Well it wasn't really the top of the world, but it was the top of Salt Lake City!
Salt Lake City sits comfortably at about 4,800 ft above sea-level.
The peak of Mount Olympus is 9,000 ft above sea-level.
Difference- 4,200 feet!!
Trail distance: 6.4 miles round-trip
Average hiking time: 6-7 hours
Butler hiking time: 7.5 hours
The hike started off pretty decent with some steep switch-backs, but nothing we couldn't handle. About halfway up the mountain we ran into some other hikers making their way down the mountain. One gentleman said to us, "enjoy this part while you can. It gets a whole lot harder form here on up!" And he wasn't kidding. Not long after, we found ourselves climbing steeper and steeper, grabbing onto rocks, and getting an excellent work-out on our thighs! But ever time we looked up, the peak was getting closer and closer.
After some tough rock scrambling and even getting a little lost, we finally made it to the top!! The view of the valley was incredible. It was hard finding a place to sit down for lunch because the top of the mountain is just a big pile of sharp, jagged rocks. (Well, they aren't called the "sandy" mountains now, are they?!) We finally found a spot and ate our lunch before getting ready for the Return Journey.
We wanted to take a nice picture of us at the very top of Mount Olympus, so we pulled out our camera. I had charged the camera the night before so we could take it on the hike with us, but in the frantic harry to put it in my bag before we left the house, I neglected to make sure that the camera was actually turned off. It had been sitting in my bag and turned on for about 4 hours. Hence, no pictures :(
The hike back was just as hard as the hike up, but we finally made it back to the car and safely home. Now we can look out at the Wasatch Mountain range with our heads held a little higher, knowing that we conquered the highest of them all!
P.S. Thanks to Tiff and Will for inspiring us to take on this challenge!
2 comments:
Good times! We have never done Mt Olympus before. YOU TWO NEED TO COME VISIT! Anytime really. We'd love to see you again and do something fun!
We will have to get together to hike Lone Peak with us. We want to do it in the next couple of weeks. When are you guys available? It will probably take all day.
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