Loving our Laccolith

We used the excuse of my birthday and Father's Day to celebrate.  Our plan -  go to Pine Valley and eat an expensive (and very good) dinner at the Brandin' Iron...you can only justify such expense for an occasional celebration.  After that we hiked up Santa Clara Creek to a great little camp spot next to the creek.  We set out our sleeping gear on a tarp and then settled in to watch a movie on the lap top until we were tired (and ran out of battery).  Then it was a great night under the stars with the sound of the nearby stream's waterfalls to lull us to sleep. In the morning we packed it up and went back down to the car where we breakfasted near the creek (food all ready in the ice chest).  Then we traded our big packs for day packs with lunch, snacks and water and headed up Whipple Trail, snacked in Whipple Valley, checked out South Valley, went on to North Valley and then over to Mill Flat for lunch.  We soaked our feet while we ate lunch and then had a little nap.  Then it was down the trail to the other car we had left at the Mill Flat Trail head.  We stopped in for ice cream at the Brandin' Iron ice cream bar to celebrate more and drove over to pick up the other car.  On the way home we stopped in at Veyo Pie for a sour cream lemon pie in lieu of a birthday cake for Sunday dinner.  We did 20 miles which was actually not too bad considering we had left the GPS on the kilometer setting and couldn't figure out why our 20-miler was showing to be a 28-miler.  We were so relieved when we found out the trail hadn't somehow gotten longer, that it felt very nice indeed!  What a great way to celebrate with wildflowers blooming everywhere, streams still running and a nice breeze to keep that last mile from being too hot.  Pine Valley (our laccolith) is the best local getaway there is from the hot, hot summer.  Oh how we love it! 

Camp and breakfast sites

Along the trail

Pretty stuff, lunch & rest spot and bringing the columbine home to transplant...I hope!

More pretty stuff.  We came upon 3 little squirrels who were just hanging out in the middle of the trail. They took to the bushes but were very curious about us. One finally came out to see who it was that was so interested in taking their picture.  (Look for the 3 sets of eyes in the bushes.)