Friday, August 21, 2009

The Grotto

Phil surprised us by coming home early from work today. I had planned on taking the boys on a bike ride when Adam got home from school, but since Phil isn't a fan of bike riding we dropped that plan and decided to go exploring instead. I googled to find a short day hike in one of the nearby canyons, and we hit the jackpot. We ended up in Payson Canyon on the Grotto Trail. From the trail head it only took about 15 minutes for us to hit the end of the trail where we found a waterfall and the "grotto". It was beautiful. Neither Phil nor I could believe that we have lived in Utah County for 20 years and didn't know until today that this place existed less than 30 minutes from our house. We'll definitely be going back. Lemme know if you wanna come with us.

The boys got in the water and apparently it was cold . . .

. . . because Noah did a face plant and was ticked, not because it hurt but because he was cold.

I climbed up to the rim above the waterfall to get some pictures, and before I knew it Adam had joined me. It was a pretty steep climb with a sheer edge and it made me nervous having him up there . . .

but once he was there, he talked me into going even higher.

We kept going and took this shot at the top. I set the timer on the camera and then jumped in next to Adam. The top of the waterfall was about three feet behind us.

Adam had to do the little boy thing and throw a few rocks off of the top of the waterfall. Then I had to do the mom thing and make him climb back down before he went down the same way as the rocks.

We found another nice spot on the way back to the car and Adam played in the water some more.

Noah was still cold so he stayed on the sideline with his dad.
It was a GREAT way to spend the afternoon, and I'm already looking forward to the next exploration day with the boys.

(And in case anybody is wondering, the mohawk that he's been sporting since Tuesday is going bye-bye tomorrow. Let's hope he is reasonable about it.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, this looks so beautiful. I want to go next time, but do you think I can make 15 minutes of hiking? Maybe with a tow chain. Great pictures.....

Julie said...

That would be a good way to slow Adam and Noah down a little bit so that I can keep up with them. Let's hook them to one end of a chain and you to the other and let them drag you up the mountain.

Michelle said...

ME! ME! MEEEE!!! We want to go! Seriously!