Stories Are Better Than Essays.

A long walk in nature? I can do this. Easy. I begin by carpooling to my destination. Not only because I am a thrift-nut, but also because I don’t want to detriment the environment and I don’t think it is incredibly wise to hike alone.

Our adventure begins in the Foot Hills of the Wasatch Front. A trail called Jump Off Canyon. This name initially has me worried, but I quickly follow these emotions with excitement that there will be hang gliders or something as exciting. The trail begins in someone’s back yard: A quant back yard with plenty of oak trees and small purple ground cover. Their dog, although huge, is calm and happy to see us. But we’ve got an adventure to have and we have no time for something as trivial as a fenced dog on this day!

As the trail begins to slope, the trees begin to fade. Suddenly the ground has gone from spring green to a harsh yellow. Perhaps it is because there isn’t very much hydration in the vegetation after a lousy winter like the one we had this year. The trail is dry and dusty, but we’re moving too quickly for it to really bother us. Our main goal is to get to the top of this canyon and back down before it begins to rain. The clouds are heavy and grey lying high in the sky. Surely there will be some form of precipitation on this day.

Before long, the trail that was once as clear as dirt becomes disguised in the vegetation that is the color of, well, dirt. There really has not been much water for these plants to feed on. Luckily for us, there are rocks the size of melons littered about to note exactly where we’re supposed to be going. Although there is a clear difference in the material making up these rocks, one can easily tell they all lead to the same place. Some are Sedimentary, filled with smaller throwing-sized stones in an ice-cream like filling. They look as if a rock-eating monster’s breakfast cereal sat out too long and hardened as is. They’re neighbored by rocks that are incredibly pretty. These rocks are no doubt Igneous, and judging by the color, they’re more heavily felsic. And although the crystals aren’t completely noticeable at a body’s distance, up close, they’re shining in the absence of the sun.

Until now I thought there was going to be a waterfall of some sort, as I was promised by my companion. But noticing that there is a channel bed carved through the earth that the trail is following, but is not filled with water, I can tell that the dry winter has taken its toll on the area. After following the river for some time, we come to a place that the trail seems to end. We cannot figure out if we’ve come to the end, or something else is wrong. We are blocked by a large pile of rocks. This rock pile is ample adventure for climbing. When upon it, we not only notice that the rocks are loose below us, but also that these boulder-sized rocks are break off from the mountain.

A closer look at the mountain reveals that it is not only slanted as from normal faulting, but ultimately was formed from compression. While our gaze is on the material of the mountain face, it is made clear that there is more than one material to see. The face appears layered, not unlike a bean dip at a fiesta. The composition of the rocks is so pretty and interesting. One layer is Igneous/Felsic/Intrusive, while the next is Igneous/Mafic/Extrusive. Throw in some Metamorphic rocks with some Sedimentary, add a little (non)Clastic/(non)Foliated and you have yourself and adventure that is as good as bean dip!

When we reach our destination, we find that there is no beautiful waterfall to admire, and even worse, no waterfall at all. We begin to turn around and have fun climbing the rocks when we see that, in the distance, there is rainfall over parts of the city. We conclude that our best option is to get off the mountain before we get rained on and our sense of adventure gets washed away in the storm.