Is this the trail?

It's pathetic really. This coming month marks the anniversary of my first trail run. I've definitely found my place in the trails and the majority of my run are in the hills. Yet, with as much time as a spend up there I'd never been to the "living room." A very common and well know hike in Salt Lake. And it wasn't for lack of trying. There's been countless times I've headed out in the area, thinking I'd for sure stumble upon it and never have. 

So on Tuesday, Tehra and were determined. We headed up from the museum. Tehra had been there once, YEARS ago, so I followed her lead. But really, we had no idea where we were going. 

We found a trail we were certain headed up to...wherever we were going. "Is this the trail?" We happened to pass a hiker and decided we'd make sure we were on the right path. Nope!  We needed to back track and head straight up the side of the mountain. 

And Holy Hell!  What a hike!!  It's a steep up hill hike with no ebb and flow... Just up. It even made my mountain goat of a hiking partner complain a bit!

But we made it, sat for a bit, took some pics and then discussed our plan for the way down. We knew there was more than one way up to the living room. Why not explore another way down. 

We'd gotten to the living room from the back, so we left out the front. As we left a woman and her dog came running past. Props to her for running such a technical incline. Clearly, if she was running up, hiking down would be a breeze. 

We walked straight out on the trail... until there literally was no trail. Just a cliff an slab of rock, "is this the trail?" Back tracked again, and headed down a narrow grassy trail. 

It may have been the bushy, low lying scrub oak that scratched up my calves or the very, VERY lose sand that we ended up tracking through, but something kept making us ask, "is this the trail?" 

Eventually, we joined up to the skyline trail and back to our car. I'd love to go back to the living room one day... I just can't say for sure I won't be asking, "is this the trail?" 

Pretty fall leaves

Part of the hill. At least these trees were cool to look at!

The view when we finally found the living room!

Ok, the view totally makes it worth the hunt. 

Did I mention there was LOTS of moss?  Did I mention I have a freakish obsession with moss?