Waterfall Canyon

While Jim's brother and wife were in town, they decided to try a local activity. Something called the "Via Ferrata." It is basically climbing an iron ladder up a mountain. Apparently Ogden has one of the few in the United States, so they called a guide and booked an appointment. Mike and Nicole are avid rock climbers and at one time owned their own climbing guide business. They invited us along, but I knew it was something I wouldn't even attempt. Jim was up for it though, and so we headed up to Waterfall Canyon with most of Jim's family. While Jim, Jeff, Mike and Nicole went climbing, the rest of us decided to hike to the top of Waterfall Canyon.

At the beginning of the trailhead, I wasn't even sure if it would be a good idea to take Elizabeth on the hike, I only had a front carrier for her. After some fiddling, we were able to make it into a backpack. (If I do this again, I need to buy a backpack for her.) And off we went, thankfully Elizabeth's Aunt Suzy had her camera so we have a record of this momentous event. Elizabeth's Grandma told Suzy and I, that we needed to hike this again in 30 years, so we would know how she and Grandpa felt. It definitely isn't an easy hike, and it is a little bit hard with a baby on your back. But Elizabeth was a champion and had a good time, even though her legs probably went numb from riding on my back with her feet dangling.

The most eventful part of the hike was losing Elizabeth's sippy cup as we came back down from the top. We thought we'd never see it again, when low and behold, there in the creek where we stopped to have lunch was her cup. It was across the rushing creek and we didn't trust crossing it, so Jim's dad and Suzy tried to free it by throwing rocks. Mom was going to catch it further down. Despite hitting it four times, Suzy only managed to lodge it even deeper. We thought it was over, to be so close, but yet so far. Then out of the blue, a guy and his dog came up the other side. We asked him to grab it for us, and we had it back. Isn't it crazy how things work out. The following are some pictures from our hike. Needless to say we had a very enjoyable day. Mike, Nicole, Jeff and Jim also had fun, but I have no pictures from them to show. The pictures are from our hike, thanks to Suzy who had her camera.

One very tired little girl.