Parting the Red Trees

"It's another beautiful morning. Let's go for a hike," I said. By now you know the drill...throw the dogs in the car, drive or walk to a nearby trailhead, start hiking. And today was no different... at least not to start. 

We drove up to the North Ogden Divide and started up the Skyline trail. 

The dogs trotted along, happily exploring here and there, stopping to sniff every bush, and doing what dogs do. They've gotten so much better as little hiking companions, waiting patiently for us to catch up and even coming back when called.

The views were beautiful. To the west we could look down onto Ogden and beyond. To the east we could see the entire valley where we live. 

It was the first time we had seen our "neighborhood" from that perspective. As we looked down over our property, my sweet husband said "hey, let's just go straight down the mountain to the house." OK, in case you didn't quite get that, what he meant was 'forget about the lovely trail we just hiked up, let's go bushwhacking through the brush and dense growth and literally go straight down the mountain to the house'. Now I love this man, and I knew he had been wanting to explore the mountainside behind the house, but this is not exactly what I had planned when I said "let's go hiking" this morning. But being the good sport that I am (yes, really), I decided to trust him and go along. (I could have walked back to the car and just let him go by himself, but nope, that's not what I did).

So, down we went, throwing ourselves into this little adventure. If you've looked at any of my photos of the mountainside, perhaps you were fooled into thinking that there were some open meadows with just a few little bushes... but NOOOO, not so. There is not a single blade of grass growing on that mountainside, just lots of scrub oak, maples, pines, aspens and dense underbrush. It was quite the adventure. And the dogs, who are natural burrowers LOVED it. 

 Up to their eyeballs in vegetation.

Stopping for a little breather. 

Where's Waldo?

Looking back up the mountain. 

 

In one of the steeper areas, my husband slid onto his back and Jake, who had been right next to him, took a little rest on his chest. Albert, never wanting to be left out of anything, decided to join in.

 I'm not gonna lie. Although it was very pretty, I was happy to finally reach home. Even my husband, who is not a total whack, admitted that he was bushed from bushwhacking and that we probably didn't need to do that again. 

Once everyone got cleaned up, we took the dogs, to whom everything is an adventure (and who would probably be thrilled to do the whole thing over again) on a little tamer outing... 

... a quick spin through the home improvement store... 

Ahhh, what a day.