Bradley Brights

Part of my birthday present to James was to promise him a backpacking trip.  We had a little trouble finding a date to go, but our trip ended up being such a fantastic trip.  James picked to go to Canyonlands in hopes that we could go backpacking to The Needles District which gets five stars in his beloved backpacking book (which he carries around dreaming about all the possibilities).  

Long story short, because of the shot season of nice weather in this ares, all the permits had been reserved already along with all the campsites, so we ended up at some BLM land called Hamburger Rock.  

The first night we got there so late that all the "established" campsites were taken, so we had to stake out a spot in the "non established" sites.  The weather was so beautiful that we decided to ditch the tent and sleep under the stars.  The idea was to watch the stars, but the moon was so bright that we didn't see as many as we had liked.  

Thomas wasn't so sure about not having the security of a tent the first night, but he found that he really enjoyed it.  

We knew we'd be going on a lot of hiking, so we opted to leave the younger two kiddos at home and just take Thomas with us.  It was so much fun to have one on one time with him.  My sister Jenny came with us as well.  

Our first morning we spent the time doing all the itty bitty hikes looking at interesting things around.  This was an old food storage site for the local Indians.  Think of it as a cupboard.  

Some Indian drawings on the wall.  Thomas is pretending to be an Indian.  

Here's a small creek.  Water is very scarce in this area, so lots of animals come here to drink.  Jenny was looking at a skeleton of a lizard next to the water.  

Here's a grinding stone.

After lunch we decided to venture out and go on a longer hike- 7 miles total.  This area is so unique to hike around because you're constantly climbing rocks and having faith in rock cairns to help you know where to trail goes.  

They are pointing at a very faint rope that was bolted into the rock to help you climb up to the top and over.  

Here's one of many beautiful views along the way.  

Thomas was such a trooper.  He hiked most of the way, but started to give up about the last mile.  Thank goodness dad was able to give him a boost.  

That night we wanted to listen to the ranger program which was inside the park, so instead of heading back to our campground, we parked it next to the bathrooms and ate our dinner.  The food on the trip was one of my favorite parts, not because it was so declicious, but because it was SIMPLE!  We had planned to go backpacking, so our food was fast and filling.  Here we're having noodle cups, which don't normal sound appealing to me, but they were so good that night.  Notice our shoes are all off after a long day of hiking.  

Day 2 we got going early so that we could hike into Chesler Park- the five star hike in James' book.  It was 11 miles round trip and with Thomas' legs, we knew we needed to get going!  

Here's a small slot to walk through.    

This is an example of some "needles."

Up, up, up.  

This is Thomas at the very end of a long day.  Doesn't he look comfortable?  The last three miles the only way to keep him going was to have him discuss all the ins and outs and strategies of his favorite computer game, Command and Conquer.  I had no idea there was so much to know about that game.  

We made it back to the campground finally and started on dinner- instant potatoes.  

We had promised Thomas a fire and finally got to it the last night.  We were all so tired, but really enjoyed the peace and quite of the area.  

I highly recommend that everyone take a couple of days and go somewhere to "unplug."  I loved not having the temptation of looking at my phone or turning on the computer.  It was very refreshing and relaxing.  

Here's a video of the slot canyon we hiked through.  Sorry, I took it sideways.