Palisades

Last Friday, Brandt wanted to go on a day trip to Palisades Creek (up past Idaho Falls). So all week leading up to Friday he was trying to talk me into going with him. Neither one of us had been before. I had no desire to go; I just wanted to veg on the couch all day (I'm quite lazy on my days off). But he said we could go on a hike up to this pretty lake where he could fish while I read my book, the weather was going to be really nice, the leaves should be changing colors so it would be really pretty, etc. etc. So finally I consented to go.

The first half of the day was pretty great. The weather was absolutely perfect for hiking and everything was so pretty. Here are some pics we took along the way...

I think Brandt said it was about a four-mile hike to the lake. But after hiking for about two hours, we were hungry so we stopped on this flat rock and had lunch before turning around. Not ten minutes later, we see this...

And I'm thinking, "Great. It's going to snow." And sure enough, it did. And it snowed hard. And we still had an hour and a half of hiking before we could get back to the car. At this point, I am just loving the fact that I came along on this little adventure. I'm walking pretty quickly so as to get out of the storm as fast as possible. We walk across this bridge and I turn around to make sure Brandt is still with me and he looks at me with these puppy dog eyes, looks down at the creek, and then back at me.

"You want to fish, don't you?" I ask him.

"Can I?" He asks me back.

"Do you not see that it is SNOWING out here?!" I throw back at him.

"Just 20 minutes and if I don't catch anything, then we'll go," he tries to persuade me.

"Fine." So I find a spot under the bridge to hide and keep dry while this crazy man does his thing...

(You can click on the pics to enlarge)

Lucky for me, he didn't catch anything and 20 minutes later we were on our way. Here's some pics of us as we trudge on through the snow...

That's me making the expression "normal" people make when there 57 degree perfect hiking weather suddenly drops to 35 and snow comes crashing down when you still have three miles to go. And, of course, there's Brandt giving his take on the turn of events.

Oh well, It's Idaho right? What more can you expect from this state? But even amidst the snow and sleet I still had a good time and was glad that I tagged along. Brandt didn't get to fish as much as he had hoped, but we still had fun. And, looking on the bright side, it could have been worse. It could have rained and we would have ended up a lot more wet than we did with the snow. And Brandt could have ended up catching a fish in those 20 minutes and we would have had to stay there all day while he tried for a second :) So it turned out pretty good for both of us. It was so pretty up there and so quiet and peaceful. If any of you have the chance to go up there, it's worth the drive, especially now when all the leaves are changing. Just check the weather forecast before you go and pack warm clothes. Just in case.