Bell Canyon Waterfall

Since Alex went to Lagoon (Utah's amusement park) last week with marching band and once with the junior high, Robin took the girls there on Saturday. I wanted to find something fun and free to do with Alex while they were gone for the day so I found a hike online and we drove up to Sandy to the trailhead near Little Cottonwood Canyon. I didn't do a lot of research on the hike before we left that morning. It said it was a 4 mile hike and I thought, "How hard could it be since it's that short?" I had no idea! It started out with these easy steps and we soon crossed a little bridge over this stream. Just fine so far.

About half a mile in, we arrived at this resevoir. That wasn't bad at all.

You can see downtown Salt Lake from up there. Can you see it?

We need to get some hiking clothes! We were so hot. Alex is also begging for us to buy CamelBaks for our next hike. We definitely didn't take enough water.

This was the trail for a little while, shaded and easy. Sooooooo deceptive. You can't even tell what lies ahead.

The trail was up, up, up and up on these big rocks for more than an hour.

That's actually the trail that Alex is on in the picture below. Besides the elevation change, the big rocks made it a workout. The review that I did read before we started off for the day said it was a strenuous hike. Strenuous? It was so difficult even with resting on the rocks here and there.

Alex told me about half way up that he couldn't make it and he wanted to go back. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to make him go if he really couldn't or didn't want to, but I wanted to make it to the first waterfall. I asked if he'd try a little longer and he said he would. Shortly after, he got a second wind and said he felt great. That's when I started feeling it. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. Alex kept saying, "Let's just go back, Mom. You don't have to kill yourself." On the way up in the car, we listened to the CD "I Can Do Hard Things" by John Hilton III (an LDS youth speaker), so I kept telling Alex, "I'm not giving up. I can do hard things." The trail to the waterfall is not marked so I stopped a few people who were coming down for tips on how to find it. Then a few others who passed us volunteered similar clues. I would have been so sad to go that far up and pass right by it. Finally we got there!

After climbing up and up, when you can see the waterfall, you have to climb down to actually get to it. That climb was a little more precarious than it looks. The beautiful waterfall with the sprays of water and cool breeze made the whole journey up worth it! We didn't want to leave.

I was sweaty and tired, but happy to be there.

Here is Alex, very happy to feel the cool spray. Then he turned around and slipped on the wet, slippery rock and scratched up his arm and leg. Luckily it wasn't bad and he was able to climb back up to the trail and down to the parking lot.

Here's the view from up there.

Of course, our trip down was so much easier, although my feet hurt from maneuvering on the rocks and I lost my footing and skidded down several times. Once we got to the car, we headed off for dinner. We worked up an appetite! Not surprisingly (if you know him), Alex chose Japanese food.

Alex ordered the cheesecake for dessert. He didn't know it, but it had green apple-flavored syrup on it. He said it was okay, but he would have prefered it plain. It's pretty though! I didn't get a dessert. I didn't want to pack back on all the calories I had just burned.