AMERICAN "FARK" CANYON QUADDING

Well, I would have to say that I had a pretty sweet looking rig coming back to school. Snowmobile in the back of the truck and a quad (4 wheeler for all the Utah/Idaho people) on my trailer. Yeah, it's going to be a fun semester!!! I am spending a few days here in Utah and I could not resist going on a ride here. Me and my friend Janae headed up American Fork Canyon this morning to go for a little ride. That little ride eventually turned into about a 6 hour ride! First off, those stinking environmentalists have closed down more than 70% of the trails up there for quads probably to save some little microscopic plant or bug or something so it took us a few hours to even find a decent trail to ride on that wasn't closed. Anyway, we eventually found a pretty sweet trail, quite treacherous, but one that we could actually ride on and we had a ton of fun. All I know is that I am so excited to go up to Idaho where all the trails aren't closed to "save the dirt" or whatever those enviornmentalists try and make us normal people miserable about. Overall, way fun day!!

THE GRAND ADVENTURE IN THE GRAND CANYON!

As you all probably know, I went with a huge group of people to the Grand Canyon this weekend and it was such an amazing trip! All 36 of us hiked almost all 12 miles down late Thursday night and camped on the road a few hundred yard from the town since we couldnt check in until the next day. The weather was awesome, the water was nice and cold, and the whole trip was absolutely amazing. Now, what everyone wants to hear about. THE FLASH FLOODS!!!! About an hour before we left to hike back up, 2 people from the tribe came running through the campground yelling out that a flash flood was coming and that everyone needed to take high ground. Well, we all went next to the river because we really wanted to see it! The only thing we saw was the water turning from blue to brown from all the dirt being stirred up in the water. That was kinda cool I guess! We all gave up on watching the flash flood and didn't think that it would come. We went and explored a cave and then came back, packed up, and started hiking out. We were all bummed because we really wanted to see a flash flood. As we were walking through the Village, an Indian lady stopped us and told us to be very careful because there was a flood coming. We thought that they were just overly paranoid because they were freaking out about a flash flood that we waited for that never came (so we thought!). We took her advice very lightly and started our hike out of the canyon. A couple of miles out of town, a huge storm rolls in and starts pouring on us like I have never seen rain pour before. It sure felt nice because we were getting really hot! We had no idea what that rain would bring on though. We noticed a little stream coming down the canyon and within minutes, it was a full blown river rushing down the canyon. That's when things started getting a little bid scary. Our group got broken into two and I was in the back group and we were somewhat stranded on some high ground. The water was rising really fast and the current of the water was very strong. We were on that high ground for about a half hour or so and we really felt that we needed to keep going just in case things got worse. We all had to work as a team to get out of that canyon. We all held hands and made a huge chain to cross the river so we wouldn't fall down and we all had to help each other climb up rocks to try and take the safest way out. It was so intense! I think everyone was a little nervous because we had to idea how bad it would get. Water was pouring over the canyon walls making huge waterfalls that poured right onto what was the trail and that certainly added to the level of the water. After 6 hours, we finally got out of the canyon and up to our cars. We were all so grateful that we made it out ok because I know that some people weren't as fortunate. When I was leaving thismorning I was stopped by the police at a road block that they had set up 60 miles out of the canyon trying to find missing hikers from last night. They asked me if I hiked the canyon last night, took all my information, and told me that they are trying to account for everyone because there were a bunch of people missing. They also told me that then Dam upstream had broken and that a 10 ft wall of water was coming. That made me even more grateful for getting out of the canyon when we did. People today were airlifted out and I am pretty sure that where we were is completely underwater. It sounds like it wiped out a lot of stuff down there! Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures from the trip. Enjoy!!!

The hike in standing above Havasu Falls

The descent going mooney falls. It was straight down the canyon wall and you had to hold onto the chains so you wouldn't fall. If you did fall, you would totally die! Don't worry moms.....we were very careful!

Mooney Falls

Group of us at Mooney Falls

This was at a lookout over Mooney Falls

Me on the rope swing

Right after we got the flash flood warning, the water turned from a beautiful blue to a nasty brown within 5 minutes

Havasu Falls. We actually swam behind the waterfall and let me tell you, that thing has some POWER!

This used to be the trail....we think. It was pretty much non-existent. Here we are working as a team to get out of the canyon. It was pitch black at this point of the hike.

This one is hard to see but we were all helping each other get up some rocks out of the water.

I must say that I had an EXCELENT 4th of July this past weekend. One, because it was my first one since I have been back from the mission and two, I was able to spend it with some of my very best friends! After a couple of girls came over and cooked us breakfast, we headed down to Idaho Falls and found a spot right on the green belt (right next to the river) and we fired up the coals on our $20.00 BBQ that me and my roommate split the cost of a few weeks ago. We had a huge BBQ right on the Snake River and enjoyed the live band that was playing a few hundred feet away and just relaxed, played Frisbee, cards, Catchphrase, and laid down on the grass and enjoyed the AWESOME 80 degree weather. We had about 20 or 25 people at our spot and we just totally had the best spot. It finally got dark at around 10:00pm and the most amazing firework show you have ever seen commenced. Idaho Falls is way famous for their incredible firework show and let me tell you, it was by far the best firework show that I have ever seen in my whole life. They spare no expense! Afterwards we sat in traffic and enjoyed the 1 1/2 hour 20 mile drive back home!!! Awesome weekend!

This was our spot

Yeah.....there is a chance that I got a little carried away with the lighter fluid.

Me, Beth, and Liz

Sunset over Snake River


I'm not really sure what Dev was doing here...


Dev, Me, Collin, and Hilary

Cascade Canyon

WE DID IT!!!!!! Oh my goodness, that was by far the BEST backpacking trip that I have ever been on and I am so happy to put pictures of it on my blog that I TOOK and not ones that other people took! This place was so much more than I expected! So here is how our trip went:

We arrived to Jenny Lake, Wyoming at about 5:30 pm Friday night and we went and got our back country camping permit from the ranger. The ranger thought that we were somewhat crazy for starting the hike so late in the day but we were so pumped that we didn't even care! They made us take this big plastic bear container to put our food in and told us that it was mandatory because there have been so many bears out this year! COOL!!! So we flew over to the parking lot, threw our packs on, and without any further adieu we were off hiking at about 6:15pm! What an amazing hike it was. It started off with a hike around the lake to the trail head and that was gorgeous in itself. Once we started up the canyon, I realized that the stuff that we thought was beautiful before was nothing compared to what was in the canyon.

The first amazing thing that we passed about 1 mile up the canyon was a 120 foot waterfall called Hidden Falls. Man was that amazing! Then it just got better from there. We came out to this point called Inspiration Point and it overlooked the lake and the valley and it was amazing. Then once we started getting deeper into the canyon, it was beautiful rapids, waterfalls down both sides of the canyon walls all over the place, luscious green forests, moose, porky pines, marmots, and other cool little animals. We were surrounded by the Tetons on both sides of us which made the most awesome scenery. Once we got to our destination 6.6 miles up the canyon, we made camp. We were up at the snow level and it was about a foot deep in some places but we found an awesome little spot on dry ground and we busted out our little stoves and made our Top Ramen. Its amazing how good that tastes when you are really hungry!! The night was cold. I didn't bring a pad so it was my sleeping bag on the frozen ground. Yeah, not too comfortable!!! But we did hear the roar of the waterfall that we camped next to all night and that was quite soothing!

We woke up at about 7:30, got some water from from the stream and made some hot chocolate and oatmeal. Our plan was to hike 2.4 more miles up the north fork of the canyon but the trail was covered with 4 feet of snow which made it too difficult with a heavy pack and no snow shoes. So that idea went out the window! But thats ok. I am 110% satisfied with where we went and what we saw. It was by far the most beautiful place that I have ever been to and I am so going back in a few months after the snow melts to get up to Lake Solitude. The trip was awesome, nothing went wrong, and it was a BLAST!!!! I wish that you all could have been up there with us. I for sure have my Dad's Wyoming blood in me! I could live there forever!


Here are a few of the 114 pictures that I took:

This is what the walls of the canyon looked like.

This is the first little bridge that we went over on the trail on our way to Hidden Falls

About 3 miles up into the canyon. Luckily it doesn't get dark until about 9:30 so we had plenty of light.

This is the waterfall right next to our campsite. It was so beautiful!

That is me washing my face with the water running off the hill side.

Yeah...it was really cold!

This was part of our hike around Jenny Lake

We were about 1 mile or less into the canyon

Just some water! There was so much of it up there!

This was pretty early on in the hike. Notice the little marmot in the background on the rock. I didn't even realize it was there!

Hidden Falls. Man did that thing roar! It felt so nice to stand there in the mist.

This was the ascent up to Inspiration Point. We felt so inspired. Ha ha!


We had about 2 miles left to go at this point.


I took this from inside the canyon.


Our little campsite



Just another cool picture I took from Jenny Lake



Filtering some water



Another picture of the waterfall next to where we camped. It looks identical to the one someone else took in my last post, but its not! Mine has snow in it!


A cool little bird I saw by the car. I took that with an SLR...thats why it turned out so cool!



This peak is called Coyote Peak (or something like that) because it looks like a howling coyote.



Another scenery picture! Sorry if you are getting sick of these!

Part of the trail was the stream


Um...self explanatory. The river in the canyon.

WE ARE ALMOST READY!!!!

So everything is falling perfectly into place for our trip this weekend. Just in case anyone forgot, this weekend is our big Cascade Canyon backpacking trip. Man are we excited! Our packs are packed and we are making the last minute preparations so that we don't encounter any problems along the way. Unfortunately, some people aren't going to be able to go so it is just me and my two roommates. I don't care if nobody else went, would still go! I have been so excited ever since I heard about this place over a month ago. It actually worked out nice that we waited to go because up until two weeks ago, it was snowing in the Tetons. I called up to the Ranger Station today and the place where we were planning on camping still is covered in snow and the lake is frozen. So what we are going to do is go as far as we can until we hit the snow and we will camp there. Saturday morning, depending on the snow level, we will try to make it up to Lake Solitude which is where we were going to camp. Either way, it is going to be an amazing trip and I am counting the hours and minutes until we go! I will post new pictures probably on Sunday or Monday after the trip! Wish us luck!