Dear Families,
The trip started out with us packing up the night before and heading out to Escalante, Utah around 8:30 am. We had a nice relaxing 6 and a half hour drive up and we also stopped at a really beautiful viewpoint of the Colorado River along the way. We got into Escalante around dinner time and we cooked dinner as soon as we arrived. We then hiked in about 2.4 miles to our first campsite (sand Creek). Everyone was pretty wiped out when we arrived so we set up camp, hung out for a bit, then went to bed.
Plans changed the next morning so we hung out for a while, played some cards then hiked to the top of a nearby mountain. The view from the top was something to behold and we had never seen anything else like it. We hiked down and cooked dinner, then ended the night with a nice meditation meeting under the stars. We went to bed and hiked down to death hollow the next morning.
The hike into Death Hollow wasn’t bad at all because we were dropping in elevation. There were some really amazing views along the way. Our guides Aaron and Michael did a good job getting us there and we stopped in some cool spots. At the bottom there was this little creek that a couple of the guys went swimming in. Down at the creek we did a “Sharing is Caring Meeting” where I think some people heard some things that they really needed to hear, that benefitted them greatly. After the meeting we hiked back up to our campsite. The hike up was a little more tough, but overall not too challenging. Once back, we cooked dinner and ended the night with an AA meeting about how going out into the wilderness helps us in our recovery. It was a pretty interesting meeting.
Due to plans changing at the last minute, we hiked out of Escalante the next morning and camped at the trail head that night. It snowed a couple inches that night and we woke up to snow covered ground. We stopped at a restaurant called Big Al’s on the way home and everyone had a much-needed hamburger and ice cream. Everyone was feeling pretty good after that. Along the way we stopped at another cool view point, though we can’t remember the name, and we did a community meeting. We got back to the house around 5 that night, so we prepared dinner then went to bed.
The next day was awesome though. We drove to Sedona that morning and hiked in 3.5 miles to a really cool swimming area where we all got to do some cliff jumps into extremely cold water; however, it felt nice after the hike and it was probably the most fun thing I had done since I arrived in Arizona. That was the best day of the trip for me. We headed to the gym that evening and everyone was worn out that night. Overall it was a really fun trip.
Until next time,
The Boys
