Rant

Keith and I want to go camping this weekend. We don't have a lot of wiggle room in our schedule so we were planning on just finding a campground in one of the nearby canyons and pitching a tent next to the car. It has been a while since I have gone camping in a real campground. The kind where you pay for your little spot complete with fire pit and smelly brick bathroom. We would back up our car, set up our tent, roast marshmallows and sing kum-by-yah until the neighbors hushed us up. It isn't extreme backpacking, but it isn't Provo either.

There is just one problem. $36 for a tent site (average). You've got to be kidding! This is OUR public land!

We will not be detoured! We will go camping and we won't pay through the nose to do it! So ha!

Surviving, and Escaping, Alcatraz (the canyon)

Last weekend Keith, some friends, and I went canyoneering. Because it was my birthday weekend I got to pick the canyon. I knew exactly which one I wanted to do. There is no doubt that this was by far the most intense canyon I have yet explored. Needless to say, it was awesome! Alcatraz canyon is in the Robbers Roost area of Utah (between Canyonlands and Goblin Valley). We drove in late Friday night and spent Saturday working our way through the canyon and back to the car. The canyon has a very unique entry. The canyon begins at a big sink hole, so instead of hiking in we just tied the rope to the frame of the car and rappelled 150 feet down.

Gavin setting up the rappel.

Keith rappelling from the car. Gavin is visible in the lower left corner of the picture.

Keith mid rappel.

Starting the slots. It got narrower and narrower for hours. I have never seen a canyon so tight!

Dropping fast.

The second rappel was right after a big pool. At this point we were all still trying to stay clean and dry. Unfortunately Keith face planted in this mucky pool from his rappel perch when Gavin "accidentally" pulled on the anchor.

Jenny, Keith's cousin, came too and was so fun. This is her on the second rappel.

Melissa with some chalk stones.

By this point in the canyon it was really dark, and it only got darker. The canyon was so narrow and deep that it was more like a cave than a canyon.

We teased Keith for falling in the first pool, but by the end we all were waist deep in mucky, stinky pools. Yuck!!!

Keith lowering into a pool.

And another pool.

This was the deepest pool. Slimy, smelly, gross.

We did a LOT of this, and variations of this, for hours. Canyoneering is the art of wedging ones body in odd ways between various shapes and widths of rock walls. We have a large collection of rainbow colored bruises and scrapes as a result.

Jenny, Keith, and me. Wet and happy to finally see the sun.

After successfully escaping the canyon we had about an hour hike back to the car.

This is definitely a canyon worth returning to.

And the Whirlwind Continues...

I have finally gotten some pictures of the last month loaded on my computer. What a busy month!

Dinner in the back yard.

Right after our honeymoon we flew up to Puyallup, WA to have an Open House at my home. Keith's parents came too. It was relaxed, and so fun! Thank you everyone who came. It was wonderful to see so many people who have been such an influential part of my life.

We moved into Wymount Terrace (BYU Married Student Housing). It is...um...very different from single student apartments. We love it though! Keith built wonderful garden boxes on our porch, and the garden is now thriving. I will have to take a picture of it soon and show it off.

Keith loves his tools.

While in Washington we bought Sarah and Darren's Subaru. For our 1 month anniversary (which was also Memorial Day) we borrowed a friend's canoe and went out on Utah Lake and the Provo River. Oh, the fun we have planned with this car!

There were fishermen. So serene.

My wedding shoes. I bought these pretty blue Chaco's for my wedding shoes and have been loving them ever since.

Keith is going to have his first field study. The only problem is that the location for the study is infested with weeds. Keith did the calculations to figure out the proper mixture of herbicide, per gallon, per acre, etc. (Math and Keith mesh well together. I married a nerd and it was a good decision on my part).

Then we mixed it.


Then I got the fun part of driving the tractor. No math involved.


Last Saturday we went climbing up in Rock Canyon for the first time this summer. So nice. This overhang has beat me twice in the past. But with lots of help from Keith, I grunted and growled my way up and over it. That is me in the center upper portion of the photo. Stay tuned: The plans for this weekend are WAY exciting. They will give the Subaru a more active role in our climbing adventures than just transporting us to the trail head.