Granite Mountain Hike

My dad, his friend Gary, and I all went hiking yesterday at Granite Mountain.  Do you guys remember learning about granite in science class?  Well, here's a picture of it:

Granite comes from lava that cools slowly.  Since it cools slowly, there's enough time for crystals to grow inside the rock.  That's why granite looks like it has a bunch of smaller rocks inside.

We didn't pay much attention to the granite on the ground though!  We were too busy looking at the nature around us.

Granite Mountain takes about an hour to drive to from my house.  It is east of where I live.  This is what it looks like at the top:



Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Gary's two dogs came with us too!  Their names are Chui (like "chewy") and Perron.  Their names are Spanish because they are Mexican dogs (Spanish is the language they speak in Mexico).


Dad is on the left, Gary is on the right.

We didn't make it all the way to the top, because the weather wasn't great, and my dad was really tired.  I wish the weather had been clearer, because we would have been able to see all around us, just like in the picture above.

We started the hike at around noon (12 pm).  Gary gave Chui to me to hold on to so he wouldn't run off.  It was a little cloudy and cool, but it hadn't started raining yet.  I was wearing the knee brace I got for my birthday, because my right knee often hurts when I walk down a trail (I'm really a Grandpa Stephen!):



My girlfriend doesn't like me to go hiking because she's worried about my body, so I told her I would try to take better care of my knee and be careful.

After a little bit it started to rain.  I brought a rain jacket with me, but I didn't put it on because I didn't think it was raining too hard.  I should have put it on though, because my backpack got really wet!





The plants around us changed as we got higher and higher.  Granite Mountain trail is harder than other hiking trails because you get very high on the mountain in a short time.  That means that the trail is pretty steep ().  I wanted to take more pictures, but Chui kept on pulling me because he doesn't like waiting.  He's a little impatient.  If I stopped for a second, he would always look back at me.  I think he wanted to tell me to hurry up. XD




That's Chui, looking ahead.

Once we got out of the trees, we saw a bunch of different wildflowers.  Here's a


Red Columbine


Lupin


Indian Paintbrush


Phlox


Tiger Lily

Which flower is your favorite?  Why?

We also saw a lot of wild fruits.  When you go hiking, you have to be really careful about eating anything you find in nature, but if you know 100% that something is safe to eat, then go ahead!  It's too early for fruit right now, but here are the plants we saw and what kind of fruit they have.


Huckleberry


Huckleberry fruit


Wild strawberry


Wild strawberry fruit (very tiny!)


Red huckleberry fruit


Thimbleberry


Thimbleberry fruit

Do you guys remember where the fruit of a plant comes from?

After we got out of the trees and near the top of the mountain, we actually were walking inside some low clouds!  Everything got really foggy, so we couldn't see very well, and it started to rain harder.  We put on our jackets and looked for a place to have lunch.  We were lucky.  There were some trees close to the trail, so we walked inside for protection from the rain.  It was nice and cozy under all those branches!

Gary made some tea for us with his small stove, and we ate the sandwiches Mom had made for us.  It was nice to sit down and rest, and I could tell my dad really needed it.  He was pretty tired.










Inside those trees is where we had lunch.



After lunch, we decided to head back down.  We didn't quite make it to the top, but the clouds were too thick to see anything from the top, so it didn't really matter.  As we started hiking down, the clouds cleared a little bit, and we could see between the clouds:


The clouds were very thick, but they opened up a little to let us see the mountains on the other side of the road.




There was still snow at the top of the mountain!

The hike down was nice, but my dad's legs got so tired that he didn't enjoy it very much.  The last two miles he could barely walk, so we had to go really slowly.  Usually, it takes a person one hour to walk two miles (1 mile = 1.6 km), but my dad was walking so slowly that it took us more than an hour to walk just one mile!  My dad was surprised that it was so hard for him.  Maybe he didn't realize he is so old now, and can't do everything he did when he was younger.  The important thing is we made it back safely before it was dark.

In the end, I wish the weather had been nicer, and that Dad hadn't gotten so tired at the end, but I'm glad I did it.  The weather could have been worse, and if so, I wouldn't have gone on the hike.  Maybe next time, the weather will be better, and we'll make it all the way to the top!

p.s. I took the hat your dad gave me Janice!  It helped a lot!  Thanks!