Grand Gulch Day 1

We began our Spring Break on Sunday afternoon driving to our backpacking destination - the Grand Gulch area in Utah.  It's about 2 hours south of Moab.  Ben was given the advice to check out the area by a doctor he works with.  It seems like a bunch of doctors go there and were familiar with it - even though we had never heard of it before!

We basically got to the Ranger Station (which was closed of course) and drove a bit past it to find a place to camp.  Luckily we did and all went well that night - except for the migraine that Ben had from 2-4 am.  The girls slept in the car, as begged.  The boys spent their first night sleeping in their hammocks, and Ben and I slept in our tent.

We got up early and made it to the Ranger Station by 7:15 am.  It opened at 8 but as there were only 8 walk-in backpacking permits each day, we wanted to get there early if needs be.  A nice ranger (who looked exactly like my Uncle Randy) came out when we got there and got us going on the paperwork - which was so nice as it wasn't even time yet.

Anyways, we left Ben's bike at the Ranger Station and then drove to the Bullet Canyon trailhead, where we began our 25-mile backpacking trip.

 Packs on and ready to go!  Ben's pack was obviously the heaviest.  Poor guy.  Mine, though lighter, still felt heavy as lead.  :)

 A cool spot.

 Snack time!  The kids (and adults) each carried their own snack bags and knew they had to make it last for the four days - which everyone did.  :)  Miles took his all out to assess what amount he could have of each item each day.

 Ben checking out the map - something he (and the boys ) loved to do and did it frequently.  Next time I will make copies of the map so everyone can have their own.  Except for me.  I can't follow one.  :)

 Heading down in to the canyon.  This hike was challenging!  We had a lot of boulder-scrambling - not something we totally anticipated.  With packs on, it was almost unbearable!  But considering all that, we really had minimal complaints.

 Our first destination - at mile 5.0.  Perfect Kiva is what this site was called.  Very cool stuff!

 Lucy going down in to the "perfect kiva."

 Miles checking out the other ancient ruins.

 Inside the kiva - it was nice in there, for an ancient ruin.

 Our second stop - Jailhouse Ruin.  It was right around the corner from our other one.  Those circle images were interesting.  The "Jailhouse ruin" had a tiny little window in it.  Weird.  There was a lot rock art - pictographs and petroglyphs - all over.  So fun.

 Ahhh, our final destination for Day 1 - our campsite at the meeting of Bullet Canyon and Grand Gulch.  We went 7 hard miles that day!

 The kids enjoying some down-time.

Sleep went pretty well and uneventful, thankfully.