Saturday, May 17, 2008

Wind Caves

Our first adventure in our Summer of a Million Hikes went ok...no one died. I thought I was going to, but I survived. I was honestly quite shocked at just how out of shape I am...I shouldn't really expect any different, but man oh man I am going to have to do some serious conditioning to be ready for some of the harder hikes.

My brother Mitch and his cute wife Michelle came up to make the hike with us. The hike is about 2.5 miles long and it took us 2.5 hours. I was awe struck by the beauty of the canyon, it was as if I had just taken it for granted and forgotten how majestic it is.

Here we are at the trailhead. Besta was so excited I am surprised he didn't pee himself.

This is part of the switchbacks winding up to the caves...you can see part of the cave - it is the dark spot in the upper left hand corner.

Mitch found this rock and had to climb it - so Nathan helped to get Besta up on it...

At one point the trail forked...and there was cute little sign that pointed to the right...well which direction do you think we went?? Yep, Left. Mitch assured us this was a shortcut. Well it was but it was awfully steep for a bit and we had to teach Besta to rock climb ...If I hadn't been so scared that I would have fallen to my death I would have taken a photo of our cute dog trying to be a mountain goat.
Right before you get to the actual caves you get to these beautiful rock outcroppings. I went to one and Mitch and Michelle sat on the other and I took a photo from across the 'great divide' hehe

From where I took Mitch and Michelle's picture I turned right and took this one. See the little guy in the white t-shirt? That's Nathan. The pic of us below in the big cavern is in the cavern on the left. We are standing right at the edge of the green.

Mitch and Michelle and I made our way over to where Nathan was - this is me down in the cave while Nathan is uptop snapping the photo.

This is standing (right where we are in the pic below) in the big cavern looking back up/out. Behind Michelle there is a spot that has obviously been camped in - there were even remnants of a campfire.
Mitch took this for us - this shot puts it all in to perspective - I can't believe how high up the caves are. Right behind where we are standing there is a HUGE dropoff (see three photos up)
Here are Michelle and I with the flowers Nathan picked for us. I am smiling so big because we are almost done. :)

As we were just getting ready to head back down the trail, Mitch spotted some deer on the side of the mountain - he then had to watch them...here are our boys watching the deer.
Besta did pretty well - he has to be in front though, which is kinda funny. When we got to the top of the hike he DID NOT want to be anywhere near the edge of the cliffs . After the hike we went to Iggy's to watch the last half of the Jazz-Lakers game. So sad...oh well, there's always next year!

Up next: Crimson Trail

3 comments:

Kristen said...

Looks like a neat hike! Now I'll go back to my non-moving.... boy, does typing burn calories? Pshawwww

The Grush's said...

These pictures makes me want to go along with you up there. I went there several times while I lived there. It is a fun hike especially when you finally make it to the top. Good luck on the Crimson and watch out for snakes!

Lori said...

that looks like a ton of fun. we really need to take advantage of all the trails around us. way to be.