Labor Day Weekend - Daniel Summit

Labor Day is indeed the day that we all sigh a breath of relief that we still have a job, but also for the Fords, it means four wheeling! Pete gave me a combined Valentines and Anniversary Present to go to Daniel Summit for the long Weekend. And yes those are both kid free occasions, but we brought along the kiddo, since she loves it up there too. For those who don't know Daniel Summit is a Lodge/Resort (that is kind of stretching it) up in Heber (or past Heber) near the Strawberry Reservoir. After all of our camping and "roughing it" it was quite a luxury to stay in a clean room, with a giant tub and a fire place.

And of course the four wheeling trails are tremendous up there. We have the luxury of riding out straight from the parking lot, and then the trails just go on and on. Fun would be an understatement. We did have a cool down this weekend so we had beautiful weather. One day it rained a bunch, but we still went out, Pete was in Heaven, but I was a little cold.

One day we went out on the Daniel Summit Loop, which took us about 3 hours of riding - how many miles this converts to, I have no idea, Pete thought maybe 45 I think it was closer to 30 - so maybe somewhere around there. We went so high that we drove right past the radio tower. We could see 3 lakes when were at the very top, and we were literally on the highest peak, it was truly amazing!

We came into this grove of aspens right when the sun was setting. These pics do not do it justice, the light was coming right through the trunks,

and Pete said it felt just like Halloween should. This little spot was by far the best part of the ride!

Since we got so high up we saw so much wildlife; hawks, a fox, deer, elk with full horn set, a moose, cows, sheep and of course chipmunks. Our path was crossed many times by herds, the one thing we didn't see though, was other people! On the one hand that is a great trip, but also a little anxiety inducing. We ran across a hunter and we had to stop and chat, mostly for our own sanity and to gauge how far away we were from the lodge.

I won't lie there was some relief when we saw that first tent site, and knew we were entering civilization again, or the civilization of the Mountain wilderness, sounds kind of like an oxymoron, huh

This is Cadence and Pete drenched in the rain, after this trip Cadence could not stop talking about getting her own license and four wheeler, apparently she is not counting the little 50 one Santa brought her.

This is just creepy. We crested the mountain and yes there was a little silver trailer. Now we came across some hunting ones lower down, but mind you we didn't see any people for at least an hour or so when we came across this one, really out in nowhere'sville. Creepy.

We also brought up a bunch of games, since we like doing this as a family. It was very nice and extravagant to lay about and play games. We tried teaching Cadence Cribbage, and her attention did not hold for Settler's of Cattan but we played other games as well (all of which Pete won I might add). Here is Pete and Cadence embroiled in a hot game of Clue.

And of course there was the swimming. Maybe Cadence's favorite. I have to say though after riding in the rain one day and riding for three hours another, the hot tub sure was a favorite.

We ate in the Lodge Restaurant a couple of times, and I don't know if it was hunger or the mountain air, but I have to say the food was fantastic. I never thought I would love chicken fried steak so much. I can not make this at home though! Vacations are meant to be a splurge and this one was we had a blast.

This weekend also correlated with Swiss Days in Midway - about 30 minutes away from where we were staying. We took the shuttle in to the fair, where there was authentic Swiss food for lunch, the mother of all craft fairs and the cutest small town parade ever. You can tell by this Seuss style horn right? Awesome!

We ran into the Dahls while we were there and invited ourselves to watch the parade with them (thanks Shaun for giving me your chair).

Ezra's face says it all. The kids were so cute and happy, especially since every person that went by threw candy at the kids. There were Horses and marching bands and Bears (costumed) riding scooters. The picture below is one of my favorites though, this little cage drove by full of goats, and two kids. Really Hansel and Gretel escaped the witch, to be caged with goats?

Overall it was a great weekend and I would love to spend every Labor day Weekend this way, relaxing, playing and just having a stress less fun family time.