neil, jenn and i drove down thursday afternoon, we got there about 4 pm and went to the park (our trip meeting/congregation place of choice)... well, on the way to the park we pulled off the side of the road to go on a hike with about 20 people, we got about a quarter of a mile in when we were attacked by an infestation of mosquitos. it was disgusting and we turned around to find a park ranger who had been called because of a big group entering the trail. she had come to warn us of the infestation and the threat of west nile. awesome. oh yeah and it was like 97 degrees. so we went to the park, played ultimate and lounged around a while, and then everybody went to eat dinner and we met up to go on the first official hike of the trip- Fisher's Tower... it was AMAZING! we started a little late though, and it was more than a 4 mile round trip hike, so the second half, coming back, was completely in the dark. scary. but funny too. i used my camera's flash as a flashlight- auto-focusing and exposing the flast for about a second at a time. i fell a lot. lots of boys that i don't know and couldn't even see caught me. thanks guys. pictures from the first hike:
after the hike we were exhausted and we went to found our camp place- about 40 minutes down a dirt road outside of town. i wish i had a picture, it was so dusty and there was a long line of jeeps and trucks and cars traveling up this mountain in the dark, amazing. we pulled into our 'campsite' which was just a huge wide open area and everybody parked their cars everywhere and started 'setting up camp'- throwing tarps on the ground and stringing hammocks between jeeps, and in our case- the three of us crawling on to a twin sized mattress in the back of neils truck. it was a sleepless night, to say the least. the next morning was the rafting trip, which about 90% of the group went on, so they woke up and left for that and jenn and i met some new friends and went on an AWESOME hike- Negro Bill- it was a great trip, not a hard hike, and it ended under an arch with a little pool and a natural spring. Negro Bill hike:
we played there for a while, had a blast, and came back into town to chill before the rafters got home. we ended up back at the park where we all fell asleep under a tree, and then went swimming in the public pool. we watched some old men do belly flops off the high dive, did some water ballet, watched terence be harassed by a 9 year old girl and just had a blast in the salty peepee water that is public pools. the rafters met us at the park and we all broke to go find dinner before our big group night hike- the delicate arch- the one on utah's license plates. it was a pretty easy hike and we planned it so that we got there right at sunset. we took tons of pictures and played up there for a while- i kinda felt bad for the normal people who were there enjoying the view- when a group of 150+ rowdy college kids roll in yelling and causing ruckus. but it was great. Delicate Arch:
after delicate arch, we all met up at our second campsite- same thing, a big huge space with everyone just parking their cars everywhere and just crashing- this time we got there earlier (11:30 pm) so we even made a fire and hung out for a while before bed. jenn and i were determined to sleep better than the night before, so we went in search of a tarp so we could just sleep on the ground instead of taking over neil's truck bed. well, we found the hugest tarp ever made- it was like 20 feet long and so we ended up drawing quite the crowd of tarpless sleepers needing a place to lay their sleeping bags. we ended up with about 8 people on the tar- i wont go into details, but we didn't get any sleep that night either. we were loud and obnoxious and nobody within 30 feet of us got sleep... oh well, sleep isn't what moab is for. we 'woke up' the next morning and went to find breakfast in town, and then we went out to the sand dune- it's a huge dune right off the side of the road with one single rock in the middle of it where everybody just dives and does flips and gets crazy and dirty, and the red sand is burning hot. we only stayed about half an hour cause it was so hot, but it was fun. the boys were crazy...
and after the sand dune, we all met up at the park again and then headed off to left hand- a hike down to a cliff jumping place. Left Hand:
we got back and Austin (the king of grilling) was bbq-ing for the whole lot- over 150 people! he made steaks, chicken, veggie kabobs, and coolers full of virgin mojitos (amazing since it was so hot!) and they brought liquid nitrogen and made homemade ice cream and bananas foster for dessert- in a park! it was incredible. the trip was amazing overall, we've hung out with moab people since we got back and everybody can't stop talking about it and how great it was and how great next year will be and how we want to go back. i loved it, it's definitely the best camping trip i've been on, and a great summer activity! here's some pics from the bbq...
also, some ultimate pictures- cause we were at the park so often, the guys played ultimate probably 20 times.. the teams were always 'skins vs. shirts'... and since austin didn't even bring a shirt to moab, he was always a skin, i thought it was hilarious. the guys were so intense about it.
and a couple of random ones...
our favorite parts of the trip were when we got to take neil's truck...
after the Negro Bill hike
Sara watching her fiance scale a cliff...
