Last Summer Outing

Last Wednesday, my family and I decided to go on one last camping trip before it was too cold. We chose to go up American Fork Canyon and camped at a site called Granite Flats. We had a huge campsite and it was beautiful. Lush green plants, trees formed a canopy around our tent site; there were lots of trails that went off in every direction, and then led back to camp. Which was nice so we could let the kids roam a lot. The first night we were there we got invaded by raccoons! The campsite manager warned us to put our food and coolers in our truck, and we did, but we forgot the big cooler. Well in the middle of the night (2:30 am) I woke up to the sound of our cooler opening and shutting. Adam wasn't concerned and thought that they just knocked over some gold fish we left in a cup. So I got the flashlight and headed out there to investigate. Now, I am a total animal lover and was rather excited to see a real 'coon, but it was pitch black outside and Adam had just finished telling me how raccoons are vicious, rabid animals! So I was a bit startled when I got to the cooler to find two huge 'coons staring me in the face, both with a mouth full of loot. A few feet away from them was a bag of some left over KFC chicken we had brought up from dinner. I stood there and shinned the light on them for a while and one took off, but the other held his ground (and his precious chicken breast). It was a gorgeous creature, the mask covered his eyes and connected all the way in the middle over his nose. He was a funny character, I'm sure he couldn't see anything but the bright light on him, but he kept slowly creeping behind the tree that was near him, and then slowly peeking his head out and going back to eating. It was funny, and intriguing to watch him there. But it was still so dark and I was getting nervous. I quickly grabbed the bag of chicken, shoved it in the top of the cooler and covered the cooler with our 5 gallon water cooler. The 'coon didn't budge, even when I passed him to go back to the tent. I was sure he was going to charge me. The rest of the night I couldn't sleep, too worried about 'coons knocking over the water cooler, worried that the smell of the chicken they got would attract a larger animal (mt. lion or bear) and Kaleb heard me come in and wanted to sleep with me. He took up all of my side. I was sandwiched between him and Adam. The good part of not sleeping was that I heard the most beautiful owl hoots not far from our spot. It was awesome. I could fall asleep to that every night.


The next morning we took off on an adventure and hiked to Timpanogos Cave. Adam carried Kaleb on his back and Grace and I struggled behind. I think if I weren't trying to keep my pace slow to stay with Grace it wouldn't have been quite as hard, but I got a great work out! It was an awesome hike, steap, and Grace did the whole thing by herself. We carried her a little on the way down but she really was so tough. We are so proud of her. The scenery was awesome.

The cave was amazing as well. We were all in awe the entire time, even the kids were taken witht he dark cold cave. The tour guide was very nice and patient with Grace, who had a question/comment every 5 minutes, she joked with her and was very good to her. There's no way that I could remember all the details of what we saw and the photos don't do it justice, but here are some anyway...

Cave bacon anyone? (on the right.)

This is the "heart of Timpanogos". Estimated to weigh about 2 tons. Fun, fun experience.We will definitely do it again, maybe not with the kids next time, it was a bit rough for them.

The rest of the day we just played around the campsite. Kaleb and I took a long nap, and when I woke up it was to the sound of romping behind me. I knew Adam and Grace went hiking up there so I thought she had fallen. Then I saw a flash of something go by in the bushes right next to the tent. Later I learned that Grace and he came close to two large deer and they took off by our tent.

Kaleb doing what he does best, getting dirty! Of course when we are camping I welcome the mess. It's good for them :)
Top photo in collage, is Tibble Fork Reservoir, near Granite Flats. Bottom left is a view of the city from the Timpanogos trail.
And to top the night off we invented "Ultimate S'mores", that's what I'm calling them. Grace was eating her reg. s'more and saw the brown roasted part of her mellow and thought it was peanutbutter... A light came on and we tried it out. MMmmmm, mmm, good. Peanutbutter, chocolate, marshmellow and grahm cracker. Delicious.