Doughnut Falls

It has been years since I have done this hike.  Back in the day, the only places I knew to hike were Doughnut Falls, Lake Mary, and City Creek, so I spent a lot of time on those trails.  Lately, as I've been discovering so many other great trails, I haven't been to the old favorites at all.  It was a fun treat to revisit Doughnut Falls this weekend.  It's still a great hike, but looks completely different in the winter.  The most notable difference is that you can't really see the falls.  However, it is balanced by the fact that you can crawl around above the falls pretty easily and not worry about whether you will be that year's casualty.  It also makes a good sliding hill as long as you don't fall off the edge (which, I suppose, would go back to the this year's casualty thing . . . ).  I didn't actually take any pictures at the falls as I was busy climbing around and sliding down the hill (slippery snow pants rock!) but here are some highlights from the trail. . .

Going up a hill almost always leads to going down.  Sometimes it's a lot of work to remain upright while going down the hill.  I say embrace gravity.




We also found a strange formation created by the local wildlife.  I've heard of such things, but never believed the critters would actually use them, even when I saw said critters hauling all of their gear down the trail in sleds.  Now I can say I've seen it with my own eyes, and crawled in with my own hands and knees.  I think maybe I could sleep there but I can't imagine why I would want to.

In a separate event (Diane and Beth wanted to get their snowshoe-rental-money's worth), we also checked out a mysterious trail in Millcreek. . . The sign said Elbow Fork but when I came home and checked my book to find out where the trail ultimately ends up, it said Elbow Fork was across the street, so I'm not really sure where we were.  Anyway, we got above the inversion muckiness and saw a little bit of blue sky while communing with nature so does it really matter exactly where we were?