WINTER NIGHT HIKE

 SOMEONE had the bright idea to hike up to a HOT SPRINGS in the middle of the night in the freezing cold...(not saying who:)


Let's just say that we were invited and thought it sounded interesting.
Sam Stanley, Alisa Baumgartner, our daughter Breanna, Sister Taylor and President Taylor were up for the challenge.

 We drove up Spanish Fork Canyon and up Diamond Fork towards the trailhead...about 8PM.
The trouble was, the road was closed about 4 miles from the trailhead which meant a 4  mile walk on the paved road before even starting the hike.

Wouldn't have been so bad but it got snowy and icy after a while and it was cold without tree cover to block the wind!

 We kept a really good pace just to keep warm!

One of the main reasons we came was to enjoy the night sky and it did not disappoint!
The sky was BEAUTIFUL!  We would stop every once and a while just to admire it and look for where Orion was then.

 Once we hit the trail (after walking FOREVER!!)
we then enjoyed the night trail.

We were walking uphill most of the time, not extreme, but near hillsides where snow had rolled down all on its own to create some really interesting formations.

This one was just laying there after rolling down the hill.  YUP, its a SNOW HAT!!
Sam tries it on for size!







  


I saw this little spiral snow roll and it looked just like a ROSE...so Alisa added a stem and a couple dry leaves and this is how it turned out.
AMAZING!

After hiking FOREVER once again...we smelled the strong sulfur smell and knew we were getting close.

We finally arrived at the hot springs and somehow got out of our hiking clothes and into the warm water...it was slimy but wonderfully WARM!

    We had some adventures with what we thought was someone's lost shirt or sock scaring us in the water...
...and when we finally pulled it out to toss it, we realized it was plugging the pool and all our warm water was now draining to the pool below!  Ooops!

 Our next adventure was trying to change clothes in the dark without freezing to death.



 We all got changed and it was time to head back down.

I think the main thing that kept us going was thoughts of going for hot cocoa when we got down to the valley!

But it WAS beautiful!  We enjoyed the company and had such fun chatting as we walked...trying to warn each other of icy spots and helping others each time someone fell.
The night sky was AMAZING too!

At the bottom of the trail I tried to place my camera on a post and do a timer shot...but we could not see at all, pitch dark, so it turned out really funny!  We could not see where the camera was pointing at all!
We booked it the next 4 miles to the car, getting spooked once by a large animal apparently sneezing?? near the road.  Scary!
After what seemed like an eternity, we made it to the car, got the heater going and drove our stiff little bodies...stiff from 13 miles in the freezing cold!!!   Got to Flying J and went in for hot cocoa...and as soon as we were in the warm store, we all started shaking uncontrollably.  It was pretty funny!  I think this was about 3:00 AM so we were exhausted but satisfied we had done something tough and beautiful.
Can't wait to hike this one once the road opens to the trailhead.  It will be amazing in the spring, but we are ready to let it rest for the winter!  THANKS ALISA AND SAM!!!  Happy Trails!!