Our semi annual weekend camping trip with friends is becoming a tradition.We are so grateful to Andrea for picking a place and booking it for us all so that we can enjoy Labor Day and Memorial Day with friends. This year, we went to Duck Creek in Utah. It is about 30 min. past Cedar City and we had a great time. We went up there with no wood since we had no room to haul it. We had planned on buying it up there. When we got there, we found that we could easily forage for wood in the trees surrounding us. We arrived Friday night and set up camp in the dark. We managed to find a little wood and start a fire. In the morning, we could see easier and Garry gathered quite a bit. I felt like we were on Naked and Afraid because we were obsessed with having enough wood so our fire wouldn't go out! The Shafers and Thatcher's arrived Friday night as well. Saturday, we waited for the rest of the group to arrive. The Hills were first and we helped them set up in record time. Later that day Marilee Taylor and her two girls showed up and the Witts with Jessica. For breakfast that day we had kielbasa and potatoes cooked on the new two burner stove Garry bought since we've always borrowed the Witts, but couldn't since they came this time. For lunch, we did an Italian pressed sandwich. We got a loaf of Italian bread and put roasted red peppers and pesto and mayo on it then layed it with dry salami, provolone, Canadian bacon, Munster, and pepperoni. We did a few layers of each thing, then we wrapped in it the plastic bag and foil and put a frying pan on top of it to hold a big rock so that it would "press" all morning. We ate it with chips and cantaloupe.
That afternoon, we decided to go explore some caves in the area. We went first to the ice caves. They were a big disappointment. They are nothing compared to the ice caves in Shoshone. You climbed down a rope and the cave was muddy and cool. You couldn't go far into it. It was more like an alcove in a rock. Toni and I stayed up top, but could see everything going on down below. We decided that we needed to go to Mammoth caves and get a little more into spelunking. That turned out to be a good idea. The cave had three tunnels you could explore each exiting at a different spot. All three though you had to crawl to get out of. The kids and some adults did all three. I went in the walking one until it got so low you had to crawl, then I turned back around. On our drive there, we saw about 10 deer and an antelope. It was just me, Garry and Tanner in the car because all the kids had rode in the back of the Hill's truck there. Cynjyn wasn't feeling well after her exploring, so she rode back with us. We stopped at Duck Creek Village for some ice cream on the way back to camp. That night we had foil dinners. Tanner and I had hamburger patty with onion, potatoes and corn. Every one else just had the hamburger and potatoe.
Everyone came to our campfire and we made it the adult fire and sent the kids to the Hill's for the kid fire since our sites were right by each other. We roasted Starbursts and made smores and visited. It was fun.
It was very cold at night and Cynjyn froze the first night, but she hadn't zipped her sleeping bag all the way, after doing that, she was fine. I slept with a beanie on the last two nights, but I still was cold that last night. Garry was too.
Sunday, we had hash browns, bacon and eggs with ham and cheese for breakfast. After breakfast, we all decided to go to Cascade falls. It involved about a 20-30 min hike. We were all game for that since there was no hike to any of the caves the day before. It was hot, but we all went. Unfortunatly, the falls were pretty piddly since it was the end of summer. But I've heard that they are fabulous in the spring. I headed back before everyone else to get a start on the uphill back hike, but I did just fine thanks to my early morning walks! After the falls, we went to Navajo Lake. It was murky and dirty around the shore, but that didn't stop Psych or Nella from going in. Some of the kids waded a little too. When we got back to camp, we had Carne Asada for lunch, then headed up to the Witt's camp because they had a lot of shade. We all played Goblet of Fire and three rounds of Couch of Power. Taz was on the stick team which they all had to hold sticks. He got a huge branch for his stick and carried that around for awhile. It was pretty funny. We had dutch oven chicken and Potatoes for dinner and afterwards everyone came to our campfire again. We shared cobblers and chocolate filled cones. The teens wanted to take a walk in the dark, but were a little afraid, so Dave went with them. What they didn't know was that Bill and Debbie were hiding in the woods waiting for them. We heard a lot of screaming when the teens discovered them. Unfortunatly for Bill, it was dark and his head collided with a tree and the tree won. But the kids had a great time. The campfire conversations included scary movies and Total Blackout.
Monday we were up early and packed up and headed home by 8:00am. It had been a super fun weekend and we can't wait until Memorial Day!
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