Camping in Darby Canyon

Our first camping trip!

It was perfect: warm fire, cool canyon air, a warm sleeping bag, delicious camp food (including Adam's famous Camping Breakfast), rain showers, cool hiking weather, and good company.



The Nefs came with us and we all camped and hiked together.

We got rained on as soon as we went to bed, and thankfully our tent was in a good spot. We were dry the whole time, even when it rained again the next morning. Adam got up at 6 in the drizzle to make breakfast. It turned out to be the perfect breakfast for a chilly morning.

The trail was a little muddy and we had to get creative crossing streams (Annie even got good at balancing over the log bridges...she about knocked me off every time). Adam carved me my very own walking stick which proved to be very useful for the entire hike.



We saw Paul Bunyan's loaf and lots of neat rock formations. Adam really liked seeing the aspens and imagining how ours will look in a few years. Annie was overwhelmed with interesting smells and birds. She about caught a few. She entertained us by digging for mice and voles under the snow. That dog was all over that canyon.




We got to a small waterfall and the men climbed right under. They convinced me to go under there too and the five of us (Adam, Devin, Caleb, Annie, and I) all emerged completely dry.







The Nefs turned back when the snow got too deep. Em is 7 months pregnant and probably would not have done well if they had gone any further.

Adam and I, making our own path, trekked our way up through the snow and mud (he carried me over a particularly deep patch of snow) and finally made our way to a monument. We stopped for a few minutes while Adam checked the trail up to the waterfall and wind cave. It was snowed over even worse than the trail we'd just come from. It was impossible to get up to the cave with all of the ice and snow.



We hiked to the edge of the river that came off the waterfall. It was still an impressive sight and the cave was very big. We braved a few shots standing right on top of the snow that slid into the river. It was fun to be the only ones there, and probably the only ones up there so far that morning.



We passed a lot of hikers coming down. I as nice that we'd started in the early morning and had the trail to ourselves. Annie was impatient the whole way down because she'd already smelled everything. Adam did his best to hold her back, but she wanted to drag him down as fast as she could.

We took a leisurely pace and enjoyed the time together. It's the first real weekend we've had together. Both of us were rejuvenated by the fresh mountain air and exercise. I think we earned the break.



We took the slide before heading home.