Hikes in July

 I bumped up my game a little bit in July.  I've been having so much fun hiking, but I wanted to try some more new hikes.

First off, we headed to Grand Targhee to hike the trails there.  I was pleasantly surprised by the views, though the trail was kind of short.  I guess we could've gone further at the top along the ridge but there was a lot of snow and the trail was harder to follow up there.  So we headed back down and then added a few miles up another dirt road.  10 miles total.

Scout Mountain in Pocatello.  This hike was okay.  It wasn't my favorite but there wasn't anything necessarily wrong with it other than it was super super windy and cold for the last mile or two.  There wasn't anything amazing we were looking at, though there were views for days of the little mountains and valleys around us.  Maybe I was just more worn out than usual on this one.  The downhill was definitely more fun, we were able to run back down.  But even then I was really tired by the end. About 13 miles.

Darby Wind Caves, almost 7 miles.  We've done this one a lot, both with friends and with kids.  We tried it at the beginning of June but there was too much snow.  It's a really cool hike, I love it.  

Taggart, Bradley and Delta about 13 miles.  I did Taggart with my family in June but it was a bit cloudy and rainy.  This time I wanted to go to Bradley lake as well, which was supposed to make it about 6 miles total.  Then Sherri said we could get to Delta from there too and I looked at the maps and tried to figure out how much longer it would be.  It didn't look like it would be that much more mileage, so I said let's do it.  Delta had been on my list.  We brought Marci and Kelli along who don't run but love to hike.  Their plan was to walk the 6 miles of the first two lakes and meet us back at the car when we finished ours.  Turns out Delta is a bit further than I realized, lol.  And it's not just the miles, it's pretty steep for the last couple miles to the top.  It was brutal for me.  I was dying.  It ended up being over 7 miles to Delta, but on the way back we didn't have to do the whole Taggart loop so it was shorter on the way back.  It was also really crowded on the way back and I was running out of water and super tired.  But it was still totally worth it.  The views at all three lakes with those tetons in the background, just amazing.  But Delta with the turquoise water...  Unreal.