As part of our Hawker family reunion this year, we planted a flag pole at the cabin.  This was a really neat experience and instilled great feelings of patriotism. It was also great to contribute something lasting to the cabin.

Just a couple days later, I was on a work trip out in the Baltimore Maryland area. After finishing our business, we took an opportunity to visit Fort McHenry where the 15 star and 15 stripe Old Glory was flown and Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the Spar Spangled Banner.

Did you know there have been 27 different official US flags?

There is this really great trail up in the mountains behind us called Squaw Peak Trail. It connects Hobble Creek Canyon with Provo Canon and is full of amazing views along an incredibly rocky road. We’ve done this trail several times over the years, and we do the first little section at least once or twice every year as well.

On dirt bikes with James and me in 2010
+Kathryn with the ATV for most of loop in 2012
+ Ashley with the CRV in 2014
+Eliza with Thunder in 2018
+Landon with the Can-am (in 2021)

This time, we borrowed a good friends UTV to make the journey. Although this was probably the dirtiest way to make the drive, it was definitely the fastest and most comfortable vehicle we’ve taken. I’m sure the drought factored into the dust level as well though. Also unfortunate on this drive, we had some really thick smoke in the air that blew in from California and Oregon fires. So, the vistas weren’t quite the same, but we had a lot of fun anyway.

For this trip, we brought the stove up and cooked up some Mountain House dinners and then later grilled our mallows for our smores over the stove flame. Good stuff!

We love these kids. They make life exciting.

Time to clean everyone and everything up. What a great drive!

Here are some throwback pictures.

2012 on the ATV

2014

2018

Going “Jeeping”

 

Around the time Landon was born, I did a project with girls to create a ready-to-wake clock. The basic premise is that the clock turns green in the morning when it’s okay to wake up. The clock does a lot more than that though. It’s got cool light patterns and engraved acrylic plates that light up complete with pictures of Ashley and Eliza and Minnie and Baby Kitty. Because this has been such a fun thing and a part of the kids life each day, I thought it would be cool to use it to tell them if our new baby would be a boy or girl. I added in a new light routine and countdown timer to the clock for a grand reveal at the 4th of July dinner with the Hawkers up at the cabin and my family on a video call.

I had way too much fun dragging things on telling all about the clock and all the fun things it could do.

We’re so happy to be welcoming a new baby girl to our family later this fall! Ashley and Eliza couldn’t be more happy. Landon doesn’t quite understand yet what this means, but we know he’s going to be a sweet big brother.

When we visited Stan and Melanie a couple of months ago, the idea to drive the White Rim Road in Canyonlands National Park was born. It was something that we could do in the truck and we wanted to try out the desert “Camp Life” that Stan and Melanie love to do. The actual White Rim Road in 71 miles long, and by the time you add in the other connecting roads and side spurs, it was around 100 miles total for the drive start to finish. A lot of people spread the drive over three days and camp twice. With campground availability and how our trip worked out, we did the drive in two days, starting on Mineral Bottom road, proceeding counter clockwise, and camping at Potato Bottom Campground.

The week before the trip, Stan sent me this ominous forecast. Needless to say, we were a bit nervous about the heat. We figured we’d be okay during the heat of the day while driving with the AC in the truck, but were worried about sleeping. In addition to packing up basically the whole house for the camping trip, we also loaded up with a ton of water and made a quick stop at Walmart on the way out of town for some battery powered fans for sleeping.

We left home in the afternoon and made it to our campsite at Potato Bottom campground late in the evening where we met up with Stan and Melanie and their kids. It was really incredible approaching the canyon and then eventually dropping in. Really, the entire drive was a constant surprise of beautiful vistas and majestic landscape. It was also fun driving it the way we did, starting at Mineral Bottom Road and ending with Shafer Trail as it seamed that Mother Nature just kept upping the ante more and more impressive sights until the very end.

I love this before and after. So, so tired in the previous picture, and very much refreshed in this picture.

It was just a short little walk down to Green River from our campsite. The power of the water is remarkable. The power to carve out vast landscapes and the power to bring life to the desert.

Day 2, the big drive. Stan and Mel’s Land Cruiser was so iconic here in this landscape. We really had a lot of fun watching them drive.

At the Black Crack, a fissure in the rock extending down to the next layer of rock 65 feet below.

Wow, what an exhilarating experience to get this picture of a Desert Bighorn Sheep. We took a spur road out to the White Crack campground. I was the first one out to the canyon rim to take a look around. With my new Sony camera in hand, I was fixated on the approaching view and finding the perfect spot to take some pictures when I heard a scraping sound to my side. I looked over and quickly saw the source – a Desert Bighorn Sheep standing about 50 feet away. My first reaction was to whip up the camera and get a picture. I managed to get just two shots in before my next reaction kicked in. What I realized I was seeing through the camera was the ram pawing the rock and looking an awful lot like he was going to ram me. We a great rush of adrenaline heightening my actions, I grabbed the nearest rock and yelled, waved my arms, and prepared for the worst. Thankfully the ram decided to abort any further confrontation and spoked away to the side away from me and the canyon. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was directly in his exit path down the canyon and was blocking his retreat.

After walking an arc around me for a bit, he was coming around towards my direction again and he began an an aggressive trot. Again, my adrenaline peaked and I cut the camera and prepared my rock. However, to my absolute surprise, he didn’t come for me, he went straight towards the canyon rim and vaulted off.

I ran round to see where he went, and there he was, heading down his trail on the canyon wall. I found where he vaulted off, and was amazed to see that he did a 15-20 foot drop down to the trail. What an incredible experience. I am so glad that we were able to work things out without a fight.

After the ram was gone and my pulse returned to normal, I was able to enjoy the vista again. Off in the distance was the Needles, which is another part of the Canyonlands park. Sometime we’ll need to go explore over there too.

I was playing around trying to cut some of the haze from the picture and ended up with this effect.  Not what I was originally going for, but I though it came out pretty cool.

Here is the whole view from the canyon rim at White Crack. It’s just so vast.

You could turn this into a great background for a quote.

This is about how we all felt. This far into day 2, we realized why many people camp for two nights on this road.

Below us are canyons within canyons within canyons, all while we’re in a canyon. No wonder they call this Canyonlands.

Here we are at the beginning of the end, climbing out of the canyons up the famous Shafer Trail road. This was awesome.

Wow, what a drive. That was incredible. Pavement has never felt so smooth either. In the end, the heat was manageable and I didn’t feel like it had any real negative effect on the trip. On the contrary, I think it actually helped out. We pretty much had the road to ourselves and we never had to make any sketchy passes with other vehicles. After finishing the drive, we headed into Moab for the night and enjoyed a shower and air conditioned room. The next morning, we did a quick drive with Stan and Mel up the Colorado river, then it was time to head home. Stan and Mel, thanks so much for hosting us on this Camp Life adventure!