Palisades...Take Two

Idaho Falls has had the worst spring ever. It has been so stinkin' cold. I've been thinking about this video I took of Kate when she came to visit last summer:

My sentiments exactly Kate. I want to go outside!! I want to get some sun! I want to be warm, and maybe get a mild sunburn. Is that so much to ask for? I think not.

Well, this past weekend we FINALLY saw the sun for the first time in months. And the weather was gorgeous. Brandt and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to enjoy it so we decided to go on a hike to Palisades Creek. This was our second time hiking Palisades - do you remember how the first hike went down? Click here for a reminder.

But this time we were optimistic that our weather would hold. It was about 68 degrees with no moisture of any kind on the forecast. It was going to be a beautiful day. So we packed ourselves a lunch and headed out. This time our goal was to make it all the way to the lower lake (about four miles) before heading back.

It was a beautiful day. I think I may have been suffering with a mild case of seasonal depression the last few months; just being outside and getting some fresh air was doing wonders for my spirit. For the most part the trail was dry, but there were a few patches of mud and yuck, plus some areas where you had to dodge the snow (which was crazy since it was so warm that day). We were making good time and estimated that we were probably within a half-mile of the lake when the snow suddenly got much worse. For a long stretch the snow was a few feet deep, with no way to dodge around it as we had been doing previously. We figured if we were this close, we might as well trek through it (the snow-covered stretch in front of us was only about 20-30 feet long) and hopefully that would be the only problem we would have. So we jogged through it, filling our sandals with snow in the process, so much snow in fact that it cut my feet to pieces, giving me tons of blisters in the process. We had to take our shoes off and clean out all the snow and give our feet a chance to warm up. At this point I started to really question whether or not it was worth it to make it to the lake. But we had already sacrificed so much to make it that far, we might as well keep going. So we put our sandals back on and trudged on....until we rounded the next bend and saw this:

And we decided the lake probably isn't that cool anyways. We turned around and started our 3 1/2 mile hike back to the car. Darn that snow! We found the same big, flat rock from last time and ate our lunch. I was slightly disappointed we didn't make it to the lake for the second time in a row, and upset that our little jaunt through the snow gave me about ten blisters total (and that's not an exaggeration - Brandt can attest to it), but all things considered it was still a great day. It was so great just being out in the sun. And maybe next time we'll actually make it all the way. Third time's a charm right?