In all the time I have spent in the West I rarely think about the elevation. My time spent in the mountain towns of Colorado sure the elevation is a major factor in your day but here in Salt Lake City I didn’t really think about it. In truth the house I am at out here is the same elevation of the peak at Killington. I am starting at the second highest elevation in Vermont.

This morning my host, brought me for a hike to introduce Salt Lake City to me. He and I drove up to the hills of Salt Lake City and quickly went from suburban neighborhood to trailhead. In fact they were the same thing. Don’t ask me the name of the hike we did because honestly I have no idea. It’s the nice thing about being on vacation is I have the expert bringing me places to explore. Forest and I kept heading up and up. First we navigated through rolling hills. As we climbed higher and higher we hit the alpine pines, then snow, the elevation kept climbing.

Shortly into the hike I knew I wasn’t in Vermont anymore and had not given the elevation the respect it deserved. I soon found myself huffing and puffing. Welcome to elevation. Forest said when we were at the top we were probably at about 9,000 feet. Yup, definitely not the east coast. We trudged through the snow, climbed over rocks along a ridge line and laughed the whole time. We found a plastic tube on the way down which had a notebook to mark who had been there in it. We both wrote a little sometime and headed back down into the city.

We returned to the city and the car a mere three and a half hours after we had left and yet we have spent that time totally with nature and in a completely different environment. This is the allure of the west. I have felt it many times this area is so vast you can spend a lifetime and never see it all. Only first you need to get use to the elevation. Here is to the beginning of a great vacation. The best thing is knowing we can do it all over tomorrow. However, we got called to do a special workout. Look for that post tomorrow!