Sunday nights are sad because they are followed by Monday.
But on Monday holidays such as Labor Day, there is no sadness Sunday night. It's as if Monday got replaced with a bonus Saturday. Bonus Saturday is even better than regular Saturday, because you already did the stuff around the house, so you get to play all day. (Plus, bonus is just such a fun word to say.)
I told Robyn I wanted to go hiking to celebrate the "contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of their country." (I stole that from Wikipedia. Who knew that's what Labor day was about? I thought it was about barbecue.)
Robyn told me the desired difficulty of our hike, and I found a suitable one that we had never before experienced in my local hiking guide. We decided we were hiking to Lake Solitude. It definitely didn't disappoint.
The trail head starts out at some marsh lands surrounding Silver Lake. The trail consists of wooden planks going over the marshes. If you don't look at the pre-built wooden trail or the gobs of labor day hikers, you can pretend that you are Frodo trudging through the marshes on the way to Mount Doom. It's quite fun.
Eventually, the marshes give way to an actual lake.
Granted, it's still a marshy lake. |
You hike through some aspen forest |
But most of the forest is filled with evergreens |
And you get the occasional glimpse of a ski lift. |
You may even see a chipmunk or two. |
If you're luck you'll see this cute girl. But I can't guarantee she'll be there when you go. |
Eventually we reached Lake Solitude and were greeted by this view. |
This was our view during the picnic. |
They look harmless, right? |
Naturally, I told Robyn to sit on a rock so I could take a picture.
She rolled her eyes at me, but she let me take this shot. |
That's right. We roasted Twinkies over the fire. I'm not gonna lie. It was amazing. They were crispy on the outside and ooey gooey melted goodness on the inside.
Aren't you glad Hostess has returned?
I hope your Labor Day was as good as mine.
Where is Silver Lake?
ReplyDeleteThe only place I can think of is Silver Lake Flat, and the Silver Lake above that, but that can't be where you started... and I want to go to there. It's beautiful!
The trail head is right next to the Brighton Ski Resort in Big Cottonwood canyon.
DeleteThat's beautiful! I want to go too.
ReplyDeleteIt's been our tradition for many years to hike on Labor day. It started in Oregon and we'd hike to Rainie Falls to watch the salmon jump and the tradition has lasted through two moves to two different states and we hike no matter what. Pneumonia, strep-throat, broken toe, 2 weeks post tonsillectomy, influenza....we hike! Lukily this year everyone was healthy.
That's a good tradition. Perhaps Robyn and I should start. This was the first year of our new tradition!
DeleteBonus Saturdays really are the best.
ReplyDelete