Stewart Falls, and combat hiking

Saturdays have been absorbed by scout camp-outs, BYU Pow-wow, soccer, and on-call, but the weather has been beautiful so we've been anxious to go out hiking. A Saturday afternoon, after a busy morning, we decided we maybe had enough time for a hike, and RD announced to the kids we were leaving immediately for a hike to Stewart Falls. Although they can be ok with hiking,  abruptly terminating their Saturday-only access to electronic games to go on a hike sure isn't the way to get their support. We hurriedly packed up the gear (carrier for Bree and some snacks and our hiking backpack--with emergency gear) and took off.
The forty minute car trip up the mountain had a pretty constant stream of complaining, and some car-sickness. We had to wait a looong time to get our turn 50 ft ahead to pay our way in, only to discover we could have gotten in free with our national park pass, which we left at home. As we shouldered our gear, a kid accidentally got knocked hard in the face with the metal bar on the carrier.
Not the most promising of starts.

But we took off, and it was gorgeous! Fall colors were in their full splendor, and I loved all the beautiful aspens! my fave!

There was still some grumbling from a kid, but the other three rallied and had fun, though Aubree was very distracted, and we had to encourage to keep going to stay together. We had a few pauses as she sat on a boulder, but she made it a mile and a half in before acquiescing to getting into the pack for the last half mile.

Stewart Falls was beautiful, and cold. We were in the shade, and the falls cooled the area, so the kids were rather anxious to leave after eating their granola bars.

We headed back, and once we were headed toward the car, (or maybe nature had worked it's magic) all the kids were happy, and we were enjoying our way back. RD was carrying Aubree again, and one man seeing her up there remarked, "you're a strong man!". yessiree.

The trail had been pretty crowded, but on the way back it turned into combat hiking, which frustrated RD and I. In all our hiking experience, if someone comes upon someone else, the person/group in front pauses at  an opportune spot so the group behind can pass and keep their preferred pace. We came upon a group of three adults and a couple kids that were ambling along at their kids' distracted snail pace, which is fine for them, but they refused to even go in single file or pause for us, even as we had to stop and wait for them to help kids over a limb or rock. We finally just asked them to let us pass, only to quickly come upon an even larger group of kids/ tweens/adults that forced us to slow and stop often. We were walking in a long line of people, which is not why we go out hiking. I guess I should have just enjoyed the slower pace and not gotten so annoyed, but I didn't. Being sandwiched between groups is just not something I'm used to or interested in. That's not how it always is in Utah county is it?!