Timpanogos Cave

First day that the temp was to reach 100 and we headed for the mountains and a cool cave!

Only 60 degrees when we arrived at 9:30am.
The hike to the caves is a mile and a half on paved switchback paths that gain over 1000 feet in elevation.
It's not an easy stroll by any means. A great workout in fact.
And Jaxon was a trooper! He didn't complain at all the whole way up to the cave. We took a few resting breaks and then he just kept on climbing.

 Emily spent the first half of the hike telling me about her plans to be more active. She doesn't care at all for sports so we talked about some of the other ways she could be more active. Hiking, dance, biking, etc.
About halfway up to the cave I think she might have been mentally crossing 'hiking' off her list.

Inside the cave it was a wonderful 45 degrees. It felt great after the climb up.
Emily was busy taking pictures with her camera. She has become very interested in picture taking and editing lately. And she developed quite a rapport with our guide. He talked with her a lot about her plans to become a forensic scientist and told her that he thought that was a really great and ambitious goal.
At the beginning of the tour I thought we might have gotten a "dud" for a guide. He seemed a bit monotone and generally lacking in charisma. LOL I was wrong. He was very intuitive to what the group was interested in and he picked up on the names of some of the members of the group without being told. He was great!

Jaxon was totally captivated by all the beautiful things there were to see inside the cave. He especially like the places where stalactites and stalagmites had almost become columns. I was surprised by how interested he was in what the tour guide had to say. There are some pretty narrow places to squeeze through and Jaxon was meticulously careful not to touch the cave walls at all.

It was so cute and the tour guide noticed how careful he was being and thanked him for taking such good care of the caves.
There is a section of the caves where they turn off the lights so you can see how completely black it becomes because of the lack of natural light. I worried that this would freak Jaxon out completely. But I was wrong about that too. He was very brave. I did have to stoop down next to him and he had both arms wrapped around me, and his nose pressed to mine the entire time while he listened to our guide tell us about what it's like for cave animals to live in total darkness. 
Roger took over the picture taking while we were in the cave. About halfway through the caves he captured the precise moment that Jaxon's patience with this particular adventure ended.

 Taken down by a single drop of water to the eye.
Ever heard a five year old express his displeasure with a situation while trapped in a cave with a dozen strangers? No? Lucky you!
He did manage to get past this enough for us to finish the tour.

 "underground lake"

 "cave bacon"

"heart of Timpanogos"

The trip back down the mountain was easier on the heart and muscles but MUCH harder the the knees! Oy! I think Roger and I might have been the bigger complainers on the way down. LOL
By this time we had all worked up quite an appetite.
As soon as Jaxon was buckled in he ate a couple of crackers and passed out.

We drove up the canyon a little further and enjoyed the picnic lunch we had brought with us and then headed back home to the heat. And some ibuprofen for those of us with middle aged knees!