Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Utah Journal Pt. II

Utah is a place of great natural beauty, no doubt. So I'm definitely not talking about the women with huge implants (modestly covered with multiple layers of clothing, of course). We had brunch at Robert Redford's Sundance resort just up the road (it was fabulous) and enjoyed the scenic Wasatch mountain range, including views of the imposing Mount Timpanogos, left. I capped off my visit with a hike up the side of the famous (to me at least) Y Mountain near the Brigham Young University campus. It's the mountain you can see from the football stadium with the Y painted on the side.

Here it is from far away:






Here from up close (look close and you can see people walking on it):







This is another of the sports pilgrimages I've made, most of which most people wouldn't give a crap about (walking the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, peering inside the gate at the U.S. Tennis Center in NYC, sneaking into Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke, sitting in the endzone at Michigan Stadium). What can I say other than it's fun to see in person places I've seen on TV a hundred times.

From a distance, the Y doesn't look like much, but up close you can see that the thing is 380 feet high, a bed of concrete over rock that has been painted white. People also were walking across the face of the Y, which I wouldn't recommend, considering I practically busted my ass climbing the last 30 steep yards of the walking trail up to the letter. Closer inspection reveals that pieces of the rock have been weathered away and the trail below the letter is littered with chunks of rock that are, um, rock colored on one side and white on the other. Question: Is it illegal to take artifacts from a state park if the artifacts have been defaced with white paint?

The Utah motto "hydrate or die" was definitely worth following. I was mighty glad to have my water bottle with me, even given the pre-dawn time frame of my hike. I hadn't hiked at altitude before and by about the second 100 yards, I was gassed. I caught up with a family visiting from Arizona, who told me that breathing hard, even on a modest uphill climb like this one, doesn't necessarily mean one is out of shape. I thought I was in pretty good condition from my running regimen, but afterwards I wasn't so sure. It took about an hour of moderately difficult hiking to get to the top of the Y, but nature has a way of repaying you for making an effort. The Utah Valley at sunrise was a sight. That's Utah Lake in the frame, not the great salty one everybody hears about.

Plus, the July Fourth festivities continued that morning with a hot air balloon race (check out the balloons in the middle of the frame), so by the time I made my descent, they were everywhere.





As I made my way home across the BYU campus, I had the sunroof open and I heard what I thought was a REALLY loud lawn sprinkler and looked up to see the basket of one of the balloons about a hundred feet above me. Made a quick turn into a parking lot and took this shot.

Posted by Unclejbird @ 9:21 PM