Varsity Scout Camp in Moab, Utah

Day 1

The first week of this month I went on a Scout camp with the Varsity Scouts from our ward (that's the 14-15 year olds, Teachers Quorum.) It was organized by the Stake and each ward was represented by a boy and a leader to help plan the trip. It was decided that we'd camp at Gold Bar Campground just outside of Moab, Utah on the Colorado River. Here is a link to the road we used to get to our camp site. It just so happens to be a scenic byway...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_State_Route_279

Our camp is the group of tents in the left corner of the campground with the blue dining fly. The river is flowing left to right and was quite high. It had rained the previous two days and had rained that morning we got there. I was talking to some kids who had been camping there the previous two days and they were wet and miserable and ready to go home. They packed up that afternoon and headed home a day early. The rest of the week was perfect weather for our camp...too bad they didn't stick around.

The first thing after setting up camp we climbed to the top of the bluff overlooking the camp and the river, as you can see from the photos of the campground and my photo here with the bluff in the background. The plan was to rappel off the bluff.

Here I am getting hooked up to go over the cliff. There is a guy in our stake that is a climber and owns his own equipment and lots of it. He had two ropes over the cliff. One was 75 feet long, which is the one in the photo above and below. It was actually a little more technical that the other because there was a lip on the cliff and you had to take a little hop off the ledge or lip for your first step. I was a little scary for your first step. But with my long legs it didn't take much effort.

I was joking around waiting for the line to die down for the longer 100 foot rope when I asked, "Can I go down face first?" The guy looked at me and asked if I had already gone down once and I answered positively and he said, "Sure. Since you've already gone once." Then I thought to myself that I'd opened my mouth and now I was committed. I looked this up when I got home and the style is called "Australian." I guess because you do it backwards of the usual?

It doesn't look like I'm actually going down face first.

This is a few feet from the ground. By this time my whole body was so tense that when I jumped to the ground my legs just about gave out. I had to put my hands on my knees and let the tension leave my body. I took a couple of minutes.

There were three arches within walking distance of our campground. One was Jug Handle Arch (which I don't have a picture of), then Bow Tie Arch and Corona Arch. After a big dinner of Navajo Tacos we hiked about a mile up a canyon right across the road from our campsite to Bow Tie and Corona Arches.

Bow Tie Arch.

Me under Bow Tie Ach. The water was running down the rocks from all the rain that they'd gotten the previous two day. They'd gotten almost 1 inch in two day. Quite a lot in the desert.

Corona Arch with the sun lighting the cliffs in the back ground.

There aren't any people under the arch for perspective, but the trees are about 15 to 20 feet tall.

The reason for hiking to the arches was to hold a fireside. President Orton from the Stake Presidency spoke to the boys as the sun set and lit up the cliff behind him. It made for a dramitic setting.

Future arch. And the close of the first day.

Day 2

Day 2 was river rafting on the Colorado. We hired a rafting outfit out of Moab and they took us upriver and floated back to Moab. It was about 8 hours in all. I don't have any pictures, yet. I didn't want to take my digital camera on the river, but Steve Gorski (our YM's first counselor) had a camera that he'd brought just for the occasion. When He gets me his photo's I'll put some in here.

But I did take some pictures that evening. After dinner we had some free time and Matt Morrise (our Varsity Coach) and I headed up a nearby bluff and searched out some petroglyphs that I'd been told about.

Jacob's ladder?

Bear being shot by Indian's with accompanying Big Horn Sheep.

200 foot spire. Can't see the top. Sorry.

Day 3

The third day was our last. The plan was to break camp and drive out to a trail that we could bike on.

Breaking camp.

The name of the trail was "Klondike Trail." It was about 2.5 miles uphill to a bluff overlooking Arches National Park. Couldn't see any arches from there but the ride was fun, especially downhill. It's all slickrock. It sound and looks smooth, but believe me, it's not. You have to stop every once in a while to let your arms recover.

On one of my stops I noticed something on the ground. It looked familiar. I knew I'd seen something like it before. Then I started noticing more and more. They were dinosaur footprints. They were everywhere. I'll bet there were 30 or more in the area I was looking. I put the shoe there for perspective.

Someone had put rocks around these prints that were in a straight line. They did the same thing a couple of other places.

I wanted you to see the blooms on the cacti in the area. Where we were camped the blooms were all yellow. When we drove 10 miles away to bike near Arches National Park the blooms were all red.

When we were done we made some sandwiches and loaded up the bikes and headed for home. Three days, three activities and a lot of fun.