How to levitate

My dear brother in-law Bill taught us how to levitate this past weekend. It was NOT easy, but once you can do it, it's kind of fun. We were thinking of teaching the puppies, but they're WAY too young to try right now.

Thanks for the great lessons Bill (and the great camera work).

San Rafael Swell Day 1 March 2010

We were just recently here, but we took another trip to the swell this time to follow Bill around for his annual Birthday camping trip. We arrived a little later than we would have liked to on Friday, but we had just enough time to set up camp and do a quick little hike to Farnsworth Canyon.

Farnsworth is cool because it's short and sweet and you see some awesome little slots. Perfect for taking kids and since it's not along a heavily used BLM road, you'll likely not encounter another person. We're definitely coming back to this place.

(note: to see the larger version of a picture, click on the picture, then on the "All sizes" button above it)

Trailhead from the parking area




Dropping into the canyon





The crew








Starting to narrow up





Bill, doing his thing





The first hike of Dexter and Debra's 5 month old life. They were awesome hikers





Dexter chilling





Bailey chilling





Awesome slot














Water stopped most of us, but I continued on over the water and through the back of the slot











The canyon starts to widen again





Cool rock and choke stone





Heading back down canyon








Bailey was a good little hiker

San Rafael Swell Day 2 March 2010

After a HORRIBLE night with Bailey (she was up most of the night crying) and freezing to death, we were anxious for the sun to come up and get out and doing something. Our sleeping bag zippers broke, so we could not seal ourselves up and we were COLD (it was around 30 degrees).

We first headed up to Wild Horse Window (or some call it Skylight Arch). We've done this trip a couple of times already, but it's a fun hike because you jump right on the reef and make your way up to this HUGE cave/arch.

Bailey had fun hiking through the sand



Up to the caves and arch



I hiked up on top of the arch and took some pictures

The Henry Mountains in the distance



Looking down on Bailey and Alene



Someday I'd like to try a rappel into this arch by anchoring off this tree. I'll probably chicken out when the opportunity strikes though.



Alene, Bailey and I



Heading back to the cars



We then headed off to Little Wild Horse Canyon, which is the most popular slot canyon in the area due to the abundance of slots and ease of access. I kind of don't like going here because there are TONS of people, especially on a Saturday but the canyon is beautiful.

Heading up canyon



The puppies were AWESOME hikers



Bailey and mommy



Bailey did awesome hiking in the slots as well



The dogs doing more hiking



Pictures of the slots









Dogs were pooped, so we let them chill for a while (OK, we were pooped too)





Bailey heading out of the slot



We went back to camp for a bit. Some of the group opted to rest a bit, so I decided to set up a rappel on a 20' rock. I had been wanting to practice a few techniques on ascending, but never quite figured it out and just ended up rappelling. Alene hit it up a few times (no pictures because I didn't have my camera with me then), then April and her friend Brittany did the rappel a couple of times.

April heading over the edge





Brittany heading down





My last rappel



Looking down on our awesome campsite



After rappelling, we headed over to Goblin Valley to play around on the rocks and wait for the sun to go down a bit.

Bailey fell asleep just as we pulled up. I was able to carry her around for a while (she never lets me hold her when Alene is around)





I handed her off to Alene so we could take turns doing some levitating



Moon above Goblin Valley



After Goblin we headed back to the campsite to start dinner. We finished packing the truck up and left after dark to get home by 1am. We were not going to go through another sleepless, cold night with Bailey. Pretty bummed that we couldn't stay through Sunday because we wanted to do more things with Bill and the rest, but our sanity was on the line.