We camped in the San Rafael Swell, next to Temple Mountain. Ok right under Temple Mountain.
The sky was always changing. One minute it was snowing, then 5 minutes later it was sunny. Sometimes the sky looked like a picture or cartoon.My parents' neighbor pulled a big trailer and put our toys inside of it. He did not get to camp till later, so we didn't ride at all on Wednesday. On Thursday we took a short trail, then went up to a mine. Kody and Michael moved a few rocks from in front of the gates, then started digging a hole under it. We squeezed under and went exploring. After 5 minutes in it, we all had a metal taste in our mouths, so we quickly turned around and left. Kelsi and Dan had found another one on the other mountain and it was much cooler, no yucky taste, and so big with several different tunnels.
On Friday we went for our long ride. One of the people camping with us wanted to hike Little Wild Horse Canyon to the Slot Canyon. They always put my father in charge of mapping out the rides, so with the hike in mind, my father planned a trip around with a stop to hike to the Slots. It was such a fun hike, and pretty too. When we got to the Slots, we couldn't hike all the way through because there were huge puddles. All of us had out rinding gear on and didn't want to get it all wet. People were hiking out of the Slots with water marks all the way up pass their knees. We stopped at the puddles and turned around. We went back to out toys, ate lunch, then continued on riding. It was a black diamond trail, hard, but so much fun (with a little scariness)! The lady who wanted to hike and ride all day complained the most. I'm not sure why, since she's the one who always wants my father to plan the ride, but she always complains the most during and afterwards. That night we went to the Goblins. It was fun! What an exhausting day!
On Saturday, before we left, we went for one more short ride. This one was around Temple Mountain and one of my favorite rides. It's so pretty when you get to the wash. We came across this shack and took a big group photo (15 people, 13 vehicles) as well as some family ones (my sister thinks that just because Drew wasn't there my mother decided to take "family" photos). We stopped at the towers and played on those (so scary). On the way back to camp, we stopped at the pictographs. Which, since the last time, several of them have been shot and you can't see them anymore. What a terrible thing to do! It was disappointing! Where there had been like 10-15 different pictographs, there were only 5 left. The canyon wall was filled with them, and now there is only a spot with them left. The ones that were left had been shot pretty bad too, but they are hanging in there. I'm sure by the time I have kids and go there, there won't be anymore left to show them.It was a fun trip! I just wish Drew was there. I had no service, so on his birthday I had to drive out of the canyon, in the car or on a motorcycle was the only way I could get to where I had service. It was several miles away from camp and then up on a hill. There were a ton of other people on this hill making phone calls. CRAZY! I had about a 5 to 10 minute conversation with him and that was it. I was sad! He would have loved this trip! I Tom Sawyer'd some kids to finish building the fire ring I had started. He would have been proud!
