Alta Canyon Hike

Today we hiked to Alta Canyon. We park close by last night so we could just walk from the car this morning. It was a longer hike than we have been doing - 13.5km - but was so nice! And not that difficult. Gradually up and down and fording rivers and through boggy muddy messes, but most of them had boards to walk on through the worst parts.

When Raymond got up this morning and looked outside it was super foggy, but by the time we headed out the fog had lifted and was just really overcast. We could see rain clouds and we kept getting just a few drops and then it would go away. At one point it looked like the rain coming right for us, but then the path moved over a little bit so we were just waking right next to a big patch of rain! We were far enough over it didn’t get us! So that was really nice. It also was much colder today - it was 5C even at started hiking, high of 8C - so we both brought way too many layers! It was not windy so not very cold. I did wear my scarf again as my neck was a bit cold and this is the first time I’ve brought a scarf on our hiking trips. I almost didn’t bring it but threw it in at the last second like well why not? We have room. I’m so glad I did! I don’t usually wear one as it usually makes my neck hurt, but it hasn’t been doing that and it had been perfect keeping me warm without overheating! Normally I’m wishing jackets could unzip from the top and bottom so I could open the bottom, but his fixes that issue! Wear less layers, but also a scarf! It’s definitely going in the packing list from now on!

Right before we got to the canyon there was a rainbow! I keep forgetting that last time we saw at least one rainbow a day while we were in Norway, but not on this trip unfortunately. Too overcast with no sun peaking through. Or just sunny with no rain. But we did today. And the clouds cleared up and it was sunny and gorgeous after that! And the canyon was so cool!! We got there just in time for lunch so we could sit and enjoy! This was one of my favorite places we have been on this trip!

It’s hard to tell in the photos, but a lot of the rocks in the grass were like light mint green from all the lichen on them! It was kind of odd seeing all these light green rocks everywhere!

We also stopped at a bigger waterfall on the way back. It was just off the main trail and we never would have known it was there if we hadn’t gone off trail to the rocks on the opposite side to have a break! We couldn’t see the waterfall from where we took a beach on the way to the canyon, but we could hear it and see the trail on the other side so we stopped in the way back. There was a trail to it, but no sign letting you know! And the rocks behind the water were interesting red and green.

On the way back there were also a ton of little butterflies flying around. We haven’t seen any before this so that was fun! They were much smaller than any butterflies we have seen before!

Overall this was a really great walk! Raymond was like that was a lot of fun, I’m glad we drove up here as we headed off to find somewhere to park for the night. A long day, but a good one!

The first place we tried to park for the night was the bridge photo and those after. The photo after the bridge is a crater from bombing a German WWII boat that is still in the water right next to it, but we could not see it. It was gorgeous views which is why were stopped, but right next to the road and incredibly loud! We’ve been sleeping by the road most nights, but this spot for some reason was louder than normal. We use a white noise machine also which does an amazing job of filtering out other noises so they don’t wake me up, but even with that I think early morning traffic would be too loud. So we went down the road farther and stopped at the last photo which is much quieter. Tomorrow is our last hike in this area and then we head on to the next stop!Read more