Inspiration from Nature

I'm trying not to make this blog too personal to my everyday life, as it is stricly my writers blog, but sometimes it's hard to distinguish the two when personal happenings in my day-to-day life affect my writing and ideas. For instance: last Tuesday a group of friends and I went hiking to Stewart Falls up Provo Canyon. This was the first time I had gone hiking in a long time and I really enjoyed it (as surprising to some as that might be). The trees and flowers were unbelievably beautiful and reminded me a lot of home in Oregon (which you must know by now how much I adore). And the waterfall was huge and breathtaking! I didn't climb as high up as a few people in my group did, but I could still feel the spray of water down below. Here are a few pictures:

A view of the entire waterfall from the river down below

A closer-up view--so beautiful!

My crazy friends getting soaked near the top...my fear of heights kept me from climbing higher.

A look from a distant field

Although the waterfall was amazing, my favorite part of the hike was seeing nature along the trail. Like usual, most of the spots we hiked past reminded me of a couple of scenes from my novel. Without telling too much, there is a scene where Leah (the heroine) is walking home through the forest when a storm hits. The forest is covered with ferns and trees, and there's a cliff to the side of the road. Later, her and Evan (the prince) spend the morning in a large field in the middle of the forest. There's a creek cutting through the grass and hundreds of wildflowers, which is very similar to a field or two I saw along this hike. So I was greatly inspired, once again, and wanted to sit and write right there on the spot! Here are some more pictures of the beautiful forest and field:

The trail was thick with ferns and beautiful white aspens

The first field, covered in blue flowers

The second field

Some blue flowers up close. I wish I knew what they were called!

The view from the trail!