This hike up Mount Timpanogos was a bigger undertaking because we planned to camp near the summit. We packed food, wood (they told us we wouldn't find any), and sleeping gear and set out to conquer the famous mountain. Our packs weighed about 30 lbs each. On this trip were me, Mike, and his friend Josh.
Half way up, we got off the trail and had to try to find it again. We wound up at the edge of a rock that dropped straight down to a subglacial river. You can see the waterfall and pool behind the wall of ice.
With the summit in sight, we found a quiet spot by Hidden Lake, a lake that can't be seen from the trail until it is passed. We knew about it and knew most didn't so this was our destination. The lake is fed by a glacier that dips down into it and slowly melts. It turns out there was plenty of wood at this spot so we carried extra weight for nothing. I didn't sleep very well because I was borderline chilled and didn't have a good mat. But we made it through the night.
The next day, we stashed our things and made the trek up to the summit. To get down you can slide down a glacier which feeds into the more well known Emerald Lake. From the summit both Emerald Lake and Hidden Lake are easily seen, as is the whole of Utah Valley.
On the highest parts of the mountain we spotted several mountain sheep. This was a mother with a kid nearby and this was as close as we could get to any of them. They make confident leaps from cliff to cliff that would stop humans in their tracks. A simple slip up would be a long painful fall.
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