Caving

Matt and B drove me home from our Wyoming 4th of July trip (details of that coming in a later post- my goal is tonight). They had a couple of concerts to attend in Utah, so we all arrived on Wed and they stayed until Saturday. We had a lot of fun, including on Sat morning, we got up "early" and decided to hike to the Timpanogos Caves. I hadn't been since I was fairly young and Matt had never been, neither had B, plus Matt was thinking a little exercise and being away from people sounded nice (they'd had enough of people after the free Modest Mouse concert they had attended). It's also very close to my house, so we made a plan of it. In that first pic you can see that Scout was the navigator and had the map. I was really proud of her- she hiked the whole way except for one brief piggyback ride from B when we were close to the top. (She was a baby mountain goat if you were wondering). It's a mile and a half up to the top of the caves and it is a fairly steep hike! Not made any easier with a baby strapped to your back I tell you, but it sure was beautiful the whole time.

Here is one scenic view:

Here are Matt and Elles at the top

Me and Elles

Scout enjoying a snack while waiting for our tour to begin

Peering over the edge

Here's Elles inside the cave
(it is 45 degrees inside the caves year round! It felt WONDERFUL after that hot hike)

This picture makes me laugh!
Elles has like a Sherlock Holmes look on her face.
Or maybe it's blue steel.....

The Bean and Paw Prints Glitter Stars on the way down

B heroically took Elles for the way down and Elle didn't quite make it.

We had a great little outing and all were very glad we did it. The caves really are impressive and really worth seeing. We found out that there is a room in the caves that makes Timp Cave not only a National Park, but a National Monument. It is a room that has these cave growths that are only found in a couple places in the whole world (and only a couple are found when they are indeed found), but at Timp Cave there is a huge room of them. No one knows how they are formed and why they are so incredibly rare and why the heck Timp Cave has a whole room of them. They resemble Stalactites, but they grow squiggly instead of straight. Anyway, that was the feature that impressed me the most. I was also impressed that I live 3 miles from a National Monument. I never knew that (or thought about that).

Matt and B pretty much left directly after we got home. B text me that night with "Matt just said "the days are long when you get up at 9". I told her that she could tell him that was an especially long one. A three hour hike followed by a 6 hour car ride. Eesh.
Good times!





I had to add the pics that Matt took because they are so good*

(*much better then mine)



Look at Elles peeking behind my back!!
Priceless.