Having lived near Pine Valley for all this time and having never hiked the Whipple Trail before was a little bit embarrassing. This was probably the most popular trail at Pine Valley and I was a slacker for never having hiked it before. I got an early start and was on the trial before 9 am. It was still a bit busy as it was a Friday and there are always a lot of people out and about in Southern Utah. The goal on the day was just to make it up the trail to Whipple Valley. These made me climb about 2700 feet over 6 miles. The trail was steep. There were a lot of switchbacks, but I was in pretty good shape by this time, so I made good time. The trail was mostly forested with some views along the way, but really it was just hiking through the forest for most of it.
Whipple Valley was definitely worth the hike and I could see how this place would be good summer pasture for animals in the old days. Here was green grass with water flowing through the meadow. High elevation meadows in Utah were really very pretty. The hike back down was even busier passing many different groups of people heading up. Since I got an early start, I was able to enjoy a lot of it without having to deal with as many people, but coming down, the masses were heading up. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day though and a nice break from the packing and moving that was a big part of our life for the past few weeks. Pine Valley was definitely the place to go in the summer as the heat was in the triple digits each day in St. George. On this day, I was off the mountain by early afternoon, but it was still a little too warm even in the mountains.
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