Southern Utah

We went down to explore southern Utah for a week in June.

This is the San Rafael Swell just outside Green River, Utah.  

We stopped at the lookout on our way to go hiking.

From left:  Erika, Justin, Deanne & Cassie

Here's the gang at the beginning of Crawford Draw.

It wasn't very deep at the beginning.  

We were able to find an easy way down into the draw.

Not too far into it, we ran into this deep pool of water.  

We all had hiking shoes on and didn't want to stop and take them off...

So, we climbed out and walked further down to look for an 

easy place to climb back down in but it kept getting deeper and deeper 

and then it started raining ...

We found a snake up along the ridge.

This is about as far as we walked before turning around 

and heading back to the car.  

It rained on us all the way back to the car.

The next day, we got  the trailhead for Little Wildhorse Canyon 

at the same time as a huge group of boy scouts were getting ready to head out onto the trail.  

We quickly hopped on the trail to try and put some distance between us and them.  

(It is a pretty popular hike and we saw a lot of people.)

This is  the beginning of the trail.

There was a huge variety of  stuff in this canyon.

This is some little creature we saw along the way...

I think it was a bear.

The trail started to open up after a while 

and we rested in the shade before turning back around.

heading back

We passed by another curious looking creature on the way out.  

It looked similar to the bear we saw previously, but more relaxed.

On the way back, we stopped at Goblin Valley State park.

That's Justin on the left in blue.

And that is Megan, who found the perfect perch with a really good view.  

While the rest of us explored the goblins, she stayed there to enjoy the view.

Justin and Garrett

Swimming in the hotel swimming pool after a hot day of hiking 

The next day, we hit Crack Canyon.

It had towering walls

...a small subway section

and some really neat rock formations.

That is Cassie below.

and Erika in the cave.

We came upon a narrower section that had a few obstacles to climb down.

It opened up for a while

\

and entered another narrower section with some downclimbs.

Here we are examining one of the downclimbs.

After another open section, we came to this tall narrow section.

Taking in some shade while Garrett plays a little 

basketball trying to get a rock into a hole way up in the wall.

This is where we turned around and headed back.

Deanne being eaten by the monkey on the way back.

The last of the shade before the long walk back to the car in the full sun.

We passed a few people along the way, but we had it mostly to ourselves.

The next day, we hiked to Zebra Canyon.  

Here we are at the start of the trail.

It was a 2 1/2 mile hike in hot sun.   

There was another couple who started out just ahead of us.  

They had no water and turned around after about a mile into it.

We never saw another person.

We finally made it to the mouth of Zebra.

It began to close in rather quickly 

and there was a cool breeze blowing through the canyon that was very refreshing.

We had to take our packs off and squeeze through sideways in spots.

It was a very short canyon for such a long walk, but it was awesome.  

We hung out at the end of the canyon for a while.

It was a long, hot walk back to the car.

Did I mention it was really hot?

The next day, we drove on a pretty nasty dirt road to reach Egypt 3 Canyon.

Here we are the start of our hike.  

We had it all to ourselves!

There was no trail for this hike, so we guessed our way down into the canyon.

Cassie resting in what little shade she could find.

We dropped into a small crack and followed that 

hoping it would lead us down into Egypt.

There were several tricky spots where Deanne needed some help.

and several fun slides.

We finally found out way down into the canyon.

A short walk down canyon, we encountered our first obstacle.

We sent Megan down first to see if it was doable.

She made it down safely, so everyone soon followed 

wedging themselves down this small drop.

It was easy going for a while as it continued to deepen.

It was fun and rather easy to slide down the various obstacles we encountered along the way.  

We were hoping it would be just as easy in reverse.

After several hours, we ran into our first pothole 

with a pretty good drop down into it and decided that was a good turnaround point.

heading back up canyon.

climbing up the slides was not as easy as sliding down...

But with Garrett there at the top ready to lend a hand, everyone made it up safely.

Climbing back up the wedge was a little easier than we thought it was going to be.

We used a rope with some of the younger children who were a little nervous about it. 

Heading back out the way we came...

 starting to feel the full brunt of the sun's rays.

It was all uphill back to the car and we were quickly running out of water....

The ice cold jug of lemonade in the car is what kept us going.

A quick stop at Devil's Garden on the way back.

The favorite part of our vacation for Deanne was this pot belly pig 

that liked to wander the yard of the cabin we were staying in.

After dinner that night, we walked a 

short ways up the Escalante River.

The mosquitoes were absolutely horrible!

We probably would've walked further if it weren't for those pesky critters.

The following day, we hiked up Mossy creek.

Their favorite part was the thick puddles of mud  scattered along the riverbank.

Garrett climbed up the steep slope the left of the waterfall.

Justin almost made it to the top, but slid back down to the bottom.

We found another way around the waterfall.

Up above the waterfall, we continued walking upstream.

and found more mud puddles

This is where we turned around.

Heading back.

We swung by Kodachrome State park on the way back.

The last hike of the week was to Coyote, Peek-a-boo and Spooky Gulch.

The first canyon once we reached the bottom was coyote gulch.

It was pretty and was an easy walk.

The next canyon over was Peek-a-boo.

There was a small upclimb to get into that one.

Garrett made quick work of all of the upclimbs where the shorter people struggled.

playing peek-a-boo in peek-a-boo

he! he!

It opened up for a while.

and then closed up again.

It was a really tight squeeze in some places.

You can do it Shane!      

The walk over to Spooky was in deep sand, but it was not a very long walk.

Entering spooky.

Looking around for a way down..

We ended up sliding down this hole.

With no room to pass, we had to wait for 

another party that was coming from the other direction to pass by.

It opened up and we started to see daylight.

The exit to Spooky.

Now, how do we get back to the car?

What a great end to our trip!