The Chute Ride Oct. 1st-3rd

We headed down on the San Rafael after work so we could ride the Chute in the morning. The Chute is where the Muddy River cuts through the San Rafael Reef. Jolene came along and it ended up just being Matt, his dad, Jolene and I. After leaving after work and taking care of the kids and getting the horses, by the time we got there it was really late. The floods over the last four years had really changed all of the roads and we ended up being lost in the dark. We decided to quit driving around in circles and camp for the night. We put our bed rolls out on the ground and I had a hard time going to sleep because it was so beautiful. The desert is soooo peaceful and

Factory Butte

beautiful. There were so many stars I couldn't even find the Big Dipper. I saw five shooting stars!

We loaded up in the morning after we oriented ourselves and could see Factory Butte and headed further up the road to the Muddy. These strange posts were right where we slept. Marcus joked about them being Indian artifacts and I thought they looked like devil worshiper's things. Who knows but it was weird.

This turned into quite the adventure because every time we crossed the Muddy we didn't know if we would sink or not. At one point Marcus was in front of me and the whole ground that he was on started to roll like jelly. He jumped up the bank and we all headed back. We got this far on the trail and we couldn't get any further on the horses because there was too much water. It had been a long time since Marcus had been through. We hope to be able to stay over next time and hike up through the rest of the way.

Lunch under a huge shade tree. It was so hot!

These are some cabins left from the Uranium minors. I thought the wood was really pretty in the setting sunlight.

This trip was Matt and I's 11th anniversary celebration. We both decided that a desert horse ride would always be marriage counseling for us. It just really brings us closer together because everything seems so petty when we are happy and doing something we both really love together. Happy Anniversary Honey!!

Jolene and Ruby Tuesday

These black face rock walls were so amazing...perfectly straight and smooth.

The old ranch house. We were so amazed that this was still standing. Marcus said it looked the very same when he was younger. That chimney was solid.

The tumbleweeds were even in bloom. They had beautiful little flowers on them. The grass blades were probably 6 to 7 feet tall.

We liked these boulders and decided to get a group picture at the end of our weekend adventure. What a great time. Thanks to Grandma Marianne for watching the kids! We even caught the last four talks of conference on the drive home, the rest I will have to read in the Ensign.