Neff's Canyon

This is the first of many hiking trail logs I want to add to my blog. As many of you know, E and I quite like to hike, but it seems I forget where we go, and how far the hike was, so this will be the first of hopefully a very healthy trend.

Neff's Canyon
Trail Length- 5.08 to meadow and back
Elevation gain- 2450 feet
Stars- Five, totally beautiful hike, and totally hard. I'm glad I can still walk today.

E and I were excited to go on a hike on Sunday after spending Saturday working on the house. We chose one of my favorite hikes, but we had never made it to the top. How can it be a favorite if we've never made it to the top? Well Neff's Canyon is at the base of Mt. Olympus, and just the trail head takes your breath away. A short distance up the dirt road the trail winds though a fairy land of tall trees, rushing rivers, and dark shadows. Soon the trail steeply climbs as we pass over the river again and again. At one point the trail is actually the river, good thing I have my new Goretex shoes, they kept my feet nice and dry. At one point we even had to cross the river where it was raging over a not-so-friendly bridge. This thing looked like it was going to give way any moment and let us wash down the river with it. Luckily we made it across unharmed. The trail continues to climb, and climb and climb, and soon the view of the valley below is breathtaking. E and I continued the last half mile to the meadow at the top. Our legs and lungs burred, but it was so worth it. Plus, the weather on Sunday was FANTASTIC, nice and cool and clear, perfect for hiking.

And now some photos:

This is the trail head of Neff's Canyon, stunning, I know.
Up a little ways you come to the shaded area with oaks. Here the river splits apart multiple times and joins another small stream, so the entire shaded area is made up of little islands with rivers all around. This might be one of my favorite spots in all of Salt Lake.
After you climb and climb and climb you come upon this, a great view!
On the way down I was quite careful to cross "death bridge" (as I called it).
The rain has really made everything so green. We were lucky to have clear blue skies.