King's Peak

In August Leo and I hiked King's Peak in Utah with my brother Ethan and his wife Kourtney.  It's the highest peak in Utah at 13,527 ft high.  We met my sister Megan and her husband Jared as they were coming down and we were heading up.  We have never been backpacking before and it was awesome!!

We saw moose and deer and pika and lots of other things only because Ethan was there to point them out.  He loves hunting and told us he watches hours of learning better hunting skills on Youtube.  Hee. Hee.  But he is good.  

We met up with them on Friday in Evanston and drove out to the Uintahs, and then we hiked 9 miles in to where we camped that night. During the night there was a HUGE thunderstorm--I actually didn't get much sleep that night, but the tent was bright as day with the lightening at times.  It was amazing. The next morning we hiked up Devil's Chute at Ethan's insistence. 

That is Devil's Chute behind us.  It's a shortcut, the actual route is a lot more miles longer.  However, it's steep and the rocks slide.  

And then Leo's knees gave out.  Yeah, he was in a lot of pain.  

 

So then I left Leo like the good wife I am and hiked to the top.  And on our way down I met Leo almost at the top, so then I went back up again with him.  

See I made it to the top of the peak again.  And Leo made it to the top--despite being in tons and tons of pain.  I felt so awful for him.  He's a rock.  Seriously. 

I loved the bouldering part.  

Trying out our new water filters.  

There was a lot of smoke in the air from fires in other parts of Utah. 

Leo and I took a long, long time to hike back (Ethan and Kourtney left us in their dust) because of Leo's knees, but eventually another hiker gave him some Advil and that helped a lot.  

 

But eventually we made it back to the fire.  

See smokey air. 

It was so much fun to hang out with Ethan and Kourtney--we've never really spent much time with them much and it was nice.  

Drinking hot cocoa the next morning.  

It was a slow walk back with Leo's knees.  About a mile out from the parking lot, Ethan came running up in flip-flops, took Leo's backpack and ran it back for him, which helped a lot. 

Despite Leo's knees, we LOVED it.  It was so much fun.