Narnia!

I went on my last big hike on Monday. It was wonderful. I felt like I came full circle. My first hike of the season was to Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point, and into Cascade Canyon (the most hiked trail in the whole park, I'm sure). And Monday, I did the same thing, but Luciano and I went farther than April, Gretchen, Daniel and I did. We actually made it to the Forks, at the end of the canyon (6.5 miles from where we started at South Jenny) in 3 hours. We were moving!! It was so wonderful!!!!!
We took the South Fork and not much later, we started getting in to snow. It had snowed in the mountains over the weekend. There wasn't a whole lot where we were, but enough to make everything look pretty and make a few little snowballs. I seriously felt like we were in Narnia though (before the curse of the White Witch was broken). I was hoping Mr. Beaver would pop out from behind a tree and start hiking with us. It was so beautiful! There were dark evergreens, a view of a long cascade, snow, lightly coating everything, and we were swallowed in to the depths of the mountains!!
We stopped and had lunch at Sparkling Falls (which Sarah, April and I named when we went to Hurricane Pass via the South Fork earlier this summer) before turning around. The little waterfall isn't near as sparkly anymore because most of the snow from last winter melted. But, it was still a marvelous lunch. Everything bagels and stale chocolate chip cookies never tasted better!
It was a bit sad and very nostalgic for me to leave Cascade Canyon. It is one of my favorites and I have no idea when I am going to hike there again. I have been there more than any other canyon in the park. But I know I will return...someday.