Spring Break 2010

This year for Spring Break we headed to Southern Utah for some sun. We originally we going to backpack through Coyote Gulch in Escalante, Utah. However, much of the hike must be done through the stream, the weather was only supposed to be in the mid 50's, which is what the temps were here in Logan. So we changed our plans and headed to a little Recreation site about 15 miles north of St George called Red Cliffs. It's just south of a little town called Leeds. It was a a very small campground and we camped right next to a stream. It was very warm, about 75 degrees the whole time we were down there. It was beautiful! We did some hiking and exploring in the area and had a blast just spending some much needed Brett and Chelsea time.

We left for Red Cliffs on Monday afternoon got to camp at about 7:30, set up camp and enjoyed a nice fire. Tuesday we went for a hike that started right at our campsite. It was gorgeous! We went boulder hopping once we couldn't go up the trail any further because of neck-deep water. Rock scrambling was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of driving to our camp site, our camp site, and that hike:

We also went to explore the ghost town of Silver Reef. It was a Silver mining town. The silver was found in the limestone, which is supposedly the only commercial Silver mining from limestone that has ever been done. It was once a booming town with a Main street that was over a mile long. Silver Reef had over 2000 people living here. There were hotels, 9 stores, 6 saloons, a bank, several restaurant, a hospital, 2 dance halls, 2 news papers, a china town and 3 cemeteries. In 1891 the last mine shut down, about 25 million dollars worth of ore had been taken from the mines here. Between 1891 and 1901 another $250,000 of ore was taken out of the area. Here are some pictures of what is left of the town:

We also tried to get to the abandoned Fort Pearce to look at the petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks. We had spent about an hour trying to find this place and a few miles away from the Fort the road was covered in a few feet of water, too much water for the subaru to handle and we didn't really feel like getting stuck in the middle of nowhere. So we had to turn around. We did get to enjoy driving around a new area of St George.

We also went to Quail Creek State Park. It's a big lake/dam that is between Leeds and St. George. We spent about an hour just skipping rocks. It was a beautiful lake. Of course, here are some pictures:

That night we spent around the campfire, eating oreo's and milk and playing Rook. Good times!

Wednesday we went for another drive through the Dixie National Forest. It was a gorgeous drive! Brett enjoyed driving through the here because he said he felt like a derby car driver. It was a lot of fun seeing Southern Utah from a whole new angle. There were lots of deep canyons and gulches. Here's a few pictures from our excursion:

That afternoon, my friend Justin, who is in the MFT program with me who is from St. George, took us 4-wheeling in the Veyo area. It was so much fun. We were caked in dirt after words and my hair felt so disgusting! But we had a blast and got to see a lot of the area. Here's a few pictures from our awesome ride:

We had a campfire that night - to add to the dirt, we thought adding a little campfire smell would be the best idea. We ate oreo's and milk yet again and enjoyed just chatting next to the campfire. I LOVE CAMPING! I can't wait until it gets warm enough that we can go in Logan! The next morning we headed for home.

P.S. The last couple of weeks Brett has been super busy. He went to Las Vegas two weeks ago and Boise a week ago with Lacrosse. In between those two trips he also had midterms so he ahd two huge tests in the middle of all of that. He got home from Boise on Sunday night and the next afternoon left o go to St George with me again. It's now Friday morning and Brett has once again left to go to South Salt Lake for, yet, another Lacrosse tournament. He is such a wonderful husband and I appreciate him so much for his willingness to spend some time with me on our camping adventure!