This morning we loaded the kids, the rubber raft and a cooler of food in the van and headed up Parley's to Smith-Morehouse. The van made it up Parley's and back just fine - yay!
When we got to the canyon, we drove around the lake, then up to the campground. The streams by the campground roared down the mountain so swollen they almost overflowed. Three or four campgrounds close to stream were blocked off with yellow caution tape and the road further up was closed. I don't think you could go to the trailhead we used to camp by.
We drove back down the bumpy dirt road to the lake and pumped up the rubber raft Mom and Dad bequeathed to us several years ago. This is the first time we've used it. Mom and Dad weren't sure the raft would inflate after all this time, so we bought a patch kit just in case. Despite our concerns, the raft proved seaworthy - not a single leak. The raft says it has a 650 pound capacity, but I think you'd have a tough time cramming more than two people in it. Comfortably, at least.
Jarom and Amber ventured out first. Amber was confused about paddling the oars, but she and Jarom made it back just fine. Cameron and Meagan went out next. Meagan sat so far back, she was in the middle of the raft. David didn't want to go out, so Cameron was nice and went out with me. I knelt most of the time. It's hard paddling while sitting down in a raft, especially with a lifevest on.
Sitting by the lake in a camp chair under the clear blue sky, surrounded by quaking aspen and emerald green pine trees with a gentle breeze blowing across the lake felt heavenly. Snow still capped several mountains in the distance. I heard that Snowbird's ski season closed today. What a beautiful day, though.
As we sat by the lake we munched on grapes, potato chips and baby carrots. When everyone had paddled enough, we squished all the air out of the raft and rolled it up. At 3:00, we headed up to the campgrounds to see if we could use one for a couple of hours. They campground hosts told us we could stay until 5:00. I guess it's a good thing we didn't wait 'til 5:00 to go to the campgrounds!
We found out you can use a campground for the day rate of $7 as early as you want as long as there's a camp site available, but you have to leave at 5:00 pm unless you're camping overnight. Overnight camping is $19 for 1 car. We might have camped overnight, but David's oxygen supplier no longer has vacationers. Not sure how we're going to go on vacation for longer than 12 hours... David may have to switch oxygen providers!
Once we chose a campsite, we lugged everything to the brown wooden picnic table and ate a late lunch of cold fried chicken, potato salad, strawberries and string cheese. During lunch we discovered we'd chosen the only vacant campsite with a damp firepit. An hour and a half and an entire book of matches later (from Caesar's Palace, no less!), we had a roaring fire. After the fire burned down, Meagan and Cameron discovered a triangle of logs that created a little oven that roasted marshmallows toasty brown all the way around.
At quarter to five, re-dowsed our lovely fire and packed up. Back at the lake we walked on the gravel road along back side of the lake. Cameron and Jarom hopped from boulder to boulder along the side of the road. Jarom found a gigantic ant he named "big executive ant" and snapped a photo of it. At the end of the road, thousands of gallons of water gushed down the cement spillway in a light brown waterfall.
Eventually, we meandered back down the road to Oakley. We stopped at the little convenience store planning to get drinks or ice cream, then I realized it was already 6:30 and we were starving. On the way up, we noticed a diner in Oakley made from a traincar, so we'd stop there - til I saw the prices. Something like $8 for a sandwich. We changed our minds and drove to Park City and ate a Wendy's.
I don't think the Park City (Kimball Junction? David claims it's Kimball Junction) Wendy's gets much action most evenings, at least not inside. They had 3 adults running the drive through and one rather flustered teenage boy running the counter. He did a pretty good job dealing with us all. I think it's the 6 of us ordering all at once that really threw him.
With our bellies full of tasty food, we raced down Parley's, seeing if we could get home before David ran out of oxygen. Actually, it wasn't that bad. If we'd taken the turn off to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for fireworks rather than going home, David's oxygen would have run out before the fireworks were over, but David still had about 1/2 hour of oxygen left when we got home. We made it home about 8:30 and by the time we unloaded everything, it was almost 9:00. David and I were tired, so we stayed home. I passed out on the bed not too long after 9:00.
I promised the kids we'd go to Grandma and Grandpa's on the 23rd for fireworks - unless I'm recovering from surgery. If that's the case, maybe just David and the kids will go. Unless I go to Mom and Dad's to recover from surgery - then I might already be there...
1 comment:
sounds like you had a wonderful day. i'm so glad you got to get away and relax. what can we do to help w/meagan's wedding?
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