katmosphere: Camping by the Colorado River!

We went camping at Colorado Bend State Park this past weekend! It was really good to get away - just Joe and I.

It rained some on the way there, but as we drove down the last road to the camp (passing many cows by or in the road), we saw a rainbow and that was the end of the hard rain! Here are some pictures:

Rain and Sunshine

Sunshine

Cow

Rainbow

I officially got the smelliest I have ever been. We hiked for 5 miles in the morning (we lost the trail so many times, it was probably longer) through rougher areas than I've tried before, including some stretches where you had to walk across a narrow (about a foot deep) ledge with cacti-filled drop-offs. We had some minor injuries... my most interesting one was getting three needles from a prickly pear cactus in my shin (we were walking through high grass and I didn't see it... walked right into it - brilliant!). Joe had a SPECTACULAR fall very close to the end of the trail (we were only a mile from our camp), and many people were there to see it (when we'd only seen 3 other people all morning). There was one last creek crossing, and it was heavily used since it was the closest to camp. It was therefore significantly more slippery than the rest of the crossings we'd made. Joe took one step into the creek and his foot flew out from under him and he landed right on his back. No one could believe he wasn't hurt, and I think my heart stopped. I asked if he was okay twice, and then the only thing I could say was "You broke your watch." I didn't know what to do, so I retrieved the broken watch (the band was metal links, and they broke apart). We very carefully crossed the rest of the creek, and Joe realized that his wrist was bleeding, but it turns out that a few scrapes were all the damage done.

We got back to camp, cleaned Joe's wounds, and ate some yummy sandwiches with lots of Gatorade. Then we got in a two person kayak and went up and down the Colorado for a while. Here's some pictures of that:

As I was rinsing off (the shower was outdoors) I saw two young women trying to figure out which way to go. I went over to help and it turned out had hitchhiked in and had just started what they plan to be a month-long trip. They asked for a ride out the next day (when we were leaving), and I agreed to it. That's a whole story in itself... not a bad experience, though. One of the women basically said she had made a lifestyle choice to live this way (traveling around by hitching rides, camping out). By not-so-careful observation, she had also chose to not shave or wear bras. I'm not saying that's bad, I'm just giving you a more complete picture. It did make me sad when she told us that this trip was different because it had a purpose. When asked what that was, she said "to find a lot of good swimming holes." I honestly expected much better. If that purpose was enough to get her excited, her life must truly be devoid of purpose.

Anyway, back to the camping trip. We hiked (with out newfound companions) back to the location of Joe's Spectacular Fall, and the girls found a place to camp. Joe and I hiked farther to another waterhole that didn't have any other people around. Here are some pictures of that (and the hike to it):

Beautiful, yes?

We also had a doe with her twin fawns that were at our campsite every night and morning. The second picture is Sunday morning (very early) when I heard them and decided to stick the camera out of the tent to get a picture.