For Valentine's day this year we made plans all the way back in the first week of January to drive down to St. George for the weekend and go camping in Snow Canyon. By the time it finally came around, we were SO READY to get out of town.
On Friday when I was at work Bryce called me to tell me that he needed me to get something out of the trunk of the car so it wouldn't melt...turns out it was a 2lb bag of my favorite chocolate that he had forgotten in the trunk! I was smitten.
After that I took a midterm and the next morning we woke up and packed. Which actually sounds easier than it was. Because I don't know how to camp. Especially in Utah as opposed to Washington. I tried to back so many winter clothes and so many times Bryce stopped me to ask why the heck was I packing rubber bands, or clorox wipes, or shampoo when we were going for one night.
Let's be honest, I was kind of a barbie but I've changed my ways. I am not a girl who camps! It was probably the funnest trip of my life.
We got down there and went straight to the DI. Because we love wandering around DI. We found this really cool book from the 1960s of all the memorable images in TIME magazine from the last 30 years. And we just sat at a table and looked through the whole thing. Then we bought Bryce a golf shirt because that's something he's starting to pick up golfing.
Then we went to a nursery in town because Bryce had promised to buy me a house plant for Valentines day! We picked out the perfect little succulent garden and took him home to stay with us. I say him, because soon after Bryce named him Bobby and now every time I come home I find Bobby in a different part of the house because Bryce is sure to make sure he is getting adequate sunlight. Very important.
Our campsite was perfect. We had bought a rack of ribs at Costco and made rolls and veggies over the fire before sitting by the fire and watching the stars. I think we went to bed at 8 but it felt so good! Sharing a tent with your husband is so fun, we just sat in our sleeping bags and giggled, talked about things that didn't involve school or work or anything remotely stressful, and it was so good).
For breakfast we made eggs and bacon and hashbrowns, at muffins and oranges and hot chocolate.
I was in charge of picking out the hiking trails. We picked one called three ponds where it was supposed to go into the riverbed of a slot canyon and end up looking a this huge arch (supposedly). So we get to the end of the hike and it's really cool canyon running parallel to the canyon we had been camping in. The group in front of us was traveling south through the canyon, and they looked like the knew where they were going so we followed them.
Well it turns out there wasn't actually a trail. But we climbed through the canyon for hours and hours. It was so fun to be totally alone and just talk as we walked through the canyon and tried to figure out where we were going or how to get out. Eventually though, I did start to get a little worried. We had been hiking for more than 3 hours on a hike that was supposed to take only about an hour. We also were starting to run out of food and water...
There were all sorts of cool red rocks along the way, and since we weren't following an actual trail, we had to scale a lot of walls like this and had a lot of trial and error trying to find the right way to go.
Eventually we found a group of girls and asked them where this canyon led to, and luckily it did have a way out! This picture is from when the canyon finally opened up and we found our way out! It looks like it's not very far, but from this point we still had to hike about four miles. It took us back to the entry to the park and we hiked through sand dunes to get back. We were so hungry afterwards that we went to Chuckarama! I don't think I have ever craved Chuckarama in my life but we ate until we felt so so sick.
It was honestly one of the best trips of my life. It was just so good to get out of the stress of the day and spend time outside and be able to just talk about anything all day. Camping was perfect for us, I'm so excited to go again (bet you never saw that coming out of my mouth before huh?).
Afterwards, our feet were so so tired. In total we hiked and climbed about 9 miles when we had really only planned on 3. Our Chacos were perfect for the hike though, we didn't even get blisters really and didn't have any pain at all. They are my favorite shoes and I'm excited to move to Arizona where I can wear them almost every day!
