Hiking Buddies

Rockwell and I went on a hike with Grandma and Grandpa Ham the last week of summer break. We started in Little Cottonwood Canyon and hiked into Big Cottonwood Canyon, and then down to Lake Catherine, Lake Martha, and Lake Mary. It sure made Rockwell feel awesome that Grandpa thought he was ready for a 6-mile, pretty strenuous hike. We drove to my parents' house and then drove up to the canyon together. Before we left the house, Grandpa showed Rockwell a picture in his journal from 9 years ago. It was a picture of the two of them, both wearing hiking hats. The caption read, "My future hiking buddy!" 

Grandpa told Rockwell he's been excited to take him on a hike like this for a long time. I loved seeing that moment with Rockwell and Grandpa, and the huge smile on Rockwell's face.

This hike was absolutely beautiful!! The whole thing. My dad had told me that it was a pretty one, and I just kept saying, "You weren't lying Dad! This is gorgeous!" 

If you look really closely, you can see Rockwell in the middle of this picture below. There were a couple times where he got ahead of us and I had to call out to him to wait for us. Grandma told him if he could bottle up his energy and sell it, he would be a millionaire overnight. :) 

He loved the freedom of all this wide open space to explore. He loved looking for animals and their homes and tracks. He spotted a moose eating some breakfast and pointed it out to the rest of us. We stopped and watched him eat for a while. Grandpa loves to see moose, so he was very happy that Rockwell saw this one.

We took a little detour right where the two canyons meet, so we could see a gorgeous view of all three lakes. It was worth the extra half mile!

The lakes were beautiful. We spent some time at Lake Catherine. There were fish jumping out of the water, and that was fun to watch.

Aren't they cute?!

Rockwell enjoyed going right down by the lakes and checking out how cold the water was and what was living in it.

We just looked at Lake Martha as we hiked past, and then spent some time at Lake Mary.

There were tons of tiny fish in this lake.

Rockwell and I both loved hiking with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a tough hike, and we were all proud of Rockwell for doing it. He's a great hiking buddy!!