Camping fun in Boulder and the Kaibab!

 What a great camping trip we had...very spur of the moment.  Paul finished a job on Tuesday morning and came home and said we could go camping for a few days if I wanted to.  So, we put it together and went.  We started out over by Boulder Utah.  I had been wanting to check out some campgrounds over that way for a possible Family Camp site and thought we might camp at one, but we got there pretty late and after eating Subway in Escalante we decided to just look for a good camp spot along the way.  We found a dirt road turn off across from the Chriss Lake hike trailhead and found a great spot down that way.  It was among the aspens and you can't beat that.  We took an evening walk further down that road and found a beautiful stream, played some banana grams and then it was time to call it a day.

The next morning we decided to hike to Chriss Lake.  It was a great, pretty uppity hike and rangers had just cleared it of lots of brush, so that made it even better.  It was a very beautiful hike and the lake had funny ducks on it.  It was about 4 miles.  On our way down we saw 2 groups of forest rangers going up to do more work on the trail.  I was crossing a stream that came out of it on the way out and fell off a log that moved, but thankfully I just got bruised a bit, but nothing more.  

After that, we decided to go and check out those campgrounds.  They were nice, but not what we need for Family Camp.  Good to know.  Along the way we stopped in at the Wildcat Visitor's Center.  We talked to the host and he said we were lucky because the "humming bird people were there."  They were a group of college students (I think) that were there studying humming birds.  They had set up feeders with nets over them around the little picnic area.  The birds would go in there to eat and then they would catch them in little net bags.  They would take them out and do all kinds of measurements on the them.  They were banding some and some that they caught that day had been banded as much at 14 years ago!  The bands were so tiny that to see the numbers on them you had to use a jeweler's glass.  They would measure them some and then stick the birds little beaks into a feeder on the table so they could drink and help relieve some of their stress.  When they had finished all their measurement recording, they asked if we wanted to release them.  Paul and I both got to hold one in our hand and then they flew away.  It was so cool and amazing!

After that we drove back over the mountain to the Hole In the Rock road and drove out to see the Devil's Garden rock formations.  We had seen them years ago and I have been wanting to revisit it.  It was really hot this time of year, but we got to see all all of them.  Really outstanding!

Next we made what was probably a bad choice for how late and how hot it was.  We decided to go further down the road to the trailhead for Dry Fork Narrows and Peek-a-boo and Spooky Gulch.  We took the gradual decent into Dry Fork Narrows and hiked through that for about 1.5 miles.  Then we came out into a wash and went over to see if we wanted to go into the loop trail for the other two.  The entrance to Peek-a-boo was more of a climb/scramble than we wanted to do, so we walked down to see if we could go in the other end at Spooky.  It was SO hot and further and we wanted to go, so we headed back to the Dry Fork Narrows to get back to the truck and go.  I probably would have been ok without the part where we walked over to find Spooky Gulch.  I just got so hot and pretty soon I started feeling sick to my stomach.  I was pretty good in the shade, but needed to stop and rest in some shade here and there.  Then we got out of the narrows and into the full sun and my legs just couldn't go.  I rested and finally after a hill we got to where we could see the truck, but I just had to sit down under a tree in the shade after puking up all the water I had been drinking.  Paul went on to the truck and to get cold water and Triscuits for me. I got cooled down in the shade of a tree and then met him halfway back.  I just kind of hit a wall I guess.  Too much sun and not enough food.  We hadn't eaten that day, but had plenty of water.  I started feeling better as soon as I got cooler and had some salty crackers and cold water in me.  We drove back to Escalante and got some cold pop to go with our crackers and then I really felt much better.  I felt dumb being such a wimp, but I really just was out of gas.  After that we drove home via a favorite campsite, Blue Spruce, and over Hell's Backbone.  We made a great dinner of Super Nachos at our little camp.  We both tried the outdoor shower on our little trailer and it felt pretty good after our hot day out.  Then we played some games and hit the sack.  

The next morning we packed up and drove back down to Escalante and went through the visitor's center for the Grand Escalante National Monument.  We watched the movie and saw the displays.  It's a good place.  Then we were going to drive home, but decided that we would camp another night over at the Kaibab Forest near Jacob Lake.  We just enjoyed the drive and when we got to Jacob Lake we got cookies to have for desert that night and drove out into the dirt roads to find a camp spot.  We finally found a great site and got everything set up.  It was beautiful in a different way here, still high, but not so high as by Boulder and lots more Ponderosa than Aspen trees.  We took a walk for 3 miles up the road to see what was past the log that had fallen across it.  It was so nice. We found some really cool rocks with fossils in them along the way. Then we got back to camp and made another dinner of Super Nachos. (That's what we had since we hadn't planned on staying out that long.)  We were hungry, and it tasted great, and we had the cookies too!  Then we went for a drive down the road.  We had found a way around the log on our walk.  When we got back we played games for a while and then went to bed. 

In the morning we decided to drive over to Lee's Ferry to see if there were any peaches ready to pick in the orchard before we headed home.  There weren't any, but we did get to talk to some guys doing restoration stonework on the old house at Lonely Dell Ranch there.  Then we went down to see the Colorado River and then it was time to get back on the road with one more stop for cookies as we went back by Jacob Lake.  We saw some amazing and varied scenery all along the way on our trip and had such a good time getting to know our little camp trailer better and liking it even more.  We had great, out by ourselves, camp spots both times.  It was a wonderful end of school break camping trip!  

 We also saw this interesting place along the way over by Cannonville.  A very expensive way to camp.