One of the standing jokes for the trip was "Hey Rach, How do you feel about red rock?"
I'll let you look at the pictures and decide for yourself.
What we did exactly:
We camped at Hal Canyon [a BLM Campground along the Colorado River] thanks to a kind RV who shared it's tent space with us. We had s'mores and scary stories and us girls had pillow talk. :) On Wednesday we woke up and had breakfast burritos [thanks to the boys - none of us girls are morning people]. We did the Windows, Turrett and Double Arch first thing and then ate lunch at Balanced Rock. We did a Fiery Furnace hike in the afternoon that was totally awesome. I loved crawling through things and climbing across cracks. We had tin foil dinners and dutch oven cobbler for dinner and a massage train before bed. We packed up camp in the rain and then hiked to Delicate Arch. Tayte and Annie and I went down into the bowl and up the other side. It was weird to see it from that direction. We went to Pine Tree and Landscape Arches and stopped in my favorite little spot in the rocks. We left just as the rain started to pour again. We tried to take the van down a dirt road to Gemini Bridges but it was a little too low riding. [Note to self - Take a jeep and go back sometime for that one.] We stopped at a little home town burger joint in Green River and Russell [thank you thank you] drove the rest of the way home.
Please don't judge:
My OCD. Yes, my menus as well as packing and shopping lists were made on Excel Spreadsheets. I just don't like forgetting things! It stresses me.
My hair. Camping + Hiking + Rain + Curly Hair = Bandana and Braids to attempt to tame it. Just be glad you didn't have to see me first thing after waking up.
Also, please judge the oversize jacket. My Dad offered me his Gortex and I gladly took it. I'm so happy I did too because it rained a lot of our trip. So I look silly because I'm drowning in it and I had to roll up the s don't leeves but I was dry. And that is what matters.
Things to Note:
I appreciate Dad's camping cooking more than I realized. He's straight up awesome at it. And s'mores just aren't the same when your little brother isn't there to make you a perfect golden brown one.
I have a tendency to act like a mom. "Did everyone get enough to eat? Do you need your water filled? Does anyone need to stop and use the bathroom. Aubrey, do not give Russell a wet willy." So much so that my friends may have called me Mom more than once on this trip. I'm taking this as a compliment. But I probably need to rethink the way I interact with my peers.
Rebecca Black's Friday gets stuck in my head WAY too easily. [Thank you Tayte.] Party and Party and Party and Yeah.
Don't say you should do something. It never happens. Like how we wrote a song while hiking but failed to record it. It went like this "The rains came down and the arches were formed. The rains came down and the arches were formed. The rains came down and the arches were formed." Don't worry there definitely were hand motions included.
I LOVE my friends. LOVE them. I'm grateful to have them. They were exactly the people I needed in my life this past year. Each one for a different reason. I had such a great time.
Oh. And I LOVE red rock. Just in case you hadn't figured it out.
Also, I need your opinions. Would you rather have a post that is half again as long with only big pictures or would you rather have a shorter post with smaller pictures that you can click on for a closer peek if you want? Currently, I've trended toward a post with smaller pictures. But I do like being able to really see a picture. Please let me know if you have an opinion. :)
