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- Aug 9, 2007
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Nate and I headed down to the Swell before the New Year to do a little camping and meet up with some BCP folks to celebrate the new year. We were going to head down and camp near Smith Cabin and hike up to the top of the reef the first night, but the snow was way too deep. It was really odd - hardly any over the pass and down through Price, but then tons as we approached Green River. I knew it was going to be cold, but I was really hoping for some patchy dry ground at camp.
With all the snow, we decided to just head straight to the Goblin Valley area and hope for the best. It wasn't looking good on the way in as I could see drifted snow along the Goblin Valley Road and all of the spurs along LWH road were totally covered. But then the road we were looking for came up and whaddya know - no snow! Well, not much anyway.
We stayed up late that first night. Well, perhaps late isn't the right word for it. We pulled an all-nighter and stayed up until a little after 8am. That's something I haven't done in a looooong time and never in the dead of winter! It was fun though - we had some wildlife encounters overnight. I'm still not 100% sure if they were baby coyotes or little foxes, but we had a couple of them coming right into camp and stealing dog food. They would even walk almost all the way up to the fire. I never got a picture of one but I believe Yvonne did the second night when they returned.
"happy new whaaa?"
The sky begins to lighten after a long, cold night.
The next day @DownUnderNoel showed up and we were still sleeping peacefully in our vehicles. I guess he thought Sage was growling at him at first but it was just me snoring. After some introductions and a little breakfast, we went off to try to find Wild Horse Window. None of us knew where exactly it was. We ended up picking the trailhead a little too far south and just hiked Wild Horse Canyon that day.
This was Sage's first camping trip and first hiking experience. She did awesome.
Noel located this awesome pictograph panel in Wild Horse Canyon. We knew there were supposed to be some here but didn't know exactly where.
My new hiking bud, Sage.
Glad we didn't pick this campsite.
Due to our late start, it was already nearly sunset by the time we finished hiking Wild Horse Canyon. We decided to head over to Goblin Valley for sunset. It's such a great place in the winter time.
Is this the rock those jackasses toppled?
The next day we were determined to actually hike Wild Horse Window, but this time, we picked the right trailhead and could see it from the parking area.
@Miss Buffalo and @Ndheiner messing around on one of several frozen potholes.
Love the ice formations you find out here in the winter time.
The twin alcoves of Wild Horse Window
The Eye of Sinbad
Hiking back out through the frosty section of the canyon.
I was planning on spending one more night, but the folks coming down from SLC had to cancel and I had tweaked my back a bit at WHW, so Yvonne and I decided to just call it and head home to the warmth and comfort of home for NYE. It was a great couple of nights though and an awesome way to end the year.
Featured image for home page:
With all the snow, we decided to just head straight to the Goblin Valley area and hope for the best. It wasn't looking good on the way in as I could see drifted snow along the Goblin Valley Road and all of the spurs along LWH road were totally covered. But then the road we were looking for came up and whaddya know - no snow! Well, not much anyway.
We stayed up late that first night. Well, perhaps late isn't the right word for it. We pulled an all-nighter and stayed up until a little after 8am. That's something I haven't done in a looooong time and never in the dead of winter! It was fun though - we had some wildlife encounters overnight. I'm still not 100% sure if they were baby coyotes or little foxes, but we had a couple of them coming right into camp and stealing dog food. They would even walk almost all the way up to the fire. I never got a picture of one but I believe Yvonne did the second night when they returned.
"happy new whaaa?"
The sky begins to lighten after a long, cold night.
The next day @DownUnderNoel showed up and we were still sleeping peacefully in our vehicles. I guess he thought Sage was growling at him at first but it was just me snoring. After some introductions and a little breakfast, we went off to try to find Wild Horse Window. None of us knew where exactly it was. We ended up picking the trailhead a little too far south and just hiked Wild Horse Canyon that day.
This was Sage's first camping trip and first hiking experience. She did awesome.
Noel located this awesome pictograph panel in Wild Horse Canyon. We knew there were supposed to be some here but didn't know exactly where.
My new hiking bud, Sage.
Glad we didn't pick this campsite.
Due to our late start, it was already nearly sunset by the time we finished hiking Wild Horse Canyon. We decided to head over to Goblin Valley for sunset. It's such a great place in the winter time.
Is this the rock those jackasses toppled?
The next day we were determined to actually hike Wild Horse Window, but this time, we picked the right trailhead and could see it from the parking area.
@Miss Buffalo and @Ndheiner messing around on one of several frozen potholes.
Love the ice formations you find out here in the winter time.
The twin alcoves of Wild Horse Window
The Eye of Sinbad
Hiking back out through the frosty section of the canyon.
I was planning on spending one more night, but the folks coming down from SLC had to cancel and I had tweaked my back a bit at WHW, so Yvonne and I decided to just call it and head home to the warmth and comfort of home for NYE. It was a great couple of nights though and an awesome way to end the year.
Featured image for home page:
