Lovers & Friends at the Albion Basin

It was the summer of 2015 when HC was last up at Alta ski resort hiking in the Albion Basin. He just taken on a new job and found out the company was moving operations to Arizona early in 2016. He was trying to get in as many of his favorites hikes and places before leaving, never knowing when he would return….

Now it is the summer of 2026. He has retired early and returned back to spend summer here while helping with wedding preparations for his oldest niece. There has also been plenty of time for reacquainting with the old familiar mountains found in northern Utah. One hot evening he asks his nephew Cbug and girlfriend Brooke if they have been up to the Albion Basin at Alta Ski resort. Neither had, so HC convinces them that the hike is short and relatively easy, and next thing you know, and old man and two young adults are driving up the canyon to escape the heat for a summer evening in the forest.

The youthful energy of these two help HC feel young himself. He tells them stories of his past, in hopes they might learn from his mistakes, but these two are way smarter than he ever was. We huff and puff at the initial incline of the trail, the sun beating down upon us from a cloudless sky. The wildflowers fill the mountain meadows with a fragrance HC has missed. Long shadows make their way across the mountainside as the sun starts to fade from view as we go.

We don’t stay long, only an hour or so. They aren’t as into hiking as the old man is. Still, it gives HC time to plan a return trip to stretch his legs on longer trails that are up here. He is filled with memories of the past, the years of snow skiing these very mountains, hiking these same trails when he was their age.

If only these mountains and meadows could speak, the tales that would be told…..