Trails More Beautiful Than Burt Reynold's Moustache

So many things are beautiful. Cheesecake is beautiful. Afternoon naps are beautiful. Burt Reynolds' moustache is beautiful. Growing up, Winnie from the TV show The Wonder Years was beautiful. In high school anatomy class we had to dissect a cat......which WAS NOT beautiful. Gooseberry Mesa in southern Utah is beautiful.

I don't think Mel and I have ever spent a whole day together on the trails. Between work schedules, family schedules, and life it's hard to get times to match up. Well, last week we had that rare opportunity. I wanted to take her to Gooseberry Mesa, home of the most beautiful trails I've ever run. We were treated to this spectacular sunrise as we headed to the trail.

Gooseberry is one of the most challenging areas I've run. Many of the trails are technical, and the majority of the miles are on rolling, twisting slick rock that puts your legs through a cheese grater. The trail heads have signs warning of "Extreme Difficulty".

The trails lead you over, under, and through cool rock formations like this.

One of the areas we visited was the South Rim. I was so excited for Mel to get her first glimpse of the edge of the cliff. The views there are ridiculously incredible.

It was pretty chilly on top of the mesa so we had to keep a steady pace to keep from turning into ice cream. (This is a legitimate risk for me. My blood stream is 80% Ben & Jerry's. If I get too cold I may turn into Cherry Garcia.)

We reached my absolute favorite section of the entire mesa. The views: Beautiful. The girl: Beautiful.

Would you like to know something else that is beautiful? These trails, these views, this awesomeness is all part of the Zion 100 race. If scenery like this doesn't tempt you, you are an emotionless cyborg that probably enjoys cauliflower and Celine Dion music. (A cyborg that enjoys Celine and cauliflower is the worst thing I could ever imagine.)

This area is called The Point. Mel suggested that this would be an awesome location for a jumping picture. I wasn't about to disagree.

This would have been an optimal place for me to "slip" if she were interested in collecting life insurance money.

It was a wonderfully beautiful day on some amazingly beautiful trails with a beautiful wife. Nobody turned into ice cream, nobody collected on life insurance, and nobody enjoyed Celine Dion music. Win.