Hot Springs Adventure

Because I am so lazy, these pictures are not in the best order.... One day I will get it right, but until then, I will just have to stifle my anal-retentive, OCD tendencies. Anywho. Here are some pictures from our most recent trip up north. We took a few days off of work so we could go to Warped Tour in Salt Lake, which was pretty awesome! Because of our bad luck with cameras at the last big show we went to, I just took pictures with my disposable camera, so the pictures from Warped will come up later... As for now, these ones are of Me, Brett, Antonio, Sarah and Natalie (aka the gang) on our last excursion up Spanish Fork Canyon. This one turned out to be a real adventure. Read on...


Chillin in the car. And look at these huge windmills at the base of the canyon! SO COOL!!



Ok, so the hike up to the hot springs was an adventure in itself. We left Sarah's house mid-afternoon and figured we had plenty of time to do what we needed to before going up the canyon. We went to Macey's and bought some hot dogs and treats, and things to make a fire for our dinner. After driving through the canyon a little ways, we got up to a nice spot where we found a campsite to start our fire... We spent quite awhile there roasting our hot dogs and relaxing while we just sat and enjoyed ourselves.

Antonio and Natalie, getting our fire started...


Cool shades, girlfriend!




Natalie kept throwing her diaper wipes off the table and onto the ground, and she was giggling SO much, it was freakin adorable. I just had to get some video of her.


Before we started the hike, Natalie still wasn't quite sure who Brett was, even though he had hung out with us before... She knew my name (Sa-na-na), but by the time we got done with our campfire, her and Brett were buddies. (Come on, Bett!) They chased each other around and had a fun time. He is going to be such a cute daddy!

Here's Mae Mae in my hat and glasses being a goof.

After fully killing the fire (it took Sarah and Antonio a walk down to the river, and Brett an awkward bathroom moment), we finally got back in the car, in search of the trailhead. Since none of us but Sarah had ever been to this place, we weren't quite sure where to find it. It didn't take us too long before we got there, but by then it was probably around 7 or 7:30 at night, and we had a good hour or longer hike...

Here's a cute shot of Natalie cuddling up to Antonio. It was sooo sweet!

On the drive up the canyon, Sarah warned us that sometimes there are naked people up at the springs. My parents had already told me and Brett that a lot of skinny dippers have been known to frequent the area, so we were fully warned. Sarah told us though that they are mostly hippies and weird people, but Antonio kept joking all night that he was so excited for the naked people. Once we got to this bridge, there was no denying it. "Nude Bathers at Springs". Oooh. Haha

We got some really pretty pictures of the river which ran alongside the trail the whole time. It made the air really humid, and the mosquitos were pretty abundant. Here's a good one of Natalie, wrestling away from Antonio. The girl sure knows how to have fun! I loved how red these flowers were!

By the time we got up to the hot springs, it was pretty late. It was getting close to 9 o' clock. There was a small group of people who were leaving just as we got there, so we had the place all to ourselves! There was this huge waterfall which blew me away! It was so pretty, it was the first thing I had to check out!

Me and Brett had fun climbing up the slippery rocks behind the waterfall, and sitting in the little cranny between the rocks and the water. It was SO cool! Not to mention, it was the perfect makeout spot. :-) Here are some pictures of the actual hot springs! And boy, were they hot! There were a few cooler spots, but for the most part we were toasty warm! They were freaking pretty, but they smelled really bad (aparently like Sulphur--however you spell that). It was worth it to sit and relax for a minute though.

The adventure back down the trail was the most thrilling part of our night. When we finally sat in the springs, it was getting dark, and I thought I saw a trace of clouds starting to come over the mountain towards us, but didn't really think much of it. That is, until we heard a loud thunderboom and it started getting even darker. We tried to stay just a minute longer, but once we saw lighting, we were out of that water pretty quick. We threw our clothes over our wet swimsuits, just in time for it to start pouring rain. The drops were huge, and by then it was totally dark, so we were freakin out a little bit. We thought the trail was going to be washed out, and there were some pretty scary parts where the trail was very narrow and the drop down toward the river was steep. Oh, and did I mention that we only had one TINY flashlight for all five of us? Yeah, so it was quite a trip. Fortunately the rain stopped pouring and it only sprinkled most of the way down. Once Antonio stopped trying to freak us out by telling us people were gonna pop out of the woods to kill us, we were able to make enough conversation to make the trip down pretty fast. It had taken us almost 2 hours to hike up, but coming down was only about an hour. Once we got to the car, we sure were glad! The rest of the night was much less eventful and we made it down the canyon just fine.