Donut Falls

While we were in SLC for my sister's wedding, and were trying to stay out of my parent's house as much as possible, I decided to take my kids up the mountains and hike around. We never do the nature sort of things with the kids so I thought this would be a great time to do an easy hike to Donut Falls. I grew up going to the mountians often. Years ago, my parents and Grandparents had a cabin built up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We would visit the cabin often. We spent many snowy days there snowmobilling around the mountain, drinking hot chocolate, playing games and getting warm by the fire. I loved the winter up there. I didn't so much enjoy it when there was no snow. I thought that there wasn't anything to do. At one point we did have a four-wheeler and that was fun to drive around, but my parent's always wanted to walk around and just relax. That seemed to be no fun back then. Now that sounds lovely!!

The cabin was sold when I was in college, much to my Dad's dismay. He loved the cabin. It reminded him of his mom who passed away of liver cancer back in 1990. I loved my Nana and miss herso much. I'm sad that Benn and my kids never got to meet her in this life. I can understand why my Dad would be sad to let something go like that. Funny what aging does to your perspective and outlook on life.

At one point our family had more than our share of Jeep Wranglers. My Dad loves cars and he doesn't like getting rid of them even when they are past their prime. He had a thing for Jeeps aparently. We had three at one point. An '85 CJ7 grey in color, a '91 Wrangler (I called this the barbie jeep), and a '99 Wrangler Sahara with air-conditioning. This is the plush jeep that my Dad still ownes although it doesn't get too much drive time. It is still in prestine condition. The barbie jeep now has the snow plow on it and is only used in the winter. And the CJ has been gone a while now.

I remember taking two of them for a ride through Guardsman's Pass. This is a trial that links Big Cottonwood Canyon to Park City. I thought that was so much fun and felt especially cool when my Dad let me drive part of the off-road trail.

So when I had the idea to take the kid up the canyon, I was determined to take them in the Jeep! I really wanted to get the top off with the help of my brothers, and since my Dad was recovering up in his room, he didn't really need to be bothered by my plan. But when Kris told me that the top has never been off the '99 Sahara, I let it slide, although it really would have been more fun with the top off.

We set off for the canyon. The kids thought it was so fun to ride in such a small SUV. I was a bit rusty with the stick shift and Mason and Carter told me more than once to stop jerking the car. When we got to the trail head, we set off at a good pace. It wasn't long before someone noticed the bugs. Ohhh, the bugs!!! At one point a dainty butterfly flew by that sent Kamryn and Carter ducking and running. I had to explain that it was a beautiful butterfly that wouldn't hurt them in the least. It was then that I realized that we definitely need to be out in nature more often.

Once we got to the waterfall, Kamryn wanted to head back to the Jeep. Carter wanted to climb up to the top like some older boys were doing. And Mase just wanted to get wet. We had a good time. The weather was perfect, the mountains majestic, and the complaining was kept to a minimum. All in all the trip was a success!







I now realize you can't even see the "donut" part of the falls in the pictures. It's at the very top. There is another trail that takes you higher so you can see that part better, but we didn't have desire to back track and find that upper trail. Maybe another time...