Stewart Falls
Hiking to Stewart Falls is a must on your vacation to Sundance Utah!
One of our favorite hikes to Stewart Falls was during the Winter. I took my daughter and son and niece. We rented snowshoes at a local sporting goods store and arrived at Timpanogos Trailhead a little after 1pm.
The trail starts at the far end of the parking lot, heading East. Shortly there after the trail switches back as you head up the ridge (this is the most difficult part of the trail because of the incline--my kids needed a little bit of coaxing to "go for it" as this was their first attempt in snowshoes). After this the rest of the trail is fairly easy.
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It was easier for the kids to go later in the day as the snow on the trail was already compacted. We met some other people snowshoeing along the path.
copyright 2007 by Howard A. Knudsen |
These college students attending BYU (see photo above) were returning back from their hike to Stewart Falls so I asked them to pose for the photograph, below.
copyright 2007 by Howard A. Knudsen |
The trail is about 1.5 miles one-way to Stewart Falls from Timpanogos Trailhead. We really took our time and rested often. While resting I set up my tripod to take landscape photographs of the scenery. It was a perfect "Winter Wonderland" day with 20 inches of new snow the day before.
copyright 2007 by Howard A. Knudsen |
Along the way, there are great views of Sundance and you can watch these little "specs" skiing down the ski slopes.
copyright 2007 by Howard A. Knudsen |
We passed the area where an avalanche occurred a few years back. The bushes were all bent over from the path of the wave of snow. We were told that after this point we were 20 minutes away. It was a bit longer...
I set up my tripod while we rested just past the avalanche zone to look down into the North Fork of Provo Canyon once again. Then I spied out the composition displayed below as the clouds were passing through creating a nice effect.
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At this point of the trail you know you are getting closer to Stewart Falls when you see the Sundance mountain homes hidden in between the tall fur trees (as seen in the photo below).
copyright 2007 by Howard A. Knudsen |
We hiked down to the stream below the falls that descends down past Sundance Village and beyond to Provo River. It is a site to behold and well worth the hike. At this time of the year the upper falls are frozen and as you can see in the photo below the gigantic icicles are a shade of baby-blue.
copyright 2007 by Howard A. Knudsen |
I walked through the shallow stream to get closer to the falls. I was in a hurry to "get the shot" (above) before the sun set behind the mountain. I noticed that my kids were trekking through the stream, too. This proved to be a major problem as shortly after we started a journey back to Mount Timpanogos Trailhead my daughter was in tears. One of her feet was "frozen" and I had to provide the first-aid.
Luckily, I was prepared with what she needed. My wife had purchased some hand and foot warmers for Christmas and I happened to grab those to take with us before leaving home. What a life-saver!
Shortly thereafter, my seven-year-old son decided he couldn't go on anymore, his legs were too tired. I ended up carrying him back most of the way.
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The sun was setting and I was concerned about the drop in temperature and how it would affect the kids. We did fine because I made sure they wore plenty of layers including ski pants.
We saw a gorgeous sunset on the way back, so while we took a break from the hike, I took this photo (below), it's one of my favorites. I have it hanging on my wall in my physical therapy office (a 24 by 36 Giclee print on Torino art canvas that is gallery wrapped).
copyright 2007 by Howard A. Knudsen |
We finally made it back from our Stewart Falls snowshoeing hike right as the light of the day was going, going, gone... Perfect timing!
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