Made for You: Box Elder and Kristen

I think one of the main draws for living in Utah would be the Wasach Front. Practically in the backyard of Utah suburbia, beautiful mountains and hiking. According to my sources there are 36 peaks in the Wasach Front above 11,000 feet. The tallest of which is Mt. Nebo at 11,928 and the most alluring of which is Lone Peak at 11,253 and the Box Elder Peak, because I can see both from the window of Kristen's front room, my dear friend for almost 20 years!! (oooh, I can't believe I'm old enough to say that, especially, because we met in middle school! hee hee).

Speaking of Kristen, here is the almost complete portrait that I painted of her family while I was down there, (I forgot to take a pic of the finished work! D'oh!)

And this is Ceilo, quite possibly the cutest baby girl I have ever seen. Kristen and Carlos, you guys make a good team!

Interestingly there are only two peaks in Washington above 11,000, Rainier and Adams... technically 3 if you want to count Little Tahoma Peak, a satellite of Rainier.

The hike up to the Box Elder is one of my all time favorite hikes. A 10 minute bike ride from Kristen's house is the Dry Creek Trail Head, and from there you can hike up to the top of the Box Elder Peak. It is quite the climb, about 5,600 feet of elevation gain in 4.6 miles to the summit at 11,110 ft. I love this hike because I found it on accident a couple of years ago, when visiting Kristen. Saw a path, wanted to know where it went, I hoped that it would take me up to that peak I saw in the distance, and sho' nuff, it did!

Some pics from the mountain

Wow

So pretty, I feel soooo lucky that I get to see things like this!

Kinda a lame rock pile at the top... there were so many flies I thought maybe there was something dead underneath it.... but the view of the valley was phenomenal!