Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Cottonwood Wash

I love my hiking buddy!
We stole away, to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary, for some hiking in Capital Reef. Our planned hikes were Cottonwood Wash and Burro Wash on the east side of the park.
Starting our first hike with Cottonwood Wash, we headed out in the  afternoon, 3pm, in high 80 degree temps  The first 2 miles were miserably hot as we walked along a wide open wash bed before getting to the trail head.( note to self. Next car purchase needs to be a high clearance vehicle, we could have driven the long 2 miles.)
We were excited when we reached the fun challenging part of our adventure. The next several miles took us in and out of small canyons and slots. We enjoyed the solitude of our route. Not a single soul but us the entire hike. The route we took met us with various barriers to negotiate by climbing, hiking, friction climbing, crawling under one large choke stone, and a lot of sweat. The best part was the quiet alone time, we had to talk and bond along our way.  Just as in our day to day lives, my awesome man was there to help and encourage through the tough parts. I  so blessed to have him in my life.
After our trek back through the way we came the temperature had cooled for the long 2 mile walk through wash. What a fun and amazing hike. At our car we broke open the cooler and gobbled up some ice cold watermelon to hydrate us. We then drove to town and ate at the Rim Rock Inn restaurant,  dirty sweaty and all. Good grub!
Look for more to come from our Burro Wash hike....