Hiking - Day 4

I wasn't sure what I wanted to get into today so I decided to start at the park where we stopped the other day to look at the dam. I walked the quick 1/4 mile out to the waterfall from the dam and then connected to the Provo Canyon Parkway to see where it went. It is a paved trail for bikers and walkers, it actually stretches from Provo out into the mountains and past several parks. I believe the total distance 1 way is about 14 miles.

The first park that you encounter is Nun's park. There was a camping area along the Provo river but otherwise was not spectacular. I kept on trucking it. Next Park was Bridal Veil Falls as seen below. It is a stunning waterfall that starts at the very top of the mountain and spills over, it collects in a beautiful pool at the bottom.

My animal friend of the day was sharing the path with me. I saw 2 more snakes today but the were little bitty (about the size of a pencil) and were gray. They were sunbathing on the rocks on the side of the trail until I tried to take their picture and they got away before I could. Snakes are much faster than caterpillars!

There is another much smaller dam further up the path past the falls, the water collected behind it into a pond. The water was very clear and I could see the fish in there. The reflection of the mountains was picture worthy and you can even get a little glimpse of the fish.

You can see how nice the trail is here, the two left lanes are for bicyclists and the right lane for runners and walkers.

At the falls I had checked how far I had gone and determined that I was going to try and make it to the end of the trail. I made it to Vivian Park where I had my snack and stretched a little before heading back.

On the way back I was passing a gentleman that I had passed going out to the end and said hello as I passed. He said "Do I detect a southern accent? Georgia maybe?" Turns out he was originally from Colombus and moved out here with his family in the late 1970s. We walked and talked for a good while, discussing how hard it was to transition to winter out here, me lamenting how hot it has been at home (the high today here was 76). What a small world. After about 30 minutes or so of chatting we got to my parking lot and I bid Randy farewell after getting some tips of other places I should check out.

I ended up doing just about 11 miles and finished it in just over 3 hours including the many stops for photos. Not too shabby! This is me at the end after happily enjoying some nature for several hours.