We were supposed to be visiting Seattle, WA and Western Canada this weekend. However, Corona has put a damper on several things, including international travel. We decided to do something fun but keep it more local. Merril has been taking Japanese tourists to a hike called white pocket and buckskin gulch. He's wanted to take us and so we built a trip around these hikes. I've seen people post on Instagram about a tunnel called the belly of the dragon. It's just a tunnel that they built for water diversion under a road.
It looks cool in pictures.
Just to be clear, we did not carve these names. We just happened to find them next to each other.
Then we drove past Fredonia, made a left hand turn on a dirt road and drove for like 30 minutes. We got way out into the boonies to a campsite that Merril had already scoped out. It was secluded and pretty nice!
We went camping during a cold snap and the wind was blowing which made it 70s during the day but 30's a night. We drove out to white pocket, but all needed pants and jackets.
White pocket kind of reminded me of pulled taffy, red sandstone and white sandstone stripes pulled together. Maxine felt it look like you could see water patterns and then someone swirled the rock and then froze it.
We got there about an hour before sunset and I think we were the only people there without a really expensive camera and a tripod.
It took us about two and a half hours to drive on the dirt roads from white pocket to our campsite. Jack was driving the rhino. On the way out, the rhino had lots of kids in it. But on the way back, Jack just drove solo. He got far ahead of us in the dark because he could drive faster than the truck could. We got a little nervous when we couldn't see him. There were some turns that he needed to make on some dirt roads and Maxine and I were worried that he might get lost.
Everything turned out fine, he made all the right turns and we caught up with him, much to the relief of Maxine. We told him not to get so far ahead and we kept on going. We kept thinking the rhino would run out of gas but it kept on driving. After a while, Jack was too tired to drive the rhino. It was about 10:30 at night and cold. I switched with him and drove the rhino about 10 minutes until it ran out of gas. We were really close to the campsite so we towed it the rest of the way. We all fell into bed and it was cold.
The next day it warmed up to mid-70s again. Perfect for camping. It was Sunday and so we had sacrament meeting in the woods. It was a unique experience because Corona virus has allowed is to have the authority to administer the sacrament at home. It's been a blessing to have the priesthood in my house and bless the sacrament with permission from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Merril kind of wanted to drive out to the Grand Canyon after church. He explained it was going to be another two and a half hour drive each way, and didn't get a whole lot of support. So we just decided to hang out and have a chill camping day.
Merril brought this hammock, that I had completely forgotten that we owned. We set it up and the kids played on it all day, except for the time when Maxine tried to have a nap in it.
We were on BLM grazing land and while Merril and I were on a hike, we stumbled onto this cow carcass. I let out a squeal when we found it.
Later that evening, Darryl Zitting and Ryan Rosenberg's families came out to join us. And the bugs found us. We broke out the guitar and roasted s'mores.
I knew that sleeping was going to be cold, so I brought an extra blanket for everyone. Somehow only six got in. Merril sleeps colder than I do, so I let him have the extra blanket. I was almost warm enough, but not quite. All the extra blankets had been stuffed in large pillowcases, and I used those. I ended up putting my feet in a king size pillowcase and using the other pillowcase around my hips. It made it just the right temperature and I was able to finally sleep.
The next morning we drove on a dirt road for about an hour until we got to wire pass trailhead. We were meeting Callahan Williams and some other people and the Rosenbergs and the Zittings came with us. The wire pass trailhead gets to buckskin gulch. Buckskin Gulch is a slot canyon, it reminds me of Antelope Canyon. We stopped here for lunch.
Merril brought a ladder that he made for Japanese tours to make getting down the crux of the slot Canyon easier. We hiked to an elephant looking rock formation. And there was a hole up the side of the slot canyon and the older boys started to try to jump up into it. Jack was able to jump up into it while doing a 180 and flying through the air. Merril was able to get up into it too. We had to boost everybody else.
We hiked back and Merril cleaned up the ladder. After he cleaned it up a group of hikers came to where the ladder was and one of them said, "Where the *bleep* is the ladder?!" Merril stuck his head over the top and said something like the ladder was his and he was taking it with us. Sorry! I said we should have left a sign by the ladder that said the ladder was temporary and people were welcome to use it but it might not be there when they get back. 😄
After that we drove back to camp, hot and sweaty from hiking. We packed up camp and drove home. I received several bug bites along with Juliet. Everybody else had a couple that itched but I think we got the most. I'll have to remember bug spray next time! It was a great weekend with lots of cool adventures!
