Montana is a big state:)

Our adventures in Montana continued as we welcomed more of the Wahrer family into Bozeman. We spent a day with Mary, Gary and Destiny and got to go check out the Grizzly Encounter. I had read a book by the man who started the grizzly bear rescue. His account was interesting, but he and I have different beliefs about interactions with wild animals. Anyway, I figured it would be interesting to go check it out. The enclosure was not very big. I've seen zoos with bigger ones, but the bear was very active and seemed to be interested in her surroundings. However, I did leave feeling like the people in charge wanted to have grizzly pets more then they wanted to admit they were wild animals.

On one of the signs there was a statistic saying grizzly bears can run 35 mph while humans can only reach 23mph. Looking around us at the group who had just come from the retirement home nearby made us think 23mph was being pretty generous! It was fun to see the bear up close and there was some good information about bears, but overall, it was not my favorite experience.

Zach and I then headed up to Glacier National Park to spend the weekend with my cousin, Peter. He is the driver of the famed Red Bus Tours through the park. Zach's family was heading up on Monday and we were all going to ride on the bus together with Peter as our driver. Before the arrived, we got to see how Pete lives and it was fantastic. We used our incognito Honda Odyssey and actually slept in the parking lot outside of Peter's dorm. It was a little nerve-wrecking, but the second night, the van next to us also had sleepers in it. They looked way more obvious, so we figured they'd get busted before us. We both made it through the night undetected!

Sydney, Peter's girlfriend, is a chef in the employee kitchen. She invited us to a yummy breakfast she had gotten up at 3:30am to prepare! We were grateful! Then Peter took us on a hike to Iceburg Lake. It was absolutely stunning! The hike was a mix of scrambling and hiking as well as being very loud in case a bear was around the next corner! We saw a moose down in one valley we passed by, but otherwise enjoyed a hike free of wild animal attacks:)

Peter was a great sport and let us take him climbing one day! A little crag near Kila, MT was our destination and it was a lot of fun. Peter did great and we all enjoyed a hamburger at Norm's News in Kalspell. It was time to head down to Loon Lake and greet the weary travelers from Bozeman.

Their van pulled up behind us and waved us to follow. We found a yummy Mexican restaurant to celebrate them getting to get out of the car:)

Fran and Mike had arrived in Bozeman after we had already left so it was fun to catch up with them over margaritas. The vacation home Kathy had found for us was amazing! It was on its own peninsula between Loon lake and another small lake. There were beavers, deer, bald eagles, loons and I'm sure many other wildlife we didn't see! Zach and I took out their canoe and did some laps around the lake. The loon had such a unique call. It was fun to be around it. We never saw a beaver, but they had lots of lodges built around the lake. Loon Lake's resident bald eagle was pretty active. We caught a glimpse of him flying overhead with a fish in his grasp. We really enjoyed loon lake. The house was also absolutely gorgeous. It was fun to all be together and enjoy margaritas in the evening and coffee in the morning.

On Tuesday, we got to see Peter again! He was our driver and we really enjoyed his tour of the park. Because there was a fire closing down the normal drive, we took a different route. We came across two bears during our day and one of them was really close! There was also an injured motorcyclist we stopped to check on. Fran is a Nurse Practitioner and there was another women who was an ER nurse. I offered to assist them, but since no baby seemed to be involved, I stayed back. It seemed he was going to be okay and the ambulance was arriving, so we headed on. By the end, we were all ready to stand up and move around, but it was a fun way to see the park and learn about the history of Native Americans and settlers who came into the area.

Zach, Dale and Gary taking a break during the tour!

Zach and I at Lake McDonald.

Peter and I standing near a lake in Glacier National Park that our dads went sailing on a few years ago. Its a great story:)

The little friend we saw during our red bus tour!

Mary taking a snooze on the bus.

Group photo of Zach, Peter, Sydney and Sarah.

Wednesday was horseback riding day for all of us except Zach and Gary. Zach headed up Gunsight Mountain with Peter. They saw mountain goats and marmots. It was a 20 mile round trip hike with a lot of elevation gain! They did awesome and made it home safely!

A photo from Zach's hike up Gunsight Mountain.

Another shot from the hike.

The rest of us loaded up in the touring van and headed to the stable. After a rocky start of them not really knowing we were coming, we all ended up on a horse and headed out into the national park. It was evident pretty quickly that Dale and I had the slowest horses. My horse's given name was Hickory, but we quickly changed that to Molasses. Dale was on Roonie and that seemed unfortunate enough of a name. We were constantly in the back with the group waiting on us. The girl leading our ride tried to teach us how to make them move faster, but our horses knew we had no control. Fran's horse tried to freak out once, but she kept him under control and we all had a fairly pleasant ride. Mike, Dale and I caught a glimpse of a coyote running through the woods. It was so fast and graceful. At the end of the trail ride, we were all safe, but tired and we headed back to the house.

Hanging out with my other cousin Peter in Jackson!

It was time for us to head on to Jackson, WY to meet our friend Mareshah for our ascent of the Grand Teton! We had been trying to get in shape for the long hike and climb, hopefully it would pay off! Another cousin Peter I have lives in Jackson. We met up with him and got the tour of Jackson with all the perks of knowing a local! It was great fun and we enjoyed seeing where Peter spends his days.

Mareshah made it into town and we had camp all set up for her! It was so good to have her join our group! Zach and I had gotten a camping permit for the Lower Saddle camping area. They only give out so many and we got the last one for Saturday night! We then had to get our stuff up there to camp:)

Our campsite below the Grand!

Looking at the shadows of the Teton range:)

Zach's Cave!

It was a seven mile hike with pretty heavy packs. But we headed out and made it through the switchbacks! We did have one bear sighting. It was way to close for my comfort, but he didn't seem to worried about us and we hurried past. I also figured the group of people gawking at him would be an easier target then us as we passed.

Our campsite was situated underneath the final summit and it was magnificent! Zach opted to sleep outside in a little cave next to us. Mareshah and I shared the tent and we all slept really well. I orignal plan had been to climb the full Exum Ridge. We had met 7-8 other groups all planning to do the same climb. It was then decided to hike up and just do the Upper Exum. The ended up being a great idea and we had no problem with other climbers! A few fast groups went past us, but they were very nice and it wasn't bad at all. We got to the summit at the same time as Joe, a 78 year old who had done another route to the top with a guide. He was so excited and inspiring! Way to go, Joe!! It was great to be at the top of the route! We had been planning and getting in shape for it all summer!

Broadway ridge!

The summit!

King of the world!

Getting down is never really the fun part, but we all pushed hard and made it back to the car before we had to break out our headlamps. We probably could have used our headlamps, but we were stubborn and didn't want to stop. It was an exhausting day, but it felt good to meet up with Peter at Thai Me Up for a victory burger and beer! He even let us crash on his couches that night.

In the morning, we were greeted with the smell of bacon. Peter made us omelets! It was a fantastic breakfast. We had to say goodbye to Mareshah after getting coffee together downtown. It was sad to see her go, but we will adventure again another day!! She has already been Parasailing and done a Ragnar Relay race since we last saw her. She is one busy lady! Thanks for making the trip out to see us, Mareshah!!!

Our last view of the Tetons!

It was time for me to renew my CPR training to keep all my ducks in a row for returning to work. As luck would have it, we found a course only a few hours away in Idaho. We headed there and Zach dropped me off. It was a great class with awesome instructors. I feel a little more prepared to help on the side of the road now, but still hope to not be needed!

With my new CPR card in hand, we pointed our van northward! We stopped near Butte for a multipitch climb that was a lot of fun then headed on to Koocanusa Lake for some single pitch climbing and swimming. They were both great spots to break up the drive into Canada! When we were finally ready to cross the border, we cleaned up the van and re-organized everything in case they needed to search us. With our Colorado plates, we figured there was a good chance. But when it was our turn to talk to the border patrol guy, he asked us the normal questions and sent us on our way. We did notice a van with Colorado tags was being searched. Thank you for taking one for the team guys!

Zach repelling off a route at Lake Koocanusa
(Its the Kootani River dammed up and it is in both Canada and the USA:)

We are now sitting in Banff up in Alberta, Canada! Its been rainy the last few days and we have been sitting a lot. It is a beautiful place to sit, but we are ready to climb all these beautiful rocks we can see! Hopefully, the weather turns soon and we can check out some of the views from the top:) Until, then we will continue to enjoy this lovely city of international tourism!

Summer brings all sorts of things:)

Our campsite near Salmon River became our home away from home. We set up camp there for nearly two weeks and hunkered down during the crazy days surrounding the Fourth of July celebrations:) It was a beautiful spot not to far off the road. Our backyard had the wide and rushing Salmon River running through it. Zach created a small pool with rocks to sit on and we enjoyed cooling off in the hot afternoons. I read two whole books sitting down there! Using our blow up camping mattresses, we did a bit of rafting through our own little rapids. It was great fun and we really enjoyed our spot!

Cooling off in our backyard:)

Near Hell Roaring Lake that was actually very calm. We saw a bald eagle there:)

From there, we backpacked in about seven miles to an unnamed lake beneath the "Finger of Fate" formation. It was a pretty mellow hike for the first six miles, but it amped up to a steep climb to reach the lake for the last mile. After setting up camp, we tried to go swimming in the snow melt lake and promptly realized it would simply be a dip before needing to run out and warm up. We were confined to our tent in the late evening because a swarm of mosquitoes realized our presence and chased us "inside." Our entertainment was card games and planning for the next day. 

On our way into the wilderness:)

Break by Hell Roaring Lake

Our beautiful campsite with the "Finger of Fate" in the back ground!

You can see why they named it the finger:)

In the morning, we headed up to the formation. It took us quite awhile to get through the loose rocks and boulders and reach the bottom of our climb. There was also twenty feet of snow we had to climb up before getting to the rock. It was a fun adventure up the route. Lots of cracks and boulders to tunnel through. The final pitch is up and through a hole underneath the top boulder. I was army crawling on lead! The rope drag was to difficult for me to keep going past the tunnel and I had to bring Zach up to try the final bit to the top. He did magnificent and we made it to the summit where we could sign the register and then repel back down. 

Great view!

Zach getting ready for the next pitch on "Open Book" 5.8

On our way back to camp, we found a great spot to jump in the clear, beautiful, water. Zach did a dive in and I settled for a cannon ball. It was frigid, but so fun and refreshing:) The fish we could see moved away, but came back to investigate after we got out of the water. We still had about four hours of daylight when we got back to camp, so we decided to hike out rather then spend another night surrounded by mosquitoes. It wasn't a hard trek back since it was down hill, but our legs were pretty worn out when we got back home.

We took the next few days to rest and run errands as well as play video games and watch movies and tv shows on the computer. Stanley Library has free wi-fi and really nice librarians! We spent a few afternoons relaxing there. A robin's nest was just outside the door of the library and we saw tiny, scrawny chicks turn into robins and get kicked out of the nest by their tired and skinny momma. It was fun to see that over the time we were there. 

 One of the Sawtooth adventures occurred on the El Capitain formation. It is not as big as its Yosimite cousin, but it was a fun adventure into the unknown. We brought gear and decided to head up a line that looked doable. We were successful and made it to the top with only a few scary moments of loose rock and figuring out which way to go. Zach named the route "Ping Ridge" because we were constantly calling out "Rock" when we knocked something loose to warn the person below. But they never hit us and simply pinged off the rock around us. It was a very adventurous day and we got to learn what it feels like to head up into unknown territory, which is what climbing started as!

Stanley also provided us with a parade and fireworks for the Forth of July. It was fun and we really enjoyed the kiddos on bikes in the parade. It wasn't very big, but they went around the town square twice to make it last a little longer:)

Hiking toward El Capitain

Great views from up here!

Topping out the route!

Amazing! I can see why they call them the Sawtooth Mountains. 

The El Capitain Formation

Hiking back out.

For my birthday, I picked to go to a play put on in the Sun Valley. "Vanya, Sonya, Masha, and Spike" was about three middle aged siblings and one of their younger boyfriends. It was a very interesting play and we both liked it, but our favorite part was meeting Aubrey and Manon. They photographed and wrote a beautiful book and gave us a copy. We passed one onto our nieces and they love it! They were just a wonderful couple who keep exploring and learning new things. We only spent a short time with them, but we really enjoyed it!!

While we have been on the road, a very special person to me is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. My amazing aunt Nancy is a beautiful, strong and wonderful person who I greatly admire and strive to be like!!! Therefore, it only made sense to style my hair after hers:) Zach was my barber and did a fantastic job. We surprised my aunt and it was fun to send support from afar. I must say though, I am thoroughly enjoying this hair cut and the benefits of being on the road without hair to worry about. 

My barber!

He did a great job!

We decided to make one more attempt at climbing up Elephant's Perch. We chose to do the "Sunrise Book" route, which was short, and attempt to hike in and back out in a day. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish the route in time because I took us up the wrong first pitch. It was fun to try and get it, but a bummer to run out of time and have to turn back. It remains on our list to come back and do!

After Idaho, we moved camp to Hamilton, MT. The Bitterroot Mountain Range was rugged and beautiful. The climbing information for there is not very well documented. We found camping and spent one day climbing. When we got back to camp, our stove had been swiped. It was our campsite place holder since we don't have a tent to leave. We ended up making food on our tiny backpacking stove that night, but decided to move to a bigger town and try and find a replacement stove. 

This hunt lead us to Missola, MT and we were able to run lots of errands. In the mall, there was a beautiful exhibit called the Hall of Hearts. It was portraits of children looking for forever homes and gave a little information about them. It was a very touching and beautiful display and I wanted to make an addition on the van for them. I hope they all find forever homes and receive the love and support they deserve!!

We eventually ended up outside of Butte, MT and climbed on formations known as the "King and Queen." These were fun routes with interesting movement. Our final day there, we were chased off the mountain by an encroaching thunderstorm. I was climbing and getting close to the top when we heard the thunder. In order to stay safe, but also get our gear back, I decided to reverse the moves and clean the gear as I went down. It was a fun challenge and we made it back to our van before the rain started. 

We decided it was time to move to Bozeman, MT. There was an area called Fairy Lake that had free camping with bathrooms and everything! It was luxurious to us:) The climbing was about a two mile hike from our campsite and we headed in through a beautiful meadow of flowers. My dad had bought me bear spray for my birthday and there were plenty of signs suggesting you have it. My only fear of having it, is that if I every use it, I have to be within 35 feet of the bear! That sounds alarmingly close and I'm not sure I'd be that good at using it effectively. I may just season myself for the bear! Anyway, I have it and have been practicing pulling it out of the holster quickly:) I have not needed it, but on this hike through the meadow, I thought "if I were a bear, I'd live here." It was a comfort to have. 

Fraizer Lake (more of a mud puddle in the summer)

The wildflowers were magnificent!

Waiting out the thunderstorm so we could cross the high point!

The climbing was in a unique and scenic location. We have been back there and climbed a second route, but it was not our favorite climbing. Our second attempt was yesterday and it ended with us running down the mountain meadow through pouring rain to escape lightening...I may also have pulled a muscle during said running because I was quite literally flying down the hillside, flailing my arms for balance. It was an exciting and heart pounding adventure, but when we were safe and in dry clothes, we started to enjoy what we had done. Factor 2 fun at its finest. 

We have been staying with Zach's aunt, Kath, and uncle, Dale, for the past week in Bozeman. They have been absolutely wonderful and I am so excited we came through here!! They have taken us to see dinosaur bones in the Museum of the Rockies, baby piglets and dirt bike racing at the Galatin County Fair, and across Ted Turner's buffalo ranch where we saw the herd coming over a hill. It has been awesome to do so much AND come back to a bed inside a house at night;) 

Watch out!

The triceratops were giant! I liked the little one though!

Enjoying the Galatin County Fair with Kath!

We have also eaten at some amazing restaurants where everyone knows and loves Kath. She is such a great person to be around! Some of my favorite meals have been her home cooking though! She is a great chef and I really enjoy eating her yummy dishes. Next week, we are heading up to Glacier National Park to spend time with Kath and Dale, plus other members of the Wahrer clan. It is going to be great!! 

For now, we are just relaxing. There is a 60% chance of thunderstorms today and we had our fun out yesterday when it was only supposed to be 20% chance. Gotta love trying to predict the future:) 

Utah into Idaho!

After a great time in Maple Canyon, Zach and I pushed north towards Salt Lake City. We spent time in American Fork Canyon at a free campsite we found about 15 miles up the canyon. Our neighbor was this cute dear and a bunch of adorable ground squirrel babies who lived in holes nearby. From our campsite, we could set out on hikes all around us. We even did a trail run! Climbing in American Fork was fun, but we only spent one day climbing and the rest exploring. One night, we were invited to a campfire hosted by Paul. He was very fun and interesting to talk to. He is retired from teaching in the school system, but still seeks to promote learning and education in others as well as himself! Between the two of us, we polished off a bag of marshmellows and spent the evening swapping stories. Paul is currently writing his memoir and I wish him luck in doing so! 

Our deer friend who loved Zach's pickle juice he dumped in the fire pit.

 Logan Canyon was our next stop and we got a few great days of climbing in. The area was nice and the camping was free, so we hung out for a few days before moving on to City of Rocks in Idaho. The City was super fun! Zach and I improved our multipitch climbing skills by simulclimbing up two multipitch routes in one day. It was great how fast and comfortable we got at climbing on the slab. (Simulclimbing involves both people being connected together by the rope, but climbing at the same time. You are each other's anchor, but it is generally better to only simulclimb on terrain you are confident you won't fall.) We really enjoyed climbing together! We also lead some harder single pitch climbs and another multipich climb up Steinfeld's Dome. All in all, it was a great stop and we really enjoyed the little town of Almo. We saw lots of deer and jackrabbits while we were there.

Zach using the Visitor Center's wi-fi in the shade. City or Rocks is in the background.

View of City of Rocks from the Visitor's Center.

 The only thing we didn't like about Almo and City or Rocks were the flies! We could not get away from them and it was so annoying. We would roll up the windows and have only our little fan for air in the evenings. It was roasting, but at least the flies weren't swarming your face. We did get better with our fly hunting skills and made some headway in wiping out the population. However, the flies ultimately won and we headed out towards Elephant's Perch near Stanley, ID. 

We stopped at a gear store in Ketchum, ID to get info on the area. The shop sold copies of route information and the climbing expert gave us info on getting to the climbs, We forgot to ask more questions about getting off the top of the formation, but he made it seem very easy, so we weren't too worried about it...

The last boat left the dock at 7pm from Red Fish Resort, so we booked it to make it on time. Since we were hiking in so late, we needed to take all of our climbing and camping gear with us. This was my first time backpacking in and camping, so I was excited and a little nervous! We got everything ready fairly quickly and rushed to the boat dock with a few minutes to spare. Zach had to take the car to a long term parking lot 1/4 mile away. I carried both our loaded packs to the dock. I only got a few strange looks from the people at the resort. Zach ran all the way from the parking lot and we made it onto the last boat!

Zach sittin' pretty after we caught the boat across Red Fish Lake:)

It was a quick 10 min ride across the lake to the other side, saving us about 5 miles of extra hiking. We still had 3 miles to go after we got off the boat. It was a gorgeous hike and we managed to reach our campsite near a pristine alpine lake just as the sun set. The waterfalls, lakes and steep rock faces were such a gorgeous backdrop to our adventure! We set up our tent, made a quick dinner, and fell asleep in our tent. 

Starting our hike from the drop off point.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to flip this one! Zach with his full pack, hiking to Elephant's Perch.

To save space, I had left my sleeping back and figured I'd be fine sharing one with Zach. About an hour after I fell asleep, I realized, that was not my best idea... I was pretty chilly that night, but still managed to get some rest before we woke the next morning to do our climb. 

Mountaineer's Route is the easiest route up Elephant's Perch at 5.9 and 7 pitches. We decided to try that out first and see if we could take on a harder one the next day. Getting to the route was not to hard, and we were excited to get climbing. I lead every other pitch and started first. It was fun and easy climbing to the first belay. Every pitch had great climbing and fun moves on it! Zach and I both loved leading and following our way up the route. We did a lot of route finding ourselves because the information we had was limited. Instead of 7 pitches, we did it in 8, but that worked out great for us and we each got to lead 4 pitches! 

At the top, we expected a path or something to show us how to get down. Unfortunately, there was no such thing and a giant snowy hillside stood between us and the way we were told to get down. Neither of us were comfortable with the steepness of the snow and we agreed to try and make our way down a different way. This involved a lot of hiking and working our way down slabs, tree filled gullies, and lots of loose rock. It was always safe, just very tedious. It had taken us 40 mins to reach the base of the climb, 5 hours 50 mins to do the actual climb, and over 3 hours of hiking to get back to our tent. We were both tired and out of water when we got back to camp and neither of us felt ready for anything harder then what we had just climbed. So, we slept one more night in our beautiful campsite and then woke up and packed up.

The first boat arrived for pick ups at 9am on our side of the lake. We had already paid for our ride back so we did not want to miss that boat. A quick pack up and we were off, down the mountain. We worked our way as fast as we could down the trail. There is one big river crossing with a makeshift bridge out of fallen trees. I made it all the way across and was taking my last step when my foot slipped off into the chilly snow melt water. Luckily, it was warm that day and my squishy wet foot kept me cool for the rest of our hike/run back to the boat dock. We arrived 7 mins to 9:00 and made it on the boat back to our home! I was so excited to see our van/home!! I know we "rough it" compared to a lot of people, but sleeping in our van is so much more comfortable then the tent! It felt great to be back home and we soaked it up!

Our view from atop Park's Peak.

We took two days off and recovered from our backpacking adventure. Being in shape to backpack in and climb multipitch is something we both decided we want. We have now spent the past week picking out peaks and hikes that challenge us with both mileage and elevation gain so that we can improve our fitness for this sort of hiking/climbing. We did two 10,000ft+ peaks, Park's Peak and Imogean Peak, in two days and covered about 30 miles total. It was hard and I can't say that I loved doing it, but it was so rewarding to finish! I'm excited we were able to do that and can't wait to see what's next! 

We are planning to go back to Elephant's Perch in a week or so when we are in better shape and hopefully, we can climb one of the harder routes:) Until then, we have plans to go climb on "The Finger of Fate" and do a few more peak hikes. We are based out of Stanley, ID an absolutely love it here. They had a kite festival a few days ago that I really enjoyed and it is just a fun town full of adventure! If you need us for the next few weeks, just come find us in Stanley! You'll love it here!

Cobbles, snow, and birthdays, OH MY!

 Zach and I headed from Jack's Canyon to Flagstaff where we found the best campsite! It was just out of town, down a descent road and it was FREE! We saw elk a few times and enjoyed the Flagstaff forest. We were near a dirt bike trail, but it wasn't very busy and everybody was friendly. A sport climbing crag called "The Pit" was just a few miles down the road. It was a pretty easy hike and had some really fun climbing! I was able to onsight a 5.11b! (I climbed it without knowing info about the route ahead of time) We got to go to Sonic and celebrate with a Brownie/cookie dough blaster:) Zach did awesome as well and we really enjoyed the climbing there.

Hiking out of "The Pit."

 We headed down to Sedona, AZ one day to climb a desert tower. It is a really beautiful area and with lovely clouds giving us a reprieve from the sun, we set out to find our desert tower to climb! Our first plan included a 30 minute hike to the climb, but when we got there, the parking was full. So, we found another tower close by. Our directions were from Mountain Project and included things like "when you cross a single track bike trail, make sure you are in the right wash." I learned this trip, a wash is an area in the desert that water flows through during monsoon season. There was no water, so it made for a great trail...for the first part of our trek. Unfortunatly, cacti, trees, rocks, and other obsticals barred our access to the climb. Either we were in the wrong wash, or it is just a really rough final push to the summit. The desert won this battle and we finally turned around. We really enjoyed the hike despite not getting to climb. The weather really was perfect and a lot of the plants were in bloom! It was just going to get hotter in Sedona, so we headed back to our campsite in Flagstaff.

Heading into beautiful Sedona, AZ.

My excited driver!

Zach with an agave plant on our misadventure in Sedona.

The desert was in bloom!

 After doing laundry and enjoying a little more time in Flagstaff, we hit the road for Utah, and hopefully, cooler temps. On our drive, we saw beautiful rock formations, a wonderful sunset, and Lake Powell. We found a free campsite along Hwy 89 and then carried on towards Joe's Valley to check out some boulders. On our way, we passed near enough to Bryce Canyon to get us to go check it out. With our parks pass, the entry is free, making it a fun (and cheap) way to break up the drive. It did start to rain on us part way through our tour, but it made the area green and beautiful. My favorite part was seeing a baby prong-horn antelope and its parents! He was a cute little thing darting all over.

Sunset in N. Arizona/S. Utah.

 Bryce Canyon National Park

Quick pic before the rain moves in!

The hoodoos of Bryce Canyon

Rainy lunch prep:)

Joe's valley was lovely and we enjoyed the climbing, but we quickly decided we were too hot and wanted to check out Maple Canyon a little further north. The drive between the two places was amazing! We even came across the Mammoth Discovery site at over 9,000 feet! It is the highest elevation a mammoth has been discovered and he had died in a muddy area, so his remains were very well perserved. It was a beautiful area and cool thing to stumble across.

Our Joe's Valley campsite.

The Mammoth discovery site in Utah.

Beautiful alpine lake!

After a breathtaking drive through the mountains of Utah, we arrived in Freedom, UT and found Maple Canyon. The camping is mostly reserved online, but we were able to snag campsite #15 for the week. It was the perfect spot to base out of because it was at the start of the trail to most of the climbing we wanted to do! The rock is conglomerate and is basically river stones glued into sandstone.
We had a wonderful time getting back in shape on steep routes! By the end of the week, Zach was projecting "49" (5.12a) and I was working on "Zoaster Toaster" (5.11d)! All the local and out of town climbers we met were wonderful. Tom and Sarah were our neighbors and also traveling for the summer. We hope to meet back up with them in July or August!
Besides steep routes, Maple also has some multipitch sport climbs. We did a 5.9+ at the end of the canyon and enjoyed the spectacular views from the top! For Zach's birthday, we did a multipitch route at night with our headlamps! I only got freaked out by the dark a few times! The shadows we cast on the rocks looked a little freaky, but it was all worth it when we got to the top and got to see the night's sky.
Our other big adventure for Zach's birthday was to hike the North Peak of Mt. Nebo. I keep calling it Mt. Nepo, but maybe someday I'll get it right. It was an eight mile round trip hike from 9,000-11,000 ft in elevation. It seemed doable to us, but also a bit of a challenge! We took up our snow gear just in case the path was not clear just yet. I'm glad we did because about 50% of our trail was covered in snow! I'm pretty proud of us though, because we found our way through the snow, trees, and scree field to the top!! The views were epic and we had a blast doing it!

Zach on the trail!

Taking a quick break:)

Zach on top of the ridge we worked so hard to gain!!!

Summit selfie!

Back to the bottom! Happy Birthday, Zach!!

For a much deserved reward and birthday celebration, we made our way to Oriental Garden in Nephi, UT for a late lunch. It was delicious and we loved the AC:) Zach got lots of birthday love from everyone before we headed back into the canyon and out of service. It was just getting dark as we pulled back in, so the timing was perfect to finish out our day on the night climb!
The next morning we climbed a bit more in Maple canyon, but both of us were pretty exhausted. We decided to head into the town of Fountain Green for lunch at their downtown cafe. It was another fabulous burger and fries meal!
We are now taking the day off from climbing and catching up on laundry, blog posts and working on our videos for the trip! Here is the link to the latest one http://youtu.be/dmZajy2qagI !!

Our first video post:)

Zach made a video of our first few weeks on the road! Check it out at http://youtu.be/zq6iYvCSH0Q !!