Buckskin Gulch

Look at me, posting again and not waiting four million days after I do whatever I want to actually remember.  But really--it is mostly because I'm in my child development class (which is extra boring).  My professor is just lecturing us on how we are all failures (or at least that's how I feel she is expressing herself) so I decided it was time to post about last weekend!

Last weekend, a few of us drove down to the Arizona/Utah boarder to hike Buckskin Gulch which is a slot canyon about six hours away.  We got there at about two in the morning so we ended up sleeping at the trailhead (with a ton of other people who were also too tired to find a camp site)!  It was an awesome hike!

Our group (Kevin, Matt, Allan, Me, Luke, & Ved)

There was a lot of water we hiked through.  Some of it smelled like sewage and made me want to puke.  Other water was nice, clean, and muddy!  For me, it was about waist high!

There was lot of mud for me to play in 

Breaking for lunch in an open part of the canyon

The coolest mud ever!  It kind of felt like stepping on crunch leafs! 

I really wanted to slide down and play in this mud pit!

Wide open in a canyon

Giant mud pit we jumped in!

The canyon... it was so narrow and so cool!

Our group again!

I really like all of our faces in this picture

I'm pretty sure this was some sewage water... gross!

This was the surroundings outside of the canyon.  Kind of ugly and you would never guess there was a beautiful slot canyon right around the corner!  

It was a beautiful hike and totally worth it!  I would definitely go back and do this one again!

So I Stink At Blogging...

So I stink at blogging.  Like a lot.  This is why my attempts to keep a journal epically fail every time.  It is because I get bored/distracted/too busy/feel like I have nothing to say so I just kind of stop writing.  But I should probably at least attempt to catch myself up on the end of summer and the beginning of the school year!  

So the end of the summer was a blast!  Mal & I went hiking like four times a week and found some of the coolest places!  I have absolutely fallen in love with the Alpine Loop and all of the hikes on it!  They are beautiful!  Here are some a few of my pictures:

Mal & Me (somewhere on the Alpine Loop)

Weston when we hiked Wardsworth

Hiking Wardsworth

During August, I went home for a couple of weeks.  It was pretty fun!  I hung out with my family, went shooting, fished with my dad, started sewing a halloween wall hanging, and just had fun with my family.  I also got a few more projects done at my house.  I painted Lisa's old room and all of the doors (I now have a special hate for painting doors, like a lot).  But for the most part, it was fun to spend some time with my family.  Unfortunately, I'm a loser and didn't manage to take any pictures while I was at home!

My summer roommates also moved out and my old roommates (Amber, Katelyn, Amy, Talicee, & Kirsten) moved back in.  Shortly after, we started school.  The first week into the semester wasn't too bad until I realized that I wanted to graduate in two years (instead of the three I've been planning on).  So I was like, dang it, and went to my counselor (which I mostly avoid doing at all costs).  He flagged me for 20 hours of credit (which is a dang lot of credit) and I about had a mental breakdown deciding if I really could handle 20 hours.  Turns out, I can't.  Not safely and sanely at least.  So I dropped all of my classes a week into the semester, got all new ones (but only like 16 hours), and went to my first week again.  It went okay.

But then, my family had something happen and I had to leave for California for a week.  So I missed my classes for a week.  So, in the first three weeks of the semester, I've been to one week of classes.  It was bad.  But I'm almost caught up (except for my literacy class which I would just like to give up on).  

Now I'm back and life is getting back to normal.  I'm still working for Dr. Tunnell as a TA.  I'm going to classes and trying not to fail at life.  In my free time, I still hike, watch football games (LSU is undefeated but its too bad BYU is terrible this year :/ ), and cook.  In fact, I just barely tried to make homemade butterfingers (they were kind of interesting... not good, not bad, just weird).  Last weekend, Michelle, Kevin, and I went to hike Big Springs in Provo Canyon.  It was pretty and I drank spring water (at least, we hope it was spring water)--which was delicious!  This past weekend, I headed to hike Buckskin Gulch, a slot canyon in southern Utah.  However, that'll be for a future post!

Michelle & I at Big Springs

These pictures are always so awkward!

Big Springs 

It was so pretty--canopied trees that were changing colors

Our sweet jumping picture!

Me, Kevin, & Michelle

Moab

This past weekend, a group of us went camping in Moab, UT.  We went to Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.

In Marcie on our way (Michelle, Brett, Luke, Me, and Weston)

We firstly hiked the Delicate Arch.  As we were going into the park, the lady we paid was like it's a hot one out there--in fact, if you're heading to Delicate Arch, it is the hottest hike out there right now... and she was right.  It reached 110 degrees outside!  Crazy!

The thing on our licenses plate

Me, Weston, Michelle, Brett, and Luke

The lady taking the picture was like take a crazy one--Brett and Luke didn't actually move though

Michelle & I 

That night we camped.  There was a burn ban though (sad but probably necessary since half of Utah is burning) so we had to cook on a little camping stove.  Michelle and I kept setting our stuff in piles of ants--not pleasant.

Camp in the morning... it was too dark by night to take any pictures

The next morning, we woke earlier (sort of) and packed up.  Then we went to hike in the Devil's Garden area.  It was a really fun hike with so many different arches to see.  My favorite was probably the Landscape Arch--which looked like it will soon fall over.

Our shadows--we were up high

Michelle and I 

Hiking along the rock (red rock--my favorite!)

Our group in front of Landscape Arch

Double O Arch which was also pretty cool

The Dark Angel (I think?)

After hiking that morning, we had a few other hikes planned.  However, since it was like a million degrees outside (okay, more like a hundred), we decided to ditch hiking, get lunch (in air conditioning), and go swimming at Left Hand (a little swimming hole).  To get there, we had to do a short hike (like half a mile) so I went in my sneakers... not my best plan.  When we had to cross water, I decided to go barefooted (really not my best decision).  It was like a terrible battle between walking on scorching sand or gravely rocks.  Eventually, we just decided to give up and get our shoes wet.  Because of this, I am going to have Moab sand in my shoes FOREVER!

Michelle and I at Left Hand 

This is the hole--I jumped off the cliff (not the biggest one because I'm a wimp but the smaller one which was probably a good ten or fifteen feet up)

Afterwards, we went to Dead Horse Point.  We didn't have much time so we didn't really get to hike in that park.  But we did go to the look out point... it was pretty awesome!

Dead Horse Point--the Colorado River was HUGE

All of us at Dead Horse (the lady taking the picture was not happy about it)

Another view!

After Moab, we decided to go to Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant.  It was super cheesy, promoted Mormon rumors, and was totally worth going an hour our of the way (not sarcasm--it was worth it).  I think we all enjoyed it.  The only picture of it is on my camera, though, which is currently misplaced.  So I will post the good enough picture later.  After the pageant (at like midnight), this is what we looked like:

Me, Luke, and Brett got lucky and got the back/time to sleep (Weston took one for the team and drove home)

Overall, it was a fun trip!  I want to go back to explore Canyonlands but maybe I'll wait until it cools off a bit slash I recover my sleep from the past two weekends (I went camping the weekend before also)!