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We awoke to a glorious early sunrise as the sun climbed it’s way over the continental divide. It hit the tent nearly 3 hours earlier than the day before. The benefits of being on a ridge instead of in a deep valley on a crisp fall morning.

As soon as we arrived it seemed it was already time to leave. You can only carry so much food, and although we could have technically raided the large food cache we found near one of our camps, that seemed like bad form, so it was time to head out of the Winds. First we took a look around Lozier Lake. The next pass was calling with promises of ever better views, just over the ridge. But then we returned to camp, loaded the pack once again and headed down from our 10,000 foot perch back to New Fork Park.

It seemed the downhill trip was much easier than the uphill. It might have been the food we ate that lightened the load, but I suspect most of it was due to gravity. We soon found ourselves in camp and were able to take the afternoon to watch the sun play on the canyon walls and the clear water flow down the canyon. That sounds like a worthy job.

I dug in and did my best, watching the sun move across the rocks, the water bubble in the stream, and before I knew it the afternoon had passed and the sun was sinking over the ridge. The next morning we were up before the sun hit the tent, because deep in the valley we could wait until lunch for that to happen and we had a ways to go to finish up our hike.

Again, we had the trail to ourselves as we made our way down canyon, at least until the last couple miles. The feet were getting tired but the fall colors and scenery kept pulling us along. The last couple miles were tough, but a quick look back up the canyon to views of the golden aspen, along with thoughts of a cold beverage at the end of the trail provided the needed motivation to finish up our tour in the Winds.

I can’t wait to get Back To The Winds….