Escapeing the Heat

The snow has melted away, and the valley continues to heat up once again. To escape the heat myself, and a few friends from 4bi9 went into Big Cottonwood Canyon to hike to Lake Blanche. It was 85 degrees when we left our house in Salt Lake around one in the afternoon, but with the windows down we could feel the temperature dropping with climbing of elevation. Once we parked in the lot at the "S" turn it was roughly 75 degrees. We had quite the hike ahead of us so we briskly began to walk up the mountain. However, we did decide to take frequent cool off breaks in the river to keep us motivated! We continued our journey seeing deer quite frequently as we continued our hour and a half trek up the mountain to Lake Blanche.

Once we arrived it was breath taking; with pristine water, glaciers, and water falls surrounding us. We also had sundial peak to our left, and to our right was the valley back down into Big Cottonwood. It was now about four in the afternoon and 65 degrees; could not have felt any nicer outside with the sun warming us up. We decided to enjoy it and play in the water, and hike around the rocky plateau we were situate

d on. We then sat around and enjoyed the sunset; everyone thrilled to be out of the city and i n the mountains. We then decided to make the hike back down to the car and call it a day. However, this is not where the story ends, sadly. After we were roughly a third of the way down the mountain I realized i had forgot my keys at the top! I sprinted back up to try to find them before dark. Luckily a nice man had found them and I retrieved them once i hit the lake again. When all was said and done I got my keys and ran down, reaching the rest of the group back at the car before dark. All in all it was a terrific day up in the mountains.