Wow.

This July will mark the 3 year anniversary of moving to Utah for medical school. Shortly after arriving, I discovered a creek near our home that became my favorite place in the area. There was only one eentsy weensy little problem: all the land along that creek is private property...it's tucked away behind people's homes and yards. There are only a few places you can actually see the creek that don't require trespassing.

As luck would have it, a year after we came, I found out that a friend owned one of the homes, which was vacant at the time, and he said it was fine with him if I visited the creek along his property. So psyched!!!!

I began to visit his patch of creek regularly.It is so gorgeous. I thrilled to the sound of the water, breathed deep, refreshing breaths of the perfect scent, dreamt of building a cozy cottage along it's bank and living there forever. It was one of my few places of peace and serenity.

Then my friend found some renters for the house, and I stopped feeling comfortable hanging out there. It's been about a year since I went there to chillax and enjoy the beauty, sounds, and scents.

So just imagine my extreme surprise when I discovered an even MORE amazing place tonight on a walk with Doc.

I've known about Parley's Historic Nature Park since we came here, but I had ventured only a few feet down into it during the daylight, and a little further in the dark when it was covered with snow this past winter. I was under the impression from a comment made when I first moved in, that since it was a very popular place for dog owners, the trail was a completely disgusting mess of dog poop! That there was so much poop everywhere it made it a really undesirable place to go. You'd be wading through poop if you went down in there.

As it turns out, I harbor a mild aversion to dog poop, and because of this I never ventured into the park. Even though Doc and both kids have been there. They're all big nature-lovers, and I figured they just enjoyed wandering around avoiding the heaping piles of steaming doggie dung. It'd be almost like playing frogger, trying to get through the park without touching the stuff.

Well first of all...no nasty poop everywhere. What was I thinking? Like anyone would ever go there if that were the case. Like I'm not feeling lame about that ridiculous impression right about now. And lamenting all these years of not enjoying this resource in my own neighborhood.

Second, WOW! It's spring, so everything is particularly breathtaking right now. It's all blooming and greening up, and then as you wend your way down into the gulch suddenly you hear it. Water. A swiftly rushing creek of snowmelt cuts through the middle of the park as it hurries on it's way.

NO ONE mentioned the water before. How is that possible?! Don't these people realize how avidly I am drawn to the creeks here? I don't know what it is, but I just LOVE them. I'm enchanted by them. I dream of them. I roll my window down and listen to them whenever I drive by them. I smell them. I don't believe I'll ever tire of the sound of them. I think they're magical.

So Doc and I had the loveliest walk exploring the park together. He's been through there countless times on his runs...but he hadn't been all the places we walked tonight. It was so nice to hike around and see everything coming to life. We followed the river to it's source, and then hiked back up out of the gulch and walked home.

I might just have a new favorite place.

Blessings:

1. Parleys Historic Nature Park
2. A really nice hike with Doc
3. Insight