I was blown away by the diversity of wildflowers on the Brighton Lakes Trail, which winds past Lake Mary, Lake Catherine, Dog Lake and Lake Martha. This pretty easy and absolutely lovely trail, in Brighton Ski Resort, is less than four miles long. And apparently July is the perfect time to visit. The snow had mostly melted from the trails, there were different flowers everywhere you looked and the weather was perfect. Despite the fact that this was a work trip, hiking in the Wasatch mountains, watching sunsets on the Great Salt Lake and exploring Salt Lake City and Park City made it feel like a mini-vacation. Does anyone know what the flower on the top left is? It had a cone-shaped stalk, with lots of these insanely intricate flowers surrounding it.

I just got back from a work trip to Salt Lake City, and was stoked to take advantage of my free time in such an amazing place. The Great Salt Lake is insanely gorgeous and huge and seemingly never-ending. I’d really only driven through the area at night in the past, so it was all new to me. You impatiently walk a ways down a crackly, dry beach to reach the calm water with views of the mountains every way you turn. It’s the kind of sunset experience that you never want to end. I barely even edited this photo – it is seriously just that perfect. So is the mole at Red Iguana for that matter. And the town of Park City. The weather was pretty darn spectacular, too. Photos of the hike I took on my day off will come soon.

I just got back from California this week, where I got to visit Point Lobos (featured here) and Big Sur. Most interesting moments of the trip  in order of appearance -  pulling off at a “scenic vista” only to find evidence of a secret gay sex spot, shooting race cars and meeting Lord Paul Drayson (a very inspiring person), meeting a friend of one of my Telluride connections (a French ski base jumper) and watching him base jump off a bridge, walking into Big Sur Bakery and running into another friend from Telluride who is now a hiking guide in Carmel, and finishing by going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with penguins, a great white shark and sea otters. Best $30 I ever spent.