This is a picture of the beautiful Mount Timpanogos. We live in the shadow of this mountain and have talked about hiking to the very top for a couple of years. It is the tallest mountain in our immediate area, so a climb to the top has been a tempting challenge for the more competitive members of our family. (i.e. - the boys) This summer we decided that this was the year and with our older three kids on board, we chose the Saturday before Labor Day because we had no soccer games that day and away we went. (photo credit goes to Robert Shorn)
So here is a little photo essay of our hike. All of these pictures are presented in the same order in which they were taken. Most of them were taken by Trent, who has taken an interest in photography and as you will see, has a pretty good eye. After lots of researching and blog-reading, we chose the Aspen Grove Trail as our route. We awoke at 4am that day so we could be on the trail well before sun-up. After parking our car at the trail head, just above Sundance, we started our climb. Because I am honest, I will say that the only reason I went along with this was because I like being with these guys and I wasn't about to let them climb to the top of a mountain without me. I mean, I enjoy a nice hike, but this was a seriously long hike. Here we are about an hour into our hike, when it was finally light enough for photos.
Hello, Mr. Sun.... It was not in our plan, but we would watch the sun rise... and set... while we were on the mountain that day.
After about six hours and 7000 feet up, we came to this little lake called "Emerald Lake." We ate lunch here and rested and played for about 45 minutes. 
Here, Riley points the the very top - our destination. The little white speck in the middle of the ridgeline is the metal shed you see in the pictures from the top.
The mountain goats were exciting to see. They just roamed all around us and didn't seem to care that we were there.
It was fascinating to watch the goats take off over the cliff and just walk along the side of the cliff. I don't really want to know how my daredevil son got this shot of the mountain goat. Ricky and I were around the corner of the trail and when we got closer, Riley and Brant informed us that Trent was standing on the very edge. ...deep breath... I told him to be careful because that was an expensive camera he was holding.... he knew I was kidding.
After another hour of climbing, we came to this area they call "the saddle." It's this little ridge that is super-windy and this was the first time since the very beginning of our hike that we were back on the west side of the mountain and could see down into Utah County. The view was truly breath-taking on many levels. While the summit didn't look very far away, we were told that the rest of the climb was about an hour of some pretty steep rock climbing. We had already been up there for way longer than we had planned and felt sad about leaving our other two little guys at home for so long. And, I'm not going to lie... we were TIRED! At least, I was. We talked about whether or not we should keep going and decided this: How lame would it be to look across the valley at this mountain every day and say, "We hiked ALMOST to the top of that mountain?" Pretty lame. So, with that in mind, we put on our big-kid undies and started the last climb.
When we got to the last little switchback before the tippy-top, Ricky hung back a little bit so he could photograph us when we reached the top. He was lucky enough to take a picture right as this guy was practicing his mad balancing skills. Pretty cool, huh? There is Brant in the lead, then me, Riley, and Trent...
At the top, there is this little metal shack with a book for signing. I think Riley looks rather proud of her accomplishment... What an awesome feeling!
We had been on the mountain for nine hours and we had climbed all the way to the 11,749 feet above sea-level summit! Of course, that nine hours included some playing and resting.
Sorry this picture of Brant is so small. It was taken with Ricky's iphone. You can see the big version on Facebook...
This shack is literally perched on the top of a narrow ridge. Riley and Brant are hanging on to the east side of the shack. This side drops down onto the Wasatch County side...
And this is the west side which looks out over Utah County...
We stayed up there for about 30 minutes. We took pictures, chatted with climbing friends we had made, enjoyed the view, and then started the climb down. We happily wished for a zip-line, but knew that the only way down was to hike. 
The hike down took about 5 hours. This was because when we got back down to Emerald Lake, the Park Rangers insisted on checking Brant out. They treated some scrapes he had and asked him some questions to make sure he was still oriented OK. They told us that they did this because young kids who make that hike will sometimes be fine the whole way, and then just crash all of a sudden. They determined that he was fine and let us go on our way. All together, we were on the mountain for close to 15 hours. We missed watching the Alabama game, but Annie was nice enough to text us updates. That kept the boys happy on the long hike down. When we were within about 45 minutes of our car, the sun quietly sunk behind the mountains and we were left to rely on our flashlight once again. We were sore and tired, but proud of what we had done.
I took this picture this morning from our back deck. This is the Mount Timpanogos that we get to see every day and, yes, we are happy to say that we went all. the. way.
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