Skip to main content

Gunlock State Park and Snow Canyon

 Recently we camped at Gunlock State Park. It was just for one night and it was a particularly chilly and rainy one for late April in southern Utah. But that's spring for you. The campsites were really better for RV's and trailers. There was no good spot to set up a tent except on a concrete pad and/or the gravel driveway. When we pointed this out, the camp employee told us we could move some rocks or cactus.😂  They did have electricity and sewer hookups. I really liked the bathrooms which were heated, had flush toilets and had warm water coming out of the tap. We didn't use the showers but that was an option that came with the campsite. We also got warm water from the pump at our campsite. It made me think the campsite water is coming from some kind of hot springs.

That first evening I was feeling pretty grumpy about the weather but my sweet husband set me up with a propane heater, a campfire, and a blanket and we all had fun cooking s'mores--the main reason my youngest daughter goes camping--and I'm not kidding. I got a lot of selfies with my grandchildren. Max was willing to sit on my lap and help me stay warmer.




As mentioned, it rained on us but fortunately it was mostly at night and our tents protected us. In the morning it was sunny for a while and we took a hike up to Gunlock Falls. The falls only happen in the spring and then only in the years when the reservoir gets full enough to spill over. They were cool!




The wildflowers were really pretty:


After the falls, we packed up our campsite then headed down to Snow Canyon State Park. (Stopping in at Veyo's Pies where I was shocked and appalled at the prices--as always--but David bought one for us.) We've been to Snow Canyon a couple of times and it's a very child-friendly and scenic area to visit. On the way there, you can see a few extinct volcanoes. There is a lot of lava rock and a few lava tubes in the park.


Scott and I were celebrating our 35th anniversary on Saturday! Scott wasn't feeling great unfortunately. We're going on a bigger trip later to really celebrate.
We had a good picnic lunch despite the wind because Scott found us a place out of the wind in the Galoot Picnic Area. We did a short hike at Jenny's Canyon--a fun little slot canyon and then we needed to leave.








On the way home, it rained some more and we saw a big 7-car pileup on the freeway--hopefully no one got badly injured. Fortunately we arrived safely home. It was a good trip!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Visiting Susquehanna: The Priesthood Restoration Site

On our way home from Palmyra, we decided to go a couple of hours out of our way to visit the recently opened Priesthood Restoration Site along the Susquehanna River.  This is where we believe that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist which gave them the authority to baptize.  This site also has the restored Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home where Joseph and Emma lived for a year as well as the home where Joseph and Emma lived on their own. We spent a couple of hours there and I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes but we had a long way to go that night.  It's a beautiful setting, very much in rural Pennsylvania.  However, on the day we were there, cars at a racetrack nearby were detracting from the peace and quiet.  I'm guessing that's not as big of a problem on weekdays. The Hale Family was quite well-off for their day so their home was probably nicely decorated with wallpaper and carpet. ...

Book Review: Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy.  Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all.  She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate.  Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in.  Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios.  She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities.  One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not.  Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable.  Wha...

Hansen Family Plot in the Provo Cemetery

On Memorial Day this year, our family went to the Provo Cemetery, as we do almost every year. We spent some time at the Hansen Family plot which contains the grave of my 2nd great-grandparents, Peter and Mary Hansen. They both emigrated from Denmark with their spouses to Utah. My grandfather lost his first wife Ane to cholera on the plains outside of St. Joseph, Missouri, along with three of his little boys within a very short time--about one month. It's a sad story but it's also one of admirable resilience. He brought his one surviving son, Jorgen, to Utah. He married his second wife Maren (Anglicized to Mary) some 9 years later in Utah  She had been married before but lost her first husband at an unknown date. I wish I knew more about her but she left very few records, although I could do more research! Peter and Maren had 6 more children together. The youngest two were twins, Enoch and Ephraim. Ephraim is my great-grandfather and is buried in California. He is the father of ...