What An Adventure!
The past four days Robyn and I got the amazing experience of hiking through some of Utah's canyons to explore some Native American Ruins. This was Robyn's first try at backpacking and she was so good and seemed to really love it. The canyons that we were hiking in are not a part of any park so they aren't well "used". I was amazed that people who have hiked before us have been really respectful of the beauty of the canyons. Not once did I see any garbage on the ground or any unnecessary carvings or any kind of human damage along the way. We entered in at Bullet canyon where we scrambled down the canyon for the first mile or so. As you can see the rock was almost like a natural water slide and stair case.
The first day everyone stayed in good spirits and we hiked what we thought was about 6 or 7 miles, but later found out that it was only about 4 or 5 miles. We camped under the Perfect Kiva Ruins. There was a underground Kiva (a place of worship for the Anasazi Indians) that is in perfect condition. They had a ladder leading down to it, but the ranger warned us that some people come down with a rare virus (about 2-3 cases a year) so I stayed behind while Robyn went into it with our friends daughter Aura. In each of the ruins there were pottery shards and corn cobs all over the ground and petroglifs (ancient writings) on the walls. The hand prints were about the size of Robyn's hands. It's estimated that the people were small in stature, the tallest being about the same height as myself (5'1").
The second day we hiked another 4-5 miles thinking we hiked about 6 or 7 miles. On the way we saw Jail house Rock Ruins. It was fairly steep to walk up to. It definatly tested my fear of heights. One of the walls had a window in it that appeared to be some sort of jail. It had two levels of the ruin where the second was too hard to get to. On this day we tried to hike to the canyon split of Todie and Grand Gulch canyon. We thought we had made it but later found out that we had been behind the whole time. Along the way we saw many ruins high up on the canyon walls. Some of which were impossible to get to without ropes or a very long ladder.
On the third day we packed up and started walking what we thought were the last 7 miles up Grand Gulch canyon. We ran out of water fast and hadn't seen any other hikers. We all started praying just to find water and we were on the lookout for any signs of water or other hikers. Finally we ran into a tour group of hikers and their tour guides informed us that there were springs ahead, the good news, and that we still had another 3-4 miles to the Todie, Grand Gulch split, the bad news. They were the first and only hikers we saw that day where the prior two days we had run into many groups of hikers. It was obvious that the Lord had heard our prayers about needing guidance and water. After filling our water and trying hard to keep good attitudes we walked the 3-4 miles to the junction. Along the way we saw the Spilt Level Ruins. When we took our break at the junction I remember my legs and hips aching and not wanting to go on. We were all very tired and wanted to stop for the night, but knew we needed to go on. We said a prayer to know if we should continue down Grand Gulch or the shorter Todie canyons. We all felt that it was necessary to venture through Todie, not knowing what to expect. Todie was the shorter way and if we could get out of the canyon by night fall we could make it back home before church the next day. So we all prayed for extra strength and the ability to make it out before the sun went down.
It was amazing because I know for myself my legs no longer ached and no one seemed to complain. Later we all talked about how each of us prayed for extra strength and received it. The canyon, we soon discovered, was a steep and dangerous one even for someone who wasn't carrying a 35-40 lb pack. At times we had to take our packs off send one person up to lift all the packs, the dog and take turns climbing up the rocks. As we helped each other through the canyon, I could not help but visualize a picture of Christ that I love where He is walking up a steep river bed helping two children through the rough terrain, holding one in His hands and the other by the hand. The last 100 feet of the canyon hike was the most challenging of all. As we reached this point we were looking for the trail markers and noticed that they went straight up the cliff...sadly no one thought about taking a picture of this display of steepness. As there was ice and a sandy cliff side to climb, we were all praying to stay close to the cliff side without falling. At one point we came to a slab of rock, that had water running down it, we had to scurry up. If we were to slip in the slightest we could fall of the small rock that helped us step us up to the slab and fall down the cliff side possibly taking others with us. Needless to say my fear of heights kicked in and I found myself praying over and over in my mind "Please send angels to hold us up and pull us to the top. Poor Robyn was crying out of fear. I just wanted to hold her so tight. This really tested my faith in God and knowing that he had a plan. I tried so hard to stay positive and remember the promise I felt at the bottom of the canyon that what we were doing was right and that we would all be okay. We all made it over the slab, with cheers of encouragement with each person making it up and with our day light leaving fast, we had one more rock to climb over before we were at the top. It had a tree growing right down the middle of the opening, so there wasn't enough room for a person with their pack. This we did not realize till after we were climbing through it. I got to the point when I was half way up the rock that I needed to take my pack off, but my pack, if dropped, would have fallen on the others and possibly pushed them over the edge or I was going to fall with it and the people behind me and I couldn't climb down because I could not see where to put my feet. Shawn somehow found another way up and with his helping hands took my pack from me so I could make it to the top. The sun was quickly fading and just as the last person made it to the top the sun was completely gone. The Lord answered his promise and our prayers. We made it to the top with sun light, all of us survived without an injury, angels were with us pushing and pulling us to the top. What a blessing and lessoned learned.
It didn't end there. It was dark and we still had to hike another mile to the trail head, then another mile to the main road. At one side we could still fall off the cliff. So we all started looking for trail markers. At first we followed what we thought was the trail but quickly learned that it wasn't the trail. So we made our way back to the edge of the canyon where there was a trail marker. We prayed again and Christian found the next marker. He became our leader, so Shawn and Amy could take care of the little ones and encourages the people in the back, looking for the next trail marker and making sure we wouldn't fall off the cliff. It was amazing that just as we couldn't see where to go another trail marker appeared. We were safely lead through the wilderness by trail markers that were perfectly spaced so that our head lamps could reach the next marker without becoming lost. I don't ever remember there being so many trial markers on a flat trail such as this one. Our precious teen agers started singing primary songs which also helped lead and encourage the others to keep on moving in spite of our extreme exhaustion. We made our way the two miles to the road. We all pulled out our sleeping bags to stay warm while Shawn jogged his way back to the other parking lot to retrieve their camper.
As we were waiting trying to keep warm we talked about how the Lord had tender mercies upon us with being able to see a full sky of stars (something that hadn’t happened yet on the trip because of over cast). We talked of personal stories of faith and how this story we just had created was to be one to share with grandchildren, friends and family and one that would never be forgotten. Amy related a thought that she had when some of the children started to complain about the situation. She said that she wanted to start complaining along with them but the thought of Lamen and Lemual's "murmuring" instantly popped into her head which helped her to stay positive. While I was walking I thought of the pioneers and all that they had to endure. How easy we have it, we didn't have people dying or starving. I thought of our family relative who lost a shoe while crossing the plains and had to walk most of the way with rags on one foot. Here we were walking a mere 20 miles with nice hiking shoes, light weight gear and warm clothing. We did not have to worry about being hungry or dying of thirst. There are so many parallels to this story and the gospel and life.
This story relates so closely to my life and the struggles with illness and the needing of faith, I get tears thinking of the blessing that I could even attempt this kind of journey let alone be alive right now. The miracle that I have life not only the first time when I was born into this world, but receiving another chance when, through much prayer and a blessing of healing, I was able to overcome such an obstacle. As I reflect back to the years of illness in my life I am often struck with awe that I have had that chance, to live, to love, to experience pain and hardship. A part of a song keeps going through my head in which there is a line that says “Life is painless, for the brainless”. If you stop learning and striving for growth and don’t allow yourself or others to fall, you’re missing out on life of being mortal the very reason why we fought to come to Earth, the reason why Adam and Eve went through sorrow. All of this so we can feel the joy that comes from reaching our end goal. To find “water” when it’s so desperately needed, something so simple becomes our greatest joy and happiness, but it came with a price. The price is going without and struggling with the search for more.
Homeschooling my children has also been a struggle that is closely related to this. There have been many obstacles and stumbling blocks that really hurt. My need to overcome what others think and knowing and understanding that I am capable in spite of what the world thinks because I know that the Lord wants us to do this. Going into that canyon was to some, I’m sure, a not very wise decision. But we all knew that God wanted us to go that direction. Even though there was fear of life and crying we relied on God and made it to the top. Oh how great was our joy not only that we were alive and safe, but we had a confirmation that He was there and He loves us.
I will be forever grateful for Amy and Shawn for sharing with us this experience and being willing to talk about their love of God with us along the way. I am grateful for their children and the sweetness that resided with them as they worked together to help each other, myself and Robyn. But most of all, I am grateful to my God and Savior for helping us to see the love that was shown that day and for giving us this mortal life that was meant to be experienced!
The past four days Robyn and I got the amazing experience of hiking through some of Utah's canyons to explore some Native American Ruins. This was Robyn's first try at backpacking and she was so good and seemed to really love it. The canyons that we were hiking in are not a part of any park so they aren't well "used". I was amazed that people who have hiked before us have been really respectful of the beauty of the canyons. Not once did I see any garbage on the ground or any unnecessary carvings or any kind of human damage along the way. We entered in at Bullet canyon where we scrambled down the canyon for the first mile or so. As you can see the rock was almost like a natural water slide and stair case.
The first day everyone stayed in good spirits and we hiked what we thought was about 6 or 7 miles, but later found out that it was only about 4 or 5 miles. We camped under the Perfect Kiva Ruins. There was a underground Kiva (a place of worship for the Anasazi Indians) that is in perfect condition. They had a ladder leading down to it, but the ranger warned us that some people come down with a rare virus (about 2-3 cases a year) so I stayed behind while Robyn went into it with our friends daughter Aura. In each of the ruins there were pottery shards and corn cobs all over the ground and petroglifs (ancient writings) on the walls. The hand prints were about the size of Robyn's hands. It's estimated that the people were small in stature, the tallest being about the same height as myself (5'1").
The second day we hiked another 4-5 miles thinking we hiked about 6 or 7 miles. On the way we saw Jail house Rock Ruins. It was fairly steep to walk up to. It definatly tested my fear of heights. One of the walls had a window in it that appeared to be some sort of jail. It had two levels of the ruin where the second was too hard to get to. On this day we tried to hike to the canyon split of Todie and Grand Gulch canyon. We thought we had made it but later found out that we had been behind the whole time. Along the way we saw many ruins high up on the canyon walls. Some of which were impossible to get to without ropes or a very long ladder.
On the third day we packed up and started walking what we thought were the last 7 miles up Grand Gulch canyon. We ran out of water fast and hadn't seen any other hikers. We all started praying just to find water and we were on the lookout for any signs of water or other hikers. Finally we ran into a tour group of hikers and their tour guides informed us that there were springs ahead, the good news, and that we still had another 3-4 miles to the Todie, Grand Gulch split, the bad news. They were the first and only hikers we saw that day where the prior two days we had run into many groups of hikers. It was obvious that the Lord had heard our prayers about needing guidance and water. After filling our water and trying hard to keep good attitudes we walked the 3-4 miles to the junction. Along the way we saw the Spilt Level Ruins. When we took our break at the junction I remember my legs and hips aching and not wanting to go on. We were all very tired and wanted to stop for the night, but knew we needed to go on. We said a prayer to know if we should continue down Grand Gulch or the shorter Todie canyons. We all felt that it was necessary to venture through Todie, not knowing what to expect. Todie was the shorter way and if we could get out of the canyon by night fall we could make it back home before church the next day. So we all prayed for extra strength and the ability to make it out before the sun went down.
It was amazing because I know for myself my legs no longer ached and no one seemed to complain. Later we all talked about how each of us prayed for extra strength and received it. The canyon, we soon discovered, was a steep and dangerous one even for someone who wasn't carrying a 35-40 lb pack. At times we had to take our packs off send one person up to lift all the packs, the dog and take turns climbing up the rocks. As we helped each other through the canyon, I could not help but visualize a picture of Christ that I love where He is walking up a steep river bed helping two children through the rough terrain, holding one in His hands and the other by the hand. The last 100 feet of the canyon hike was the most challenging of all. As we reached this point we were looking for the trail markers and noticed that they went straight up the cliff...sadly no one thought about taking a picture of this display of steepness. As there was ice and a sandy cliff side to climb, we were all praying to stay close to the cliff side without falling. At one point we came to a slab of rock, that had water running down it, we had to scurry up. If we were to slip in the slightest we could fall of the small rock that helped us step us up to the slab and fall down the cliff side possibly taking others with us. Needless to say my fear of heights kicked in and I found myself praying over and over in my mind "Please send angels to hold us up and pull us to the top. Poor Robyn was crying out of fear. I just wanted to hold her so tight. This really tested my faith in God and knowing that he had a plan. I tried so hard to stay positive and remember the promise I felt at the bottom of the canyon that what we were doing was right and that we would all be okay. We all made it over the slab, with cheers of encouragement with each person making it up and with our day light leaving fast, we had one more rock to climb over before we were at the top. It had a tree growing right down the middle of the opening, so there wasn't enough room for a person with their pack. This we did not realize till after we were climbing through it. I got to the point when I was half way up the rock that I needed to take my pack off, but my pack, if dropped, would have fallen on the others and possibly pushed them over the edge or I was going to fall with it and the people behind me and I couldn't climb down because I could not see where to put my feet. Shawn somehow found another way up and with his helping hands took my pack from me so I could make it to the top. The sun was quickly fading and just as the last person made it to the top the sun was completely gone. The Lord answered his promise and our prayers. We made it to the top with sun light, all of us survived without an injury, angels were with us pushing and pulling us to the top. What a blessing and lessoned learned.
It didn't end there. It was dark and we still had to hike another mile to the trail head, then another mile to the main road. At one side we could still fall off the cliff. So we all started looking for trail markers. At first we followed what we thought was the trail but quickly learned that it wasn't the trail. So we made our way back to the edge of the canyon where there was a trail marker. We prayed again and Christian found the next marker. He became our leader, so Shawn and Amy could take care of the little ones and encourages the people in the back, looking for the next trail marker and making sure we wouldn't fall off the cliff. It was amazing that just as we couldn't see where to go another trail marker appeared. We were safely lead through the wilderness by trail markers that were perfectly spaced so that our head lamps could reach the next marker without becoming lost. I don't ever remember there being so many trial markers on a flat trail such as this one. Our precious teen agers started singing primary songs which also helped lead and encourage the others to keep on moving in spite of our extreme exhaustion. We made our way the two miles to the road. We all pulled out our sleeping bags to stay warm while Shawn jogged his way back to the other parking lot to retrieve their camper.
As we were waiting trying to keep warm we talked about how the Lord had tender mercies upon us with being able to see a full sky of stars (something that hadn’t happened yet on the trip because of over cast). We talked of personal stories of faith and how this story we just had created was to be one to share with grandchildren, friends and family and one that would never be forgotten. Amy related a thought that she had when some of the children started to complain about the situation. She said that she wanted to start complaining along with them but the thought of Lamen and Lemual's "murmuring" instantly popped into her head which helped her to stay positive. While I was walking I thought of the pioneers and all that they had to endure. How easy we have it, we didn't have people dying or starving. I thought of our family relative who lost a shoe while crossing the plains and had to walk most of the way with rags on one foot. Here we were walking a mere 20 miles with nice hiking shoes, light weight gear and warm clothing. We did not have to worry about being hungry or dying of thirst. There are so many parallels to this story and the gospel and life.
This story relates so closely to my life and the struggles with illness and the needing of faith, I get tears thinking of the blessing that I could even attempt this kind of journey let alone be alive right now. The miracle that I have life not only the first time when I was born into this world, but receiving another chance when, through much prayer and a blessing of healing, I was able to overcome such an obstacle. As I reflect back to the years of illness in my life I am often struck with awe that I have had that chance, to live, to love, to experience pain and hardship. A part of a song keeps going through my head in which there is a line that says “Life is painless, for the brainless”. If you stop learning and striving for growth and don’t allow yourself or others to fall, you’re missing out on life of being mortal the very reason why we fought to come to Earth, the reason why Adam and Eve went through sorrow. All of this so we can feel the joy that comes from reaching our end goal. To find “water” when it’s so desperately needed, something so simple becomes our greatest joy and happiness, but it came with a price. The price is going without and struggling with the search for more.
Homeschooling my children has also been a struggle that is closely related to this. There have been many obstacles and stumbling blocks that really hurt. My need to overcome what others think and knowing and understanding that I am capable in spite of what the world thinks because I know that the Lord wants us to do this. Going into that canyon was to some, I’m sure, a not very wise decision. But we all knew that God wanted us to go that direction. Even though there was fear of life and crying we relied on God and made it to the top. Oh how great was our joy not only that we were alive and safe, but we had a confirmation that He was there and He loves us.
I will be forever grateful for Amy and Shawn for sharing with us this experience and being willing to talk about their love of God with us along the way. I am grateful for their children and the sweetness that resided with them as they worked together to help each other, myself and Robyn. But most of all, I am grateful to my God and Savior for helping us to see the love that was shown that day and for giving us this mortal life that was meant to be experienced!
Robyn at the top of Bullet Canyon
Perfect Kiva
Petroglifs at Perfect Kiva
Robyn going into the Kiva
View from Perfect Kiva
Pottry Shards at Perfect Kiva
Corn griding stone at Perfect Kiva
Jail House Rock
Robyn in "jail"
Robyn and I having a rest at the Jail House Rock Ruins
Hand comparision Robyn vs the ancients
The steep incline to the ruins 
How did the people live like this?!?!
The kids (Robyn, Sierra, Christian, Elija, Ethan, Aura and Maddy)
Kids again at the ruins
Us coming down from the ruins. Can you believe Amy did this 21 weeks pregnant with her 8th child?!
Robyn and I with our backpacks
Kids playing in the mud after not being able to find water for quite some time.
Some more amazing ruins...
Kids playing in the mud after not being able to find water for quite some time.
Some more amazing ruins...
Here's a link to Amy's pictures...
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