July 24th

July 24th, 2014
What a day! After last night's crazy weather I woke up just in time to hitch a ride back to the temples to photograph the sunrise! Once we finished snapping we went back to camp to help take down tents and eat breakfast! We all loaded up and took the scenic 2 hour trip back to the station. Along the way we stopped at a dried up riverbed where you can actually see and pick up the cracked clay! Crazy! We also stopped at a place that was littered with fossilized shells and sweet looking rocks. We spent a good half an hour on the side of the road looking for treasures! Once we got back to the station we ate and everyone showered! It was wonderful! I was just getting dressed when I heard that a group was planning on going on a strenuous slot canyon hike and was seeing who wanted to go! There ended up being eight of us: Me, Alyssa, Sarah, Kelly, Jeremy, Richard, Sean and Dusty. It was way cool! We had to off road for about a mile worth of wash to get to the "trail" and the first half of the hike consisted of hoisting ourselves and gear over boulders, climbing up walls and down rocky slopes. We started getting into some mud and standing water due to a flash flood a few weeks ago. The first impassable puddle was about mid calf on me. That's where Alyssa and Dusty drew the line and we left them behind while we trudged on. Richard and Sean had climbed up on top of the ridge and were scouting out routes for us to take and i guess they saw the water and didn't want to go on either. We then passed through a second puddle thing that went about mid thigh high, Only to reach another very deep body of water. It ended up being armpit deep on me and ended with a giant bolder blocking the way through. Sarah said "no way" and we left her there along with most of our gear. Jeremy had his camera in a zip lock back and waded across with it. Kelly and I left everything on the bank. Once across the water, the only way to get up was to stick one foot on either side of the slot and kinda shimmy up. Jeremy was able to get up without assistance [he had height aiding him]. Luckily for Kelly and I he had brought this lanyard thing used in rock climbing. With one of our hands looped up in it we were able to push off of one side of the cliff and use our momentum to carry us/climb up the side and over the rock. It was down to us three and we finally started reaching the really narrow slots when we thought we should probably turn around since we had left so many people behind. With only a camera, no tripod or remote we were able to [after many, many attempts] take a passable selfie with Jeremy's camera. Then we hiked back and met up with our group. The sun was setting after we made it back to the road so we stopped to photograph for a bit. Then we drove back to the station in the dark, all of us [Kelly, Jeremy and I] covered in red mud! We got there just in time for dinner and a little lesson. Way fun! So glad I went the whole way!