River adventures!

I've wanted to go down the Virgin river in tubes for a long time! We got enough for the whole family and started just below River Rock Cafe in La Verkin. It was colder and rockier than I thought it would be. I had ideas of gently floating down the river but that's not how it is. Mark flopped out of his tube and bumped into a boulder almost immediately. The whole idea made Maxine anxious and she wasn't really having it. After a mile, Merril said he'd hike out with Max and Mark at Cactus Cliffs and meet us at Grandpa's Pond. I took his phone and kept going with Jack, Juliet, and Mikayla. 

If you could stay dry, it wasn't too bad. We had to flatten out over the rocks so we wouldn't bump our bums.

Jack tipped his tube and couldn't warm up. He was shivering pretty bad so we stopped on a warm sand bar.

We started too late, almost 4:00 in the afternoon and it was taking way longer than anticipated to float down.

I couldn't believe some of the coolest scenery in southern Utah is just hiding a few miles from my house!

I was freezing as the evening came on and told Merril we wouldn't make it to Grandpa's Pond. We were going to get out at Sky Mountain Golf Course. It still took longer than we thought but it was so incredibly cool!

I told Merril it was so cool, I'd do it again tomorrow! So we did! I felt bad that Merril had to bail early but was grateful that he let me have this adventure with the kids.

So the next day, Saturday, Merril borrowed a Search and Rescue kayak and we started earlier, around noon. Mark decided to tag along. He was a little skittish at first but then had fun. We stopped at this sandy bar for a minute because Mark wanted to.

We started out again and were having fun until we flipped the kayak. 

We stopped on another sand bar to warm up and calm Mark down.

He was skittish again and didn't want to keep going but there was no way out but through! He rallied and we kept going.  

The first day we floated 6 miles in 3 hours on tubes and the second day we kayaked 9 miles in 2 1/2 hours. I wrenched my ankle one time when I stepped out on the wrong side of the kayak and my foot got stuck between a rock and the kayak. The water was pushing the kayak against my leg and it took some strength to get the kayak off me enough to free my leg. 

Maxine met us at Grandpa's Pond and we got out and headed home.

After 2 days of playing in the river, I was a little beat up. It was the neatest thing I've done all year!