Cataract Canyon!!! June '09

Cataract Canyon

Cataract canyon was one of the most intense, wild, awesome trips I've ever been on! The canyon is on the Colorado River in the middle of Canyonlands Nat. Park. There are no roads anywhere so the trip is a 3 day, 100 mile float trip from Moab to Lake Powell. Awesome, huh! The rapids on the river are all between class 3 to class 5, giving the canyon some of the biggest water in the lower 48 states. It also holds the most volume of water, meaning we rafted the river around 40,ooo cfs and the Provo river during spring run off reaches about 1,500 cfs. We had a great time, as you can see from the pics! We went on hikes up to Indian ruins, cliff jumping, we played some mean games of volleyball, horse shoes, and Indian stick. We got to hang out while we floated the flat water and hold on for dear life as we were thrown around on the house sized rapids! The trip was a blast and would recommend it to anyone that needs a little adrenaline rush :-)

The River...

This picture doesn't look too intense, but if you look closely you will see 3 different "holes" those are the things that suck you in and throw you around like a washing machine. This and one other rapid were the two most dangerous in the canyon and of course they were right next to each other making a very intense run. This is also the part of the river with the biggest waves. As I watched our 28' and 21' pontoon boats go down these rapids, they would disappear when they went down and then come back up and be basically vertical, then some how get over the wave and do it again. I was so nervous going down, but we made it and our little raft never flipped while we were on it!

The confluence of the mighty Colorado and Green Rivers! That peak straight ahead... to the right is the green river coming in and to the left is the combined green and Colorado flowing toward Lake Powell.

The raft is actually upside down right here. It hit a wave straight on and it flipped it right over! Luckily everyone held on tight and we were able to get them out of the water and on the big pontoon boat before we hit the next rapid. Don't worry it only took us 3 sets of rapids to finally get the raft to shore and flip it back over;-)

Greg and I rode the 'horns', it was so like riding a bull we were getting knocked around so bad, it made the trip all that much more exciting, like riding the front of a roller coaster, but having to hold on for dear life and not being strapped down!

K, so the 3 pics above this is called the Gooseneck, it's a geological feature that is in every geology book. From the 2 pics above you can see the river flowing up then directly back down to where it was, except for on the other side of the cliffs. We hiked up and over the most narrow spot of the gooseneck. The picture near the top of the entry shows the group on top of the pass. It was a fun hike in which Greg told me that given a million years the river is going to cut right through where we were standing and leave what is called an 'oxbow lake' where the river used to be. (and he says I never listen to anything he says!!! ;-)

One of the two nights we slept on an island (sandbar) in the middle of the river. It was fun, they had some horseshoe games going on, while greg and I tried to fish a little, but as you can see from the murky/ dirty water we didn't have to much luck.

This little red creek is called Indian Creek. It was so full of sediment, but that didn't stop people from sitting under the waterfall and turning all their clothes different colors ;-) It's a tributary into the Colorado; we hiked up about a mile and a half to get to the falls, it was so hot and felt so good to cool off!

This is our group! All wonderful people who had a weekend of intense fun!!!!

April & May '09

End of March, all of April, and May!!!

K, so I know I have been the worst with blogging lately, but "que-sera-sera" as my mother would put it ;-)

Greg and I have been loving the warm weather and the longer days. We've taken advantage of it with a lot of mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, fishing, and I actually went to the zoo once. With all these activities we've felt a little stretched out at times, always something to do when we get home, but so far this summer has been a blast!

Biking up Corner Canyon

Draper has some awesome downhill trials that are a thrill to go down. We invited Travis up one night to hit the trail with us... so of course it has to start raining and pouring while we were getting to the top of the trail. But even with all the mud (and Travis's derailer breaking) we still had a great time.

This was our first time out this year. We have improved so much since then. We've ridden trails in draper, up big cottonwood canyon, the hills behind the state capitol, and we took our bikes up to Island Park and went on a couple really fun rides. I can't wait till fall and riding through all the fall colors... I'll take some amazing pics for ya! haha

Kayaking - Spring '09

Greg and I took up kayaking this spring and have absolutely loved it! We started by going to the U of U pool and trying to teach ourselves how to do the 'kayak roll'. Luckily we met up with a guy named Lonny and his wife Leslie, they noticed how we kept drowning ourselves trying to flip back up right and came to save the day. They taught us how to roll and invited us to join the Utah whitewater club. It was a great idea and I'm so glad we joined. Not only have we met tons of great people but we also have really improved a ton with our kayaking skills. We've kayaked the green river, weber river, the bear river (where these pics were taken), Jordan river, and the henry's fork up in Idaho. I wish I had more photos but unfortunately I do not have a waterproof camera and this sport is mainly all in the water, sooo, someday maybe I'll get so fun pics of the rapids we go through.

Mt. Olympus

Jeremy and the family came in town so Greg and their friend, Riley, (all went to BYU together in the same geology masters program), went on the Mt Olympus hike. Personally, it's one that I really enjoy, with great views and a killer workout!

Bells Canyon Reservoir

We took Ben, our nephew, on a little backpacking trip up Bells Canyon in Sandy. He was so stoked and excited to go, he just adores Greg and looks up to him so much. They had a fun time bonding, greg helping him fish, setting his pack up and making dinner, and of course building fires!

San Rafael Swell and Green River, Ut.

On our way down to Green River, Ut. We made a detour over to the San Rafel Swell. Last year we had come here with some friends and absolutely loved it, so we came back to hike into the "little grand canyon" of Utah. It's a beautiful area that when you start you're just on a pretty flat plateau then ten miles into the canyon you have 2000 ft cliffs on either side of you. Sweet! Anyway, that's what we did. Took the afternoon and went in about ten miles, criss crossing the river a bunch and ended up in a huge canyon with little side canyons shooting off in all different directions. Loveddddd it!!!! Spent all day, then got back in the car and headed for Green River, Ut for some adrenaline rushing KAYAKING!!

We met up with the whitewater club at Green River to run the.... green river. It's a stretch of river that has class II - II+ rapids and with the water level very high because of spring runoff the water was fast and the rapids big. It was a weekend of learning. It was Greg and mine's first trip on a real river with big rapids. We were so nervous, but very excited to learn and finally practice our 'eskimo rolls' for when we get flipped upside down(we can just flip right back over). The group we went with has years of knowledge and very eager to share it. We learned a ton and practiced alot and had a very fun time. Both Greg and I had to swim (got flipped and couldn't get back over), but luckily we were with a group and they helped us to shore and back into the kayaks. (someday we'll get a camera that we can take with us and actually take pics of us in the water, but till then, you just get the pics of the kayaks on the car... sorry ;-)

Grandeur Pk

My friend, Strat, came in town and I promised her a fun hike. So we went to grandeur peak thinking the snow would be gone, but of course it rained most the time and the top was snow... gotta love it! We did have a great time catching up and enjoying 'the elements'

Ish- Canyon (Ferguson canyon)

Fun hike up one of the Wasatch's many canyons.

The Zoooo

Took Gunner and Addie to the Zoo with our little cousins, Sam and Rachel. My personal favorite was the griaffes, because my dad would always tease me while growing up about having a 'neck as long as a giraffe, but the elephants and monkeys are always so interesting.