Shhh...It's A Cecret

Thanks to a nice lady at Tech Support, my computer is happy once again.

Last Friday, Bud and I drove up to the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon. We had heard the flowers were out. A few years ago, I took this picture. Loved it. Framed it. Hung it.

Here is what this year's version looks like. A few less of the yellow, a few more of the pink. I'm thinking the first picture still wins.

But then there's this one! Love it, but it won't replace the first. These next few pictures are all taken from my b-i-l's front yard in the Albion Basin. He's got a cabin there, and to tell you the truth, you can see the very best flowers right from his yard.



But we I wanted to see more, so he obliged. We left the car parked in Joseph's "yard" and trekked our way over to the trail head. It was almost treacherous. Well, okay, so he got his shoe a little wet.

You gotta admit, this picture makes you smile. Doesn't it?
This is the spot of a picture Bud has had for years. It hung in the office until two weeks ago when I brought it home and hung it in the basement bedroom where the Sacred Grove canvas originally hung (yeah, I moved it to the other bedroom). On that same trip when the first picture you saw in this post was taken, I also took this picture (I was so happy when I found the exact spot the other picture was taken from!). My picture was not NEARLY as good as the framed one now downstairs.
This was my picture from last Friday. Still not as good as the pro's picture, but I didn't get to wait for optimum sky and lighting. Oh well. At least it's better than the one above.
I think it is interesting how the snow pattern is almost the same between those two pictures, even though they're taken years apart from one another.

Okay, where was the blue sky when I needed it a few minutes ago?

Here's a good one for Independence Day- red, white and...purple?

This one needs just a touch more of blue sky.

Up close and personal.

Simple and small, but perfect.
We had to cross a few streams to get to our destination.

We could usually find some rocks or logs to help us cross.

Like he's doing here.
While we were in Yellowstone, I joked with Bud that Old Faithful and several other geysers were actually just activated by spigots that some fellow had to turn on and off. When I saw this...
I thought "What?" They're just piping the water to these streams?!?" I dunno, what's this thing doing here anyway?

Then it was time to hike up the hill to find the secret. Bud left me in the dust! He scampered right up that thing!
Come to find out, there was a nice little switch-back trail we could have taken instead of going the hard way, but if I hadn't gone the hard way, I wouldn't have seen this. I'm thinking that thing is not going to melt before winter comes around again (unless we keep having heat like we did today!).

Well, thanks for slowing down, Dear!
Nice views from the top.

Then you go through this place...

and finally you get to see THIS!
This is Cecret Lake (pronounced secret).

I took about 10 more shots, but basically, you get the idea. I'd never been there before.

We started our descent and saw this guy. Hello, Mr. Bullwinkle! Way over there is a moose.
But I thought I could get a better shot. I kept looking for him as I came down the mountain and eventually I saw him again. I took a couple other pictures and decided I could do even better, which is when I got this picture.
Oops, and then he saw me! Bye bye Mr. Moose! No, I don't want to be your new BFF.
We had a marvelous day, and I didn't end up as Mr. Bullwinkle's lunch after all.

Where shall we go next?