Little Cottonwood Canyon

I love living so close to the mountains but I never really take advantage of the beautiful hiking trails that are so readily available to us.  This summer I have tried to spend at least one day in the canyons.  Last week we walked around Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon, this week I decide we would hike to Cecret Lake up Little Cottonwood Canyon.  We drove up the canyon only to find out that the road to the trail head is still closed.  If we hiked the road to the trail head, that would add 2.5 miles to the .75 mile hike that we were planning on.  We decided we would come another day when we had planned a better pack with more supplies.  We headed back down the canyon and I decided to stop at a waterfall that I know of on the North side of the road.  It is a tiny little hike to the waterfall so we unloaded the car and went to find the waterfall.  We were really enjoying our time...

There were these Ladybug like bugs that were all over the mossy rocks.  Logan was very interested in them and told me that they couldn't be Ladybugs because they don't have black spots on their backs.

 Logan, the camera man, was playing with special effects and made my legs look extra large.  : )

We were wanting to cross the river so I showed the boys a way we could cross.  The boys had to drop down about a 4 foot boulder but I decided to take the safer approach and go around through the trees for a gradual drop.  As I stepped up from a rock to go through the trees I saw a snake.  I paused for a brief moment thinking that it was only a water snake or something and as I thought about taking a step forward I scanned the body to the end and notice that this snake had a distinct rattle at the end.  I quickly backed down off the rock and herded the boys and our little hike abruptly came to an end.  I have to admit, I was pretty freaked out.  I have never seen a rattlesnake before in nature.  He didn't coil up and looked like he was trying to make a mad dash out of my way but it really did frighten me.  All I could think about was one of us getting bit and I would have to try to make my way with a baby and a hurt somebody out to the canyon road to find help.  Dresden and Logan were both a little worried and were afraid we would run into another snake.  I assured them I have never seen a rattlesnake all my years I have been hiking.  I think I better get them out hiking again soon so this doesn't give them some sort of complex about running into snakes when hiking.