Dark Canyon May 2010

Not by any choice of the hubby, we went backpacking in Dark Canyon over Memorial Day weekend. This is our third time hiking this trail and it is by far my all time favorite backpacking destination! Matt however does not share these feelings. But lucky for me, he loves me enough to suffer through it! There is a descent of about one mile of scrambling within the hike that really is no fun, but when you get the bottom it truly is my paradise. Hot weather with lots of pools of refreshing water!

Sam and I climbed up a rock next to a lake.
At this point, we are still on our way to the trail head.

Matt and I at the trail head.

Matt and Sam.

Sam and I.

A view down the canyon. Down the canyon and around that bend is where we camped.

Peace Rocks

This is a view upwards of the descent we had just come down.

This picture makes me feel bad that I love the warm weather so much when both Matt and Sam do not share my feelings. Poor Sam tried to lay down every time he hit a patch of shade ( which was sparse).

Sam was so happy to get the the bottom where there was water!

Best camping spot EVER!
This is our little cave that happens to be in full shade the entire day.
Did I mention that I LOVE this trip!

Sam resting on our air mattresses.

View from our cave.

I love him.

Sam and I in our cave.

Matt next to the fire.

A view of our campsite (totally hidden).

Pretty flowers.

We took a day hike up to some pools to swim in. This is the trail we followed.

Sam taking a dip in the water on our hike.

Matt caught a frog.


Matt going for a dip.

The water was freezing! It took me a long time to get all the way in.

Most of my time was spend lying on the warm rocks.
Is there a better feeling than lying on warm rocks?

These were the pools we went swimming in.

Matt also found a nice warm rock.

Sam and I on the way back to camp.

Sam next to some pretty wild flowers.

This was taken when we got back to camp.
I don't think I have ever seen the poor pup so worn out before!
The hot sand did a number on his poor paws.....I felt so bad!
Needless to say, he was spoiled with beef jerky at this point.

My very sad attempt at making jiffy pop.

Matt cuddling Sam on my favorite sitting rock.

We spent hours trying to catch a lizard. Never happened. Every time I got close I chickened out. This fear comes from when I caught a lizard as a child and its tail fell off. I didn't know at the time that this was a defense mechanism.

Another view of the cave. From here you can see inside.
Sam is chillin on my sitting rock.

It is so beautiful there!

Me relaxing with a book on my rock.

Matt and Sam.

Time to go home :(.
I was so sad to leave.
We decided to leave really early in the morning so that we could hopefully get to the top of that climb before the sun hit it in hopes of sparing Sams already sore paws.



We made it to the top!

Matt and I.

Awww....we made heart.


And here we are back at the trail head.

For those of you who know us, you may ask where Gabe is.
This unfortunately was our very first backpacking trip in which we had to leave him behind. It truly felt different hiking without our "trail master". I will never forget all of the fun times we had hiking with him, but will now begin to cherish ever second of cuddling him as we enter a new calmer time of his life.

Matt swears this is the last time we are going to go on this trip but I won't give up on trying to go again :).



Oh and how can we forget this awesome video of Matt and his little froggy friend!