Sunday, April 20, 2008

The perfect weekend....

So, we went to Capitol Reef and Torrey, UT this weekend (just for one night).
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I would like to now begin talking about how we went on a perfect hike and stayed in perfect accomodations and had perfect food and perfect weather....blah....blah...BLAH!!!! However, that would ALL be a lie.
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Truth is: our little trip was cursed.
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It all started off fine enough. We left Saturday morning and had a great drive down together. Oliver slept most of the way. We laughed and talked. It was great. We arrived in Torrey before check in, but our cabin was available so we got in there early. We re-packed and set off for a nice long hike. We had selected a slot canyon hike about 25 miles from where we were staying. Problem was, that when we got there, the wind was so fierce and filled with SAND that we could hardly get out of the car.
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Fine. No big deal, right. On to the next hike....
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We wanted to hike to this waterfall. Keep in mind that our goal this day is to get in a good sold 1/2 day or so hike. The waterfall was great and all, but we were disapointed to see that the hike terminated at just a few hundred feet.....

....bummer....

No big deal, right? On to the NEXT hike.

Keep in mind that we must pack Oliver out of his seat and into a baby back pack and get re-adjusted every time we attempt the hike-thing.


So, after doing all of that, AGAIN, we began to hike down what looked to be a very promising wash. It was beautiful...


UNTIL...it dead-ended!!!! It was only about a 1/4 mile hike (IF THAT). We were SO disapointed. We decided, nonetheless, to enjoy the dead end a bit.


Bryce thought it was funny to "dare" me to go into this crevasse. I found it very creepy and am SURE that there were vampire nests in there....


I still made it into the creepy "cave" for a photo op. (bryce would like to point out at this point that I was still several feet from the back of the cave which I refused to go to).



We let Oliver get his first feel of sand. He loved it. He liked to feel it and to eat it. Yummm....good clean sand--we hope.

We just figured that it wasn't the worst thing he'd eat in his life, so not to worry.



So, after this hike ended and we packed back up, we went on to our next one. We KNEW that it was a short one. However, even IT turned out to be about 1/2 of what we expected.
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It was, however, breathtaking:

...and VERY WINDY....

We were out on the end of a cliff in an overlook with fencing and all. However, in true "Sallie" fashion, I freaked out. I don't know what came over me. I was knot okay with the height of the canyon and the wind.

Here I am holding Oliver in the backpack. Bryce was very nice to just go along with my freak-out.


Well, after a "long" day of very short hikes, we were starving. There is one fine dining restaurant in Torrey, UT. We thought that after a day of disapointment, we should treat ourselves to a fine dinner. First we tried to walk to the restaurant from our cabin. Upon realizing that we had miscalculated the distance we were to travel to dinner, we walked back to our car and THEN ended up at the restaurant. It was a total bust. The food was SOOOO disapointing. All flare and no flavor. Sad.

Nevertheless, we went back to our little cabin for a nice hang-out evening. We had fun together and were in bed by 10pm. Little did we know that it would be one of hte most sleepless nights of our lives. The wind in Torrey that night was some of the worst IN THE HISTORY of the town. Our little cabin felt like it was going to blow over or the windows were going to blow in....it was awful.

The wind persisted into the next morning preventing any outdoor enjoyment.

No big deal...we decided to head home. We planned to stop at a little diner we'd heard of in Salina, UT for breakfast. Upon exiting I-70, Bryce was pulled over by the cops and got a speeding ticket. Because of this, we decided to boycott everything to do with Salina.

We finally made it home and vowed never to step foot outside again. (kidding).

I think that the moral to our weekend (for us) is that, even though so much went wrong (i'm not even mentioning all of the things we forgot to pack and Oliver's diarrhea and almost running out of gas, etc. etc. etc...)---we had a great time. We laughed a lot and just enjoyed each other. If things have to go wrong....you may as well enjoy the company...and we do. :)

6 comments:

Robyn said...

Beautiful pictures! They make me want to go down south SO bad! Sorry about all of the mishaps...next time, we want to go! xoxo

Ashley said...

I love that waterfall; it is so much fun.

I love Torrey! Sorry it wasn't smooth sailings.

Anonymous said...

wow. Sounds so much like my first camping trip with Sofie at 15 months. Beautiful pictures though. Hope we can all go this summer, it will be amazing.

Katie said...

These are memories you will have forever! If everything had gone perfect it would have been just another trip jumbled in your memories of other trips right? Well at least you can tell yourself that to make you feel better. It was fun to see your pics. Yea Spring is finally here!!!

Emy W. said...

Oh, I am so jealous! I miss canyons and hiking... I hope you guys are doing well- I emailed you back, but I think Kevin H. has some stuff in place that screens out hotmail emails.

Keep the adventures coming! :D

Karima said...

Sounds like an adventure! Maybe not so much fun, but you have great memories.
Makes me miss Southern Utah too! I'm sure next time will be better. ;)