The week after school got out some friends and I took a trip to Southern Utah and hiking Coyote Gulch! It was soo much fun! We had Great weather ever though it said it was going to rain and snow on us and Heavenly Father was definitely looking over us! We had a few miracles and tender mercies happen on the way! So the gang consisted of (in the top pic) cody (friend from school, ryley (friend from school), chelse (met her in hawaii 2 summers ago, she was also me fhe sister and dating ryley), james (he sold in CA last summer for Moxie), lindsay (she also sold in CA last summer), me and jeff (he also sold in CA last summer).
So we started off our hike at Red Well trail head. The drive there is about 30 miles on a dirt road and it is sooo bumpy! My poor car prob has some lose nuts and bolts, but we finally made it to the trail head, got all packed up and started our hike. We were all pretty excited and happy to be hiking so the first day was fun! After about 7 hours of hiking we were pretty done for the day and so we stopped by this beatiful arch and set up camp.
Jeff was awesome and brought a ton of candy, cards, his speakers and i-pod so each night we listened to music and played poker with candy chips! It was a lot of fun! We had some great late night conversations as well! haha
Our second day of hiking we were hoping to make it to the Escalante River. That is where we wanted to set up base camp! We met a lot of people on the trail and they all told us different stories. One man told us it was 11 more miles to the river and another couple told us 4 miles. So we were never really sure where the river really was, but we knew it was about 5 more miles or so. It seemed like we hiking ALL day! I was just thinking in my head, okay around this bend and we will see the River.. but no! Finally we took a lunch break around 5 p.m. We were getting tired, my feet were bleeding from my chocos and we were all soo sore! We tried to make a plan if we didn't make it to the river tonight because clouds were starting to come in and we thought it was going to storm!
We got done with lunch and I kid you not.. we went around 2 more bends and there was the RIVER!! We were all sooo excited!! I cannot explain my happiness and joy to see the river! We had finally made it! 13 miles all together from the trail head to the river! It was starting to get really windy in the canyon and it was starting to rain so we rushed to higher ground to set up our base camp before it rained. We luckily found this beautiful place where we were covered from the canyon rock! (Below)
(before the trip, Ryley, Chelse me and Jeff spray painted shirts to wear!:)
The next day we hiking up to another arch and flew kites!! It was so much fun! Jeff bought a Buzz Lightyear kite and IronMan kite. He bet me his Buzz kite would beat my Ironman kite! little did he know that I am a professional kiter:)
me and jeff flying kites
he isn't very happy that i am beating him!
One day we went to the river and took a bath! Oh my it was FREEZING!! of course right away jeff grabs me and pulls me under! My body was soo shocked! :) It was fun but i dont think i have been in colder water! You had to go under real quick and then run out, put in shampoo and then run back in and go under real quick and then run out of the water again!
The arch we hiked up to and flew kites in!
Me and chelse running in the water! So early in the morning we went to the River and got some clean water. We then had to take it to our camp and filter it with a pump, and then we boiled it with our propane stoves and then we put iodine tablets in it! After i told Danielle that we did all three of these things she laughed and said you really only have to do one of the three!! We are amatures and really didn't want to get a gross disease or Giardia!!
Our last night we had a glowstick party! It was a lot of fun!
So one of the blessings we had was that one day when we were exploring the canyon we saw some people that we camped not far from us. Me Ryley and Chelse decided to go talk to them and ask them where in the heck we were cause we really had no clue! We were clueless as to where we really were and where we were going now that we had made it to the River. So we go over and talk to them! They have a great detailed map and show us where we were and everything! It is so lucky that we talked to them cause we prob would have hiking out in the oppostie direction when it was time to leave!! :) So anyway, to make a long story short... they end up giving us their keys to their car cause we really didn't want to hike back out 13 miles to where our cars are. Their truck was only 3 miles out another way and so we said that we would hike out 3 miles to thier truck and then drive it down to where our cars were and where that family wanted to hike to! It worked out perfectly!
We hiked up to the "crack in the wall" and then to their truck!
crack in the wall
Oh my gosh so happy to be done! We could see the truck at this point!
The view from the top!
WE had such a great time! I so much about each person from the trip and it was good to spend time withe friends from college one last time!! My pack was about 50 pounds and I had a head cold and cough the whole trip but it was sooo worth it! I also fell in the water when we were hiking and got my camera wet.. but it still works!
