First Hike of the Season

For some reason I want to blog about all the hikes I do this season. Mostly, I want to get to some of the hikes that you can't easily get information on and provide some record of them. Wind Caves is not one of those. It's one of the most well known in the canyon.

The trail was muddy from all of the rain we've had recently. In places it was hard to get traction to walk up and/or get down without sliding. The weather was drizzly when we started, but cleared up about the time we reached the caves. I was happy to have my ankle high gortex boots for the one stream crossing we had to do. It's always easiest to stomp through rather than trying to balance from one rock to the next.

It was all in all a good first hike of the season. I thought the rain might make us cold. But I think everyone - including myself wore enough clothes to keep warm. Typical me in Utah: I prepared for the cold and ended up hot - so the rain was actually refreshing. The rain let up just in time for the hike down. The clouds were particularly neat, quickly moving through the canyon, building up in pockets against the mountains and then dissapating.

There's plenty of green, but not too much is blooming. There were lots of these little yellow buds around though.

I also learned a new bit of information today. There is also a trail called Wind Cave Way. The split off for it is at the brown verticle "Wind Caves" that's about 1/2 the way to the caves: go right at the split. It was built by Cache Valley Hikers and goes to the ridge. My guess is that it probably meets up with the Preston Valley trail that comes out of Green Canyon to the same ridge.

A fellow hiker also mentioned a hike that goes up a ridge, starting on the north side of the mouth of green canyon. I'm assuming it's from the parking area directly to the left of the Shoreline trail as you enter the canyon. He said there's a picnic bench a little bit up the trail and the trail continues at least 4 mi up. You can probably follow the ridge a ways further and perhaps meet up with Cherry Peak.