Weekend Campout

On Friday we left the extreme heat of the valley to go camping up in the mountains. Our ward campout was near Clint's Well. This is about 30 miles north of Payson past Pine and Strawberry. We camped in an undeveloped camp area and tons of fun. Mitchell left to go camping with the boys his age on Monday and met up with us on Friday at the campsite. So while I set up camp, he was off shooting rifles with Brent and others.

Grant brought his buddy, Jordan, on the campout. These two boys are pretty funny together. They had no problem setting up a tent.

Once their tent was set up, they gave me a hand in setting up my tent. Yes, this is Max's first campout too. This little dog had so much fun sniffing everything on the trip. He loves the great outdoors!

After we set up camp and had sub sandwiches for lunch, Grant, Jordan and I headed off on a hike to a cave we heard was in the area. Unfortunately, we did not get the complete set of directions so we never found the cave. We did find this large rock formation in the middle of a canyon with trees growing on it. We also found some cows grazing along a creek. Grant tried to go and talk to them but they ran off.

Later that day, we went with another group to the cave since they actually knew where it was. The cave was awesome! You had to have your own flashlight to get around. Inside the cave is where a natural spring is that pumps water down into a creek. It's a challenge to crawl into the cave without slipping off a rock into the water. Once you get past the opening of the cave, you can stand up. Brent was near the front of our group that went into the cave. I was at the end. So by the time I got inside the cave, he and the group had disappeared.

This left Matt and I to find them and the rest of the cave on our own. We did find an opening on the side of the cave but neither of us wanted to try to climb through it.

We crawled through another tight spot and then made it to this crack where the water was coming from. Brent and his group were no where around so we assumed that they must of crawled through this small opening. Matt didn't mind getting wet so he started to army crawl through the area. But it was too tight and he came back out. We couldn't figure out how Brent and his group did it. So we turned around and made our way back through the cave.

When I crawled out of the cave, I found Brent, Grant, Jordan and all of the others. When Matt and I were trying to find a way through the small area, the rest of the group had looked up and found a hole in the ceiling which led to another cave. They crawled through the 2nd cave which was dry, until they got outside. Pretty tricky! The best thing about the cave is that it felt like an air conditioned room. It was fabulous!

One of Max's favorite things to do on the campout was to find food people had dropped. But what was better than food was bacon grease. In this picture Max is licking up bacon grease off of the ground. He had been at it for a couple of minutes when a couple of teenage boys came by. They both went down by Max and put their heads next to his to pretend to want to get some bacon grease too. Surprisingly, Max growled at them. He wasn't going to share his bacon grease with anyone!

When Mitchell got back from shooting guns, he started playing the game Apples to Apples. He played this game all day Friday and part of Saturday. He was the ringleader of the group and had a ton of fun. I played a few rounds with him too. He kept telling me I talk too much during the game. Imagine, me talking too much compared to Mitchell!!! Hard to imagine. There were lots of laughs during the game.

It was a fun overnight campout. We are looking forward to going again next year! Maybe you can come too!