TwO BoYs to the ToP of TiMP

Since Seth's and Blake's birthdays are only 2 days apart, we decided to hike to a cave in the middle of their birthdays this year. They both love bats, dark, slimy things, lizards, rocks, dirt, snakes,and anything that involves being outside. So what a perfect way to celebrate the boys! We left the little girls home with Grams so we could keep an eye on the three older ones around the steep edges we'd been warned about. Thanks to John, Seth is looking at me for this picture...what a little goof-ball.
We had to wait an hour or so for a cave tour with 5 slots available. So while we waited, we watch squirrels, listened to the quickly melting snow rush down the river, and qualified all three kids to be Junior Rangers. After their booklets were all filled out, they had to return them to the park rangers and raise their hand to the square and recite some pledge. Kenz thought it a bit odd...but did it anyways.
Then the hike began. After about 200 yards of walking straight up, my legs were already burning and I thought it was going to kill me. However, after a few minutes we all felt fine and it was a nice hour and a half walk up to the top.

Cracks in the mountain are called "faults". This mountain path and inside the cave are directly on the fault line. NICE. Not what you want to read while on the mountainside.

Look, a lizard! Whether or not you like lizards, the breaks were always welcome since the climb was so steep.

"No Blake, that is not the cave."

Stopping for a beef stick break. Is Seth really goofing-off again? He NEVER does that!!!

Warning Steep Cliffs

Watch for Falling Rocks

About 3/4ths of the way to the top, there was this little bathroom before arriving at the cave. Kenz yelled out from her stall, "Mom it's not too bad". And Blake came out and announced to me, "It's just a hole. There is no water. Well, the good thing about that is you don't have to flush". And then came Seth, "Ya, and I saw a guy down in the hole". Wow, all the hikers that were stopped to catch their breath now were finding it hard to breath in between bouts of laughter. Kids comments are the best!

This picture does not even do justice to how this mountain drops off. The little path down below is part of the zig-zagging path that leads to the top. The areas along the path marked with read are "no stopping zones" because of the probability that rocks could fall from above.

The kids did an awesome job of the hike. Not once did anyone complain or say they were too tired or wanted to quit. :)

A flying squirrel we watched for a while once we got to the top.

The last picture before entering Timpanogos Cave. Instead of looking and smiling for me, I guess Seth decided to pick some beef stick out of his teeth. Lovely!

Cave Lake = Any body of water that is 2 feet or wider inside a cave. This was my personal favorite part. It was beautiful and sounded neat as the water dripped from above.

Watch your step!

Can you say "DARK"?

I will not pose normal, SETH I AM,

I will not smile at your cam.

I will not be serious, I will not behave,

Not in the dark, not in a cave.

Stalactites and stalagmites, very cool! The tour guide said it will take about 200 years before these two form a column.

Watch your head!

About 45 minutes into the cave Seth said he was cold and wanted to leave. Um, ya let me just show you the way out. I'm an experienced spelunker.

Look at that nice maneuver. It was a bit tricky at times since they asked you not to touch the sides of the cave.

I'm not one for "nature shots with nobody in them", but the inside of the cave was great! And I figured while walking down the path if I passed people near the point of passing out, I could save them from hiking up any further and just show the cave to them on my little camera screen.

After an hour inside the nice, cool cave we signed our name to the "been there, done that" list and started our journey down.

Down, down, down we go...

These picture DO NOT do justice to the STEEPNESS of this trail and the severe drop offs.

A look back up the mountain at the cave entrance.

Another wildlife spotting. A little lizard up close and personal. I'm just glad this is all we saw from the reptile family. There were multiple signs along the path that read: Rattle Snake Habitat

We took with us 6 bottles of water. Which would have been exactly the right amount had I not made the kids world come to an end by dropping one. About 1/2 way down the mountain we only had one bottle left. Seth said he was thirsty so I got the water bottle out, gave him a little drink, and started down again. All the sudden the bottle slipped from my hand, hit the trail and began rolling toward a literal drop-off. The path is so steep that you could not bend over forward to get it so I tried twice to kick it toward the up-side of the mountain to keep it on the path, but to no avail. Have I told you how STEEP this path is?!?! Anyway, as the last bottle of water rolled off the path and over the cliff the kids watched with terror. (As if this was the last bottle of water on the earth and as if we were going up the mountain instead of down). A shrub sticking out of the mountain side stop the bottle 4 feet from the path and way out of reaching distance - even if you were crazy enough to try. Soooooooo, the kids simply could not believe that I "threw" our last water bottle over the edge. Seth began to wail and moan as I tried to explain to them that the only harm done here was that I just accidentally littered in a National Park and had no way to pick it up.

The rest of the family waiting for Pup to catch-up. He wanted to run down the hill since it was so steep that is what your body wanted to do. We told him it was not save and the signs said walking only. So he stopped at every bench for a little pout session about the water and how hard it was not to run down the hill.

Yeah for hiking to the top of Timp and back...and for a cute, little, pouting Pup!