Paria Canyon Trip 2019

PARIA CANYON TRIP 2019

This was Scott's 5th time to hike in the Paria.  

He's been craving it ever since we came back to the US.  

He got the permits April 1st in anticipation to go.

Getting the gear together

You know it's serious when you pull out the zip locks!

 About a 4.5 hour drive down to Kanab

Kanab Visitor Center

We had dinner at this very local joint, Big Al's Burgers

Whitehouse Campground

 Scott has a similar picture of himself at this age, probably in this very same hole

It was blistering hot, but when the sun set, it was beautiful.

The stars that night were unbelieveable.  So bright.  And though we got no rain, there were lightening storms going on in the distance all around.  It was beautiful.  We were lucky to sleep out under the stars.

Starting the hike in the very early A.M.

It was great that Mike and Drew could join us too!

There was water in the river the whole way down, so we ended up packing our shoes for no reason.  It was sandals all the way.

This was a monumental trip for me.  Almost exactly 15 years ago, Scott and I hiked this trail as our first time really spending time together.  He'd invited me at Dave Hopkins wedding on the trip.

It was fun to see Scott back in his "element"

It was also really great to connect with Mike again and talk with him about what he remembered about that trip 15 years ago. 

We had all forgotten a lot about the trail and the landmarks.

Melissa rocked the trail!

It was certainly very muddy, and there were several falls in the river, and consequently, some muddy bums and packs. 

We all had mud up to our knees

After 10 miles in, we camped by the first Spring.

We were all so tired.  Some of us had to just sit for 30 minutes before we could move. :)

We had to work hard to clean up too, but once we were clean and our waters full, we had a great dinner and enjoyed the view.

 

The next day we hiked into the Buckskin, which was beautiful

Also a photo Scott has of himself when he was young. :)

Aaron said he was Simba on Pride Rock.

 The chacos were the best

These are the Chacos Scott gave me when we were dating 15 years ago.  Still tickin'!

The last campsite was at the Split Rock.  We had to pack all the water we could at the Spring to make it out without needing more water.

 Melissa asked Aaron how he would rank the trip and he said on a scale of 1-10, a 0.  We were all surprised because he seemed to be having a great time!

Then, as she probed more, she found out the hiking part was a 0 for him because it was very long and muddy.  However, then said Buckskin Gulch was a 9 (He loved that part of the trail!).  The other parts of the trail, he said he ranked at a 2-3.  The food was a 10 and the playing with Timmy and Drew also a 8-9, so all in all, a very successful trip. 😆

I rank the trail a 10, the company a 10, the food an 8, and carrying out our own refuse in lime and foil bags at a 0.....but I would do it all again for the experience of being in the Paria!

Somehow the boys were running Sprints that night up the sandbank and running around playing with glow sticks.  Their energy was amazing!

It was a literal "dream come true" trip to be back in the Paria

This trip was a huge success and we owe our families a HUGE thank you!!  

Scott's family for supplying the majority of our gear, G&G Parker for watching Oliver and Cora for 5 days (!!!), Melissa for coming and driving and making the trip a wonderful time to be with her, and Drew and Mike for joining us, their wonderful company, and especially that water container saved us all several miles of hiking on day 3! :)

We appreciated it all SOOO much!