Brought my pup, Bailey, with me to complete this one. I went to the left on Fat Man’s Loop on the way up. We only ran into a few other hikers on the day we went. It was a Thursday morning since I was on fall break and I was happy to find the trail wasn’t as busy as it sounds like it is on the weekend. The trail definitely had a lot of loose gravel which made some parts quite slippery. The best part of the hike was finding Aspen trees at the top that were already turning beautifully yellow for the fall season. The top of Elden was relatively underwhelming. It wasn’t my favorite view and all of the radio towers certainly didn’t add to the appeal. Rather than having our snack at the top, I chose to hike back down a bit and take a break in the middle of the aspens. It was a wonderful, peaceful morning hike and we enjoyed it thoroughly. We finished the hike by taking the other portion of fat mans loop so that there was some new scenery. I ended the day with a chai latte from my favorite coffee shop, Single Speed, before heading back to Phoenix. Bailey was happy to rest for the three hour ride home!