The start of the hike had a teensy host cabin stocked with plenty of walking sticks to borrow and hundreds of little notes from visitors over the years. It was such fun to read the notes and see where people came from. Here is a view of the interior of the host cabin.
The hike was longer than most of our hikes (or maybe it only seemed that way since we did this one during the late afternoon when it was hot and dry- there were no shady spots on this hike!). We brought plenty of water and would occasionally pour it down our backs to wet our shirts and help cool us off.
The boys LOVED using the walking sticks, and paused every few minutes to re-enact Gandolf's famous scene facing the Balrog. They'd lift the walking stick high in the air and shout dramatically, "You shall not pass!", then they'd plunge the walking stick into the middle of the trail and watch the dust scatter around them. They never grew tired of doing this.
The petroglyphs were so interesting and so close-up and personal. We had such fun imagining the lives of the original artists, and speculating what the symbols meant.
It was very hot and we were all very sweaty by the time we made it to the end of the trail. Joseph was getting deflated more and more by the minute when we started heading back to the van, so Daniel once again was an awesome big brother and helped carry Joseph home. The trail was so long that we all took turns carrying Joseph. He was so grateful....and we were all grateful to arrive in the parking lot where we had cold water waiting for us!
We spent the rest of the hot day chilling out (literally!) in the city library reading books and sending a super-quick email to Nathan so he knew we were alive and safe.
The campground here is heavily populated with wild rabbits. The kids have SUCH fun trying to catch them each night. There is a big wide river right next to us, so it's a little bit cooler than in the open desert. We cut some willows from the riverbanks and used them as roasting sticks for dinner. Tonight we celebrated the end of our camping excursions by deviating from our usual diet of dehydrated soups....we stopped in town and picked up hotdogs. We enjoyed them greatly with Grandma Muir's homemade relish (thanks again Mom for the relish! We LOVED it!!)
We've become great friends with the retired couple who run this campground as the campground hosts. Each day we had talked for hours about the local attractions, the local history, and our mutual interests. It was sad to say goodbye and leave, but we are eager to visit cousins for a week and re-enter the civilized world by living in a house again.
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