Hiking Mt Olympus

I think the most recognizable peak in SLC is Mt Olympus.  We can see it from our dining room windows and it's always in the background when I run errands.  It's the mountain in the background of this picture:

B's had a goal of hiking to the top of Mt Olympus since we moved here last summer, but we needed the year to get our endurance and skill up so we could actually conquer this thing.  We started the home search here a few months ago and the winner is actually located at the base of Mt. Olympus.  Well geez, we couldn't buy a house with a beautiful view of Mt. Olympus if we hadn't actually stood at the top, right?  (What?  Doesn't everyone think like this?)  So...we climbed it!

Here's the stats of the climb:
Length: 7 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 4,060 feet
Difficulty: Hard
Hiking Time: 5-7 Hours

Did you see that?  This hike was tough!  The trailhead is only 15 minutes from our house (5 min from future house).  We got there around 10, reached the top around 1:30, and were back at our car around 4:15.  There were a few points along the way that I didn't think I'd make it, but the great thing about hiking is that you can always sit, rest, drink some water, eat a snack, and then feel great to start again.

Here's some pictures from the hike:

A lot of our day looked like this:

 B suggests this replace Belmont Harbor (Chicago) as "our spot."

Still alive and happy with some PB&J at the top!

So, we wanted to climb this and look down off the peak into our new neighborhood.  But, where we thought we'd see our neighborhood, all we could see was another tall rocky edge.  We didn't know if this was another mountain or what, but finally figured it out.  It turns out there's a higher point BEHIND the face we can see from the new house!  I was a little bit south of the city the other day and snapped this picture:

That's the back side of Mt. Olympus.  See the tallest point?  That's where we were!  All that stuff to the left of it was blocking the view to our new neighborhood!  So frustrating! Anyway, I still think we get to look out our front window, point to Mt. Olympus and let everyone who visits know that we stood up there.  That's not obnoxious at all, right?

Oh--and for those of you who just read this to see the kids, here's a picture for you:

(Baking soda, food coloring, vinegar, and a medicine dropper makes sizzling art!  Thanks to Lindsay from Pittsburgh for this great idea!)