October 18th: Hiline Trail

Timmy and Tara had promised more hiking for the next day, so I was really looking forward to seeing what they had planned. I slept really well, got up and got my hiking stuff together, then made a quick trip to the store with Tara to grab some breakfast to eat on the way to the hike. (Mmm, croissants fresh from the oven...*drool*.) A short drive later...

...we were ready to hike Hiline Trail! They got Canyon all settled in his carrier, and we were off.

It didn't take long at all to realize that this hike had some amazing views.

At one point we rounded a corner and got an awesome view of Cathedral Rock.

Here and there, you could see little bits of color where some of the leaves were starting to change.

After a while we realized we were actually pretty high up. The trail climbs so gradually that you don't notice just how high you are until you're almost at the top, which was a really cool surprise.

We reached the top a few minutes later. There were great views in every direction.

 The top of the trail was pretty flat, so they let Canyon out to walk around for a few minutes. He seemed to like it.   :)

Timmy, Tara, and Canyon. I wish these guys lived closer so I could see them more often!!

I grabbed a few more pictures before we started hiking back down. The airport sits up on the plateau right in the middle of the picture.

We followed the same trail we'd taken on the way up, but some of the trails branch off and go out toward Cathedral Rock. Next time...   :)

I loved how the trail snaked along the edge of the rocks. It never felt steep or scary, but when you looked back to where you started it seemed crazy that you wound up so high.

There was a really nice view of Rabbit Ears, Courthouse Rock, and Bell Rock. Little did I know I'd be seeing more of those later!

We kept hiking down toward the parking lot, and I kept taking pictures.

We were just about back to the parking lot here. The trail had us about halfway up the big rock on the left side of the picture. That was easily one of the coolest hikes I'd ever done!