Roosting

Guess what! 

Thrilling desert scene

I did it! We have pictures, cap'n! 

Back in my singles' ward days, my ward was really fun and adventurous and would take those who were willing down to southern Utah to a lovely little hike called Robber's Roost. Supposedly these canyons served as a hideout for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, hence the name. Historical! I went twice with those delightful people, and the second time was with Joe right at the blossoming of our relationship (cue "aww"ing). So when our friend Missy said that there was a group going down again and asked if we wanted to join, we jumped--nay, leaped!--on that bandwagon. We invited my bro Spencer to come and anxiously awaited the glorious weekend. 

When the time came, we met everyone at the local church (one of them, haha) and started off on the arduous drive to our camp. Sometime during the trip we lost Missy, who was following us so as not to get...lost. Then followed an hour or so of clipped and fuzzy phone calls and waiting on the side of the road for her to appear behind us again. I was trying to take an artistic picture of the (waste)land where we tarried (shown in the first picture, above), and somehow captured Joe in what I can only assume was a moment of declaration:

After 2 1/2 hours of driving and a half hour of sitting
and waiting, the timing here was pretty dang hilarious.

Fortunately for everyone, Missy and co. found us and we did eventually make it to our site. 

This is it. 

There was a nice, creepy (illegal) sign dangling from one corner that read "NO CAMPING" in a handwritten font that is best described as "horror movie." Much of the campfire conversation revolved around the fact that we were probably going to be picked off one by one because we weren't very bright and went off alone, just like in [fill in the blank with any horror movie, ever]. 

With that, it's time I interrupt with a romantic flashback. When Joe and I first came to Robber's Roost, he surprised me on our first night down there with a "picnic" of sorts under the stars. We hiked up a nearby mountain/hill to a blob of rock...

...where he set up a fuzzy blanket and two bottles of Martinelli's. We had just settled in for an adorable, cuddly eve of stargazing when our friend Mike decided to join us. This decidedly lowered the "romance" factor, but luckily we like Mike and actually didn't mind him being there. He is a funny guy and to be fair we're not that romantic anyway. 

At one point Mike went off to help another girl get up the mountain in the dark. Joe looked around, said something like, "Well, now that he's gone..." and he KISSED me! It was our first kiss, or as Joe would say, "our last first kiss." Aww. Moments later Mike and our friend Megan came back and we all had a jolly time drinking sparkly cider from the bottle and laughing and telling stories. 

So that's the history of that rock. Unsolicited, but given nonetheless.

Since our 1 year anniversary is like, tomorrow (it's not really tomorrow), we decided to relive that moment. We got Martinelli's and the same fuzzy blanket, and Spencer joined us as our honorary Mike! It was quite fun, despite some stubborn clouds covering the stars. Still, we got to watch distant lightning storms and some stars poked out through some clear spots, and we still got to chat and drink from the bottle like ruffians, which is what matters, obviously. 

Alright, back to the hike. Since there's not much to say when talking about a hike (then we climbed rocks, and in front of us were more rocks!) this part will probably be mostly just pictures of how awesome it looks down there.

Joe and Missy staring at... bottles of toothpaste?
I dunno what they're doing. Spencer is raring to go.  

The first drop. Remember how Spencer is giant-tall? That should help give some
sense of the length of this drop. Also, I love this picture. Spence looks profesh.

During the hike. I love how twisty the rock looks. I seem to remember Joe
saying something about it being very bright....

Honestly. We might be hiking on Mars.

More (cool) rocks. 

Handsome Joe in the canyon. 

And moi. 

There was one part where the normal path had been blocked by falling rock or something and we had to improvise. I wish I had taken a picture of Joe trying to climb back up on the return trip cause it was super sketchy, but I was too busy worrying about him falling off the cliff. Darn.

Anyway, that was our trip! Really fun, worth the drive. We saw a baby rattlesnake (which we steered well clear of, promise) and a sad little bat that probably died (sigh). We conquered rocks and drops, we ate granola bars and apples, and we almost got blown away by a rain/wind storm in the night. All in all a very successful camping excursion. Five stars. Would do again.