieving the sudden loss of his much-loved uncle on Friday (June 18). I was grieving my mother that same day because it is her birthday.

June 18, 2010, wasn't one of our happiest days, as you can imagine.

On Saturday we took our sorrow out into nature, to the High Uintas mountain range of Utah. The beauty of God's creation was truly balm to our souls. We were accompanied by #4 and ftb, and it was ftb's first time up in the mountains of the American west. 

Packing a picnic lunch of cheese, apples and baked chicken, we drove up to Bald Mountain -- one of our favorite hikes in the Uintas.  With a summit of some 12,000 feet, Bald Mountain boasts some of the most wonderful views I've ever seen.  The steep, switchback trail can be tough at times, but the climb is worth it.

Alas, the hike was not possible this year.  Here's why:

Yep, that's a lot of snow for mid-June, even in the High Uintas. And even if the weather turns hot for the next month, it will remain pretty snowy on Bald Mountain. It will be a long while before a hike there is possible, if at all this summer.

So, we headed back down Mirror Lake Highway and stopped at the Provo River Falls. I'd been there briefly in 2001 with Tim, but there wasn't much time to explore on that occasion. This time we took our picnic and found a nice place to relax by the river.

Here we are just at the time we arrived.

See those falls? Magnificent!  And that ain't the half of it! We climbed up the hill by the falls, stopping on a nice big rock for our meal.

And then wandering farther upstream to see more of the falls.

 An farther still for even more falls:

The scenery was breathtaking and the sun was warm.  We had a grand afternoon together, wandering along the falls.

Here is my favorite picture of the day:

I'll be printing this one out and framing it -- a golden memory of our Golden Day.

- Catherine