January and February always feel so loooong in Idaho. We have officially decided to shorten the feel of the season by purchasing season ski passes for this following year. And lessons. Cuz goodness. I skiied once in the 3rd grade. Loved every minute of it and was very proud of myself for never falling down. Maybe I was good? Or maybe I just didn't take any chances! LOL. Either way, I have fond memories and have wanted to try it out for many years. Now that I'm 40 I guess it's time! The kids are looking forward to it. But in the meantime what do I do to shorten the season? Head to a warmer climate for adventures of course! My poor family got left behind on this one. I'm very grateful for their support and love them very much. I missed them. And I missed my guitar!
Helen and I headed out on Saturday morning and drove all the way down to Vegas. 9.5 hours went pretty quickly with a new Amazon special by Nate Bargatze, a hilarious and clean comedian who we quoted the entire trip. Situated just outside sin city, is this great outdoors adventure known as Red Rock Canyon. There's canyoneering, hiking, camping, and rock climbing all within just a few short miles. So much of this trip did not go as planned. I will tell you later what I learned from that. But we also had many blessing.
Helen's car gets amazing gas mileage and got us to Vegas. We decided to fill up with a quarter tank left so we wouldn't have to come back to the city in the middle of our adventures. We pulled into the gas station and were met with no cars, no gas, and lots of signs like this one.
So we went to another gas station and another. And each time the story repeated itself. So we referenced our modern-day expert and discovered that a pipeline to Vegas in CA had burst and the governor declared a state of emergency as the Las Vegans rushed the stations and crashed the gasoline market. We were not sure we would find gas!
Then Chad came to the rescue. In the way of having renewed our Costco membership. Thank you Chad! But look at these lines!
Here's our cute little campsite that we settled into on Saturday night. Helen and I go to bed at like 7 or 8 while camping. LOL. So we were snoozing shortly after this picture was shot.
First thing Sunday morning we headed to church. I dragged my feet a little. Although I had slept so SO well on my new and amazing Exped DeepSleep mat and warmly with Chad's -30F hunting sleeping bag, it was cold and I did NOT want to get in a skirt. I agreed that going to Sacrament Meeting was the right thing but was not happy about extending the cold torture to include Relief Society. Helen persevered and I folded. And I'm so glad I did! I don't very often get to gather with the RS sisters and this group was so inspiring! They were diverse, friendly, genuine and very service oriented. The meeting was great but what I remember most was being inspired by their service. They were putting together a project to help both the homeless shelter and the Women and Children Safety shelter- a shelter for families on the run from abuse. This was being organized by a woman with tatted sleeves who spoke of a husband who did not support the church but always supported her. She was so real. And it was clear how much she loved those who are less fortunate. She kept talking about how life changing it is to help someone who has absolutely nothing to give in return. I wanted to raise my hand and volunteer too! Too bad the event was taking place after our little vacation or it's very possible our trip would have looked quite different.
After church I ditched the skirt. HA! It was cold in the skirt, but I was in the right place and was blessed for it. Sunday afternoon we hiked Calico Tanks, a 2.5 mile little jaunt with a bit of boulder hopping and a beautiful view.
View of the valley
We then went on to find our next hike. Keystone Thrust. We learned that the national parks are just as bad with their warnings as they are with their distances! Ha, we parked 1/2 mile away from the trailhead due to their warning about needing a high clearance vehicle to get up to the 2nd lot. We hiked a very flat gravel road up to the 2nd lot. 😑
This is the only pic I have from this hike. Because the Trail was about as delightful as the gravel road we walked to get to it. We got about half way and decided to head back cuz it was laaaaame. We will forever wonder what "the most significant geological feature of RRC" is that was boasted of on this hike.
We headed up the Lost Creek Children's Discovery instead. It was just a short 1 mile but boasted geological sites and pictographs. Cedar Mesa is hands down better for this. But we did see one that Helen thought looked like a hand. Looked more like Olaf... with hair to me.
And we also saw this little cowboy with a lasso. LOL
We finished off Sunday but hiking Pine Creek Canyon Trail, about 3 mile trip. Somehow they managed to create a hike that was downhill both ways. Is that possible? Maybe in Nate Bargatze's words they "forgot how the world works". It sure felt like it! Helen really missed the dogs on this hike. So at her suggestion I sniffed around while she took layers off and then acted happy when it was time to move again.
Monday bore ill news. The weather had changed and there was a storm predicted Tuesday night. The temps were supposed to drop to 20 with light snow and strong winds. Who wants to camp in that?! We came to escape it! So we scrambled to come up with an alternative plan and settled on scheduling a temple trip (which was a trick as they just made some changes which has recently caused a spike in popularity of temple attendance) for Tuesday with the plan to drive as far as Provo, stay in a hotel, and finish the trip home Wednesday. After checking availability in the entire state of UT and not having a single opening, we discovered there were openings at the Las Vegas Temple, which we though we had already checked- so weird- or not if you believe in small miracles.
Then we headed back in to RRC for more adventuring! Our plan had been to do some canyoneering but there was still ice in the canyon so that was a no go. Just another change to our plans! So we headed up Ice Box Canyon, about a 2.6 mile hike to some fun wall climbing to the base of a small water hole.
This is one of my favorites up there.
This is where the trail gets fun as you leave the wash and begin to climb.
Sticky shoes are a must. This is where the other hikers weren't able to continue. Which was nice because we had it all to ourselves.
Good food is also a must and this is one of our faves: jalepeno bagels with avocado, dehydrated tomatoes, sprouts and salt.
We were able to do a tiny bit of rock climbing too. Undiscovered country was the route we climbed and it was easy. Which was good for me cuz it has been so long. It's the kind of route where you think "hmmm which of the many holds should I choose?" Helen was bored though. I'm not sure if it was the language that was coming from the climbers around us, her shoes that didn't fit, or a desire to MOVE but we called it good after the one climb and headed out to hike some more.
Undiscovered Country was climb #4.
This is what it looked like. Helen top roped it for us and then rappelled down. Look at all those holds!
Apparently putting on my socks and shoes was all that was photo worthy as those are the only shots I have of me climbing. LOL. Probably a better view looking down on me anyway...
Ready to go!
After climbing we headed out to Kraft Mountain Loop which was actually out of the park. This was pretty dang cool. We too it clockwise and did 3.2 miles. The Rocks were so cool- spotted, striped, red, gray... just a lot of beautiful variety!
We then headed back to camp for dinner and turned in early once again.
The next morning was still and warmish so we were able to break camp without wind or wet gear which was such a blessing!
But you can see the storm moving in!
The temple was beautiful and the changes were so special. It was a neat experience to be there. And the world changed during our session! When we got out the temps had plummeted and the wind was so bad! We got in the car, had lunch, and headed out. Right into a huge snowstorm.
The freeway was so bad! It was stop and go with wrecks and crazy drivers and slush and snow and sloooow progress.
This is Helen's speedometer on the trip maxing out at 20mph. We made it as far as Cedar City and it took us hours! But we were safe and unharmed. The next morning I woke at 6 and was eager to go as we had not made it nearly as far as we had planned the previous day.
But alas, 6 inches of snow covered everything and it was still coming down. We waited until about 9 for the storms to stop and gave the plows time to get out before we left. And... hit another pass with yet more poor visibility, low speeds, and unclear roads. Ugh.
So the trip was a much different one than we had planned and anticipated, and the journey was much more harrowing than expected as well. The real lesson for me in all of this came in retrospect. You see, when we were trying to settle on a date for planning this trip we were considering 2 different weeks. One week would require me to move a few appts and the other week was wide open but hosted Valentine's Day. Thinking it would be easier to not move appts we opted for that week. But I felt unsettled about it. Thinking it was due to missing the holiday, I checked with Chad to make sure he was good with it. He was. I still felt unsettled. So I began to explain it away as being sad to not do the traditional V-day hair for the girls and being weirded out by camping near Vegas with a girl on Valentine's Day etc etc. So we scheduled and stuck with it.
I never did feel settled with the date but kept excusing it with those thoughts and how silly they were. Never once did I consider the possibility of a crazy random storm in such a southern area that would change our plans and potentially jeopardize our safety. Only looking back did I realize I was being warned that I should probably choose the 2nd set of dates. I'm kind of frustrated with myself over it. But we live, we learn. I hope to be a little more quick to recognize such promptings in my future and not have to have a reason to heed them!
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