Jardine Juniper Hike

Rolayne and her friend Debbie and I started off at 7 in the morning today, May 17, and headed up Logan Canyon to hike up to the Jardine Juniper. The hike is 5 miles one way. The day was absolutely gorgeous, although that early in the morning it was a little chilly, but soon warmed up. We didn't even have to make too many stops to rest (mostly for me) but I wasn't panting like I usually do, so I think I did pretty good for a change! We crossed a raging river on some wet logs. Rolayne and Debbie carefully walked across and I crawled like a "brave" person. By the time we came back down, the logs had dried, so we were all able to get across without difficulty, with me even walking. After a few miles of steady climbing, there were still a few largish patches of snow that we had to cross, but overall, it was a lovely hike.


Here is a picture of a view we saw while on the hike. We passed fields of sagebrush, and little yellow flowers Debbie told us were cowslips. There are some other tiny little blue flowers as well, may have been bluebells.




Here is a picture of the tree.



This Juniper is famous because it is the oldest juniper in North America. The hike book said it was about 1500 years old, although a sign up at the tree said it was over 3000 years old. The only thing obviously living on the tree is a little topknot of green at the very top. Logan canyon is down below. You can get a glimpse of the highway in a few of the photos on the far left about halfway down.

Here are some pictures of us at the tree.



If you look closely at some of the branches, you can see how gnarly and twisted they are. It was quite a sight to see.


















This was just a pretty picture I took of a different vista as we were leaving the juniper tree.




So that was our adventure for the day!