Angel's Rest Hike

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We started the day at the Vita Cafe. Megan had the Sloppy Biscuit sandwich and I had the faux Turkey Florentine. The service is always a bit hit & miss at the Vita, but it was more about the "miss" today... We waited over 30 minutes for our food and the place was only a quarter full.

After breakfast we stopped at QFC for snacks and sunscreen. We then hit highway 84 and headed east to exit 28 (the Bridal Vail exit).

The trail-head is (literally) right off the exit and there happened to be a wedding going on this day... The parking lot was full and we waited a minutes to find a spot. Once we did we were off for a great 2.3 mile hike!

This was definitely a medium to hard hike, with everything leading up to the final destination being uphill... and I mean this in every sense of the word!

Half way the path turns into rocks, and not all of them are stable. We didn't see many kids on the hike and those who were headed "up" were winded and sweaty.

Unfortunately it's not well marked when it comes to signage. We actually passed the final point and continued on into another trail that leads to Wahclella Falls. Fortunately we saw too many snakes for Megan and another hiker told us were in the wrong place.

However, all of this had a payoff... it's a breathtaking view up on top. We spent about 10 minutes looking out (literally) over the entire valley. It was amazing and nice reward for some sore shins.

We stopped at a small creek to cool off for a quick break on the way back down the hill.

This was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon and my biggest "take-away" is that Nature is like therapy... Every group we passed seemed to be at some point of introspection or observation.



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