Rattlesnake Gulch in Millcreek Canyon

Rattlesnake Gulch is the first turn off to the left after you pass the booth up Millcreek Canyon.  It is supposed to be a one mile hike and felt more like three miles round trip.  The trail splits after about a mile to Grandeur Peak on the right and the pipeline trail to the left.  We followed the pipeline trail to a lookout over the valley from the north side of the canyon.

View from the trail, I heart Olympus

I went on Saturday morning with Mom and Claire.  We saw a huge spider that was carrying its babies on its back and a Hispanic version of the Tortoise and the Hare.  One guy would run by us and then we would find him sitting on a rock a little ways up waiting for his friend to catch up with him.  We also saw two lovely ladies, one of whom had a speech impediment that Claire insisted was a British accent, and a nice boy that was taller than Claire... just sayin'...  

Claire getting a drink.

I can't neglect the happy couple on bikes;  I'd say second date, because who goes for a ten mile bike ride on a first date? Seriously.  We got of the trail so they could pass and the girl ran into a rock that brought them both to a halt.  The three of us then awkwardly continued our conversation looking straight out into the canyon as the couple struggled behind us.  We watched as if the canyon were the most interesting thing in the world and talked about The Queen as if it had been our favorite movie and we had always been obsessively fascinated with the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana.  Honest to goodness, I don't know what the hold-up was, but it took the better part of two minutes to work out, get unstuck from the rock, and pass by us on their merry dating way.

The Living Room: Unfinished Business

The Living Room is off the Bonneville Pipeline trail up by the University of Utah Natural History Museum.  The hike is supposed to be two and a half miles, it has a pretty steady incline, only one yuppy dog on the trail actually looked like it might die.  The trail was pretty busy, though it was Memorial Day.  I went by myself.  The tricky part of the hike was going left at the right spot.  The trail has a lot of trees and is really well vegetated; if it looks like Satan might live somewhere nearby, you've gone too far along the pipeline trail before turning off.

The view is nice at the top, the hike was really pretty and this outcropping was my favorite part.  The top has a lot of flat rocks that people have stacked up to look like furniture.  There was (what seemed like) an entire sorority and fraternity at the top lookout/living room place, so I didn't stay up there too long.

This hike was unfinished business because I went almost a year ago and didn't make it to the top.  I always wanted to go back even though the hike was so nasty the first time we went.  I was surprised to find that not only had we not made the top, we were on the wrong trail, the wrong part of the mountain, and overall I think just about everything was wrong that day.  We had ended up in a lot of small brush and we were looking at the zoo.  It was a nasty, ugly place to be; the real hike takes you out of the city as soon as you turn off the pipeline trail.  It was fun, I would recommend it to anyone that's not too busy watching TV.