It was difficult for me to decide where to hike this past weekend after my retreat was done. Most of the scenic roads were closed and wouldn’t open again until spring. The same went to hiking trails though I’m not sure how can a hiking trail be closed. Maybe put a big gate in front?

In the end, I found a hiking trail that was open near the hotel where I was staying. The trail is called Iron Canyon. It’s the prelude to the Iron Mountain trail which is closed. It is, as indicated in the photo below, located at the corner of Iron Mountain Dr. and Iron Canyon Court in Park City, Utah.

I was quite confident that the trail is easy at first and decided I don’t need to change into the pair of sturdy hiking boots I had brought with me but very soon, I realized it was a big mistake. The view was gorgeous though.

Because it rained the previous night, the trail was slippery with mud and wet rocks. I had no trouble heading up but coming down? Now there’s trouble.

Even though it’s a two-mile out and back trail, it didn’t turn out to be as easy as I imagined. The ground never evened out. The trail just kept going up up up. When I reached about 3/4 of a mile, I saw snow on the ground, which prompted me to turn around. It had taken me 30 minutes to reach this point and would most definitely take me longer than 30 minutes to return to the car. Besides, the path was getting more and more slippery the higher up I went.

I’ll have to try again next spring or summer.

 

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