Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Union Meadows Open Space, & Palmer Park Trail Circumnavigation

Friday, August 27th, 2021:

My morning home gym workout included heavy barbell deadlifts (these always make me sore!), machine butterfly, and machine chest press.

An evening walk of a couple miles with the family at the Paint Mines was lovely. We didn't go over by the main formations this time, but instead did the eastern loop, which passed by a smaller patch of formations through tall late-summer meadows.

I haven't made a habit of using this as my food blog, but I did want to mention this here quickly. Since the pandemic, we don't order take-out or fast food at all, since we figure it's safer to cook everything at home.

Since I discovered how easy it is to make pizza from scratch, we have a fun time making our own pizzas whenever we want. This Friday night happened to be pizza night! This one had white sauce and turkey pepperoni.

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Saturday, August 28th, 2021:

My legs felt somewhat like lead after yesterday's deadlifts. Maybe this will translate to some endurance gains somewhere down the line.

Today I did about 9.5 miles with 1100 feet elevation, although a little slowly, up and through Palmer Park, then up to Union Meadows Open Space. Up at the top are some more classic rock formations (sometimes called hoodoos.)

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Sunday, August 29th, 2021:

Today's home gym day was barbell bicep curls, side lateral raises, and capped off with a short but effective 30 minutes on the exercise bike.

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Monday, August 30th, 2021:

Today I decided to do a full loop around Palmer Park, sticking to trails as much as possible.

I entered the park from the Paseo entrance, ran up to the South Cañon connection to West Cheyenne Trail, which feeds into Grandview Trail. After leaving Grandview Overlook, I stayed on the road for a brief segment (my only road segment within the park today.) I joined Kinnickinnik Trail at the curve in the road, and followed this trail until it crossed the lower road and went up the east side of the park, Pawnee Crest Trail to Greencrest Trail.

I followed Greencrest trail down through the soft piney meadows to the northeast corner of the park. Then I climbed a small hill which fed into a trail named Brenner Trail. This trail eventually connects to the Templeton Trail. Templeton I would follow a long way, all the way around until it finally ends at Yucca Trail near the dog off leash area at Yucca Flats.

Whew, what a way to pack a whole lot of challenging trails into a really close to home day.

Bottom left: The northeastern meadow of Palmer Park provides a cool breath of fresh air (literally) from the heat of the day.

Classic Templeton Trail views.

My total ended up being 10 miles with 1500 feet elevation. 

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Tuesday, August 31st, 2021:

Rest day. (See, rest days aren't myths!)

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Wednesday, September 1st, 2021:

1 hour on the exercise bike. Enough to make me sweat, but not so hard that my legs are sore, as I'm planning a long one for tomorrow. Hope it pans out!