Day of Reckoning Arrives--We Face Hole in the Rock

4th Ward Trekkers

Steve and I were a part of the Blanding West Youth Hole in the Rock Trek June 2-4.  We drove to Escalante the first day.  The group stayed at Jerry Roundy's camp ground, which was shady and he was so accommodating, and so interested in the Hole-in-the-Rock Pioneers. We stayed in a motel, for which we were mighty glad.   About 120 of us went.

 Steve helped with the cooking, and I helped plan the presentations, and gave one myself at the top of Hole in the Rock.  I told the story of Arabella and Stanford Smith.  I used the her as a metaphor of "holding on and never letting go" related to the Iron Rod.

R. Vaughan Johnson from the Ensign accompanied our group on the trek;  He actually hiked clear to the bottom.  Then he went to Bluff and met up with the Blanding Stake, and the following week went with the Kanab Stake.  Later he met with youth from our group to get followup quotes and ideas for his story.  It will come out July 2011.

We hiked a little over half way down, but it was very steep, and we decided we better make sure we could get back out--which we did successfully.  It was an experience I'd always hoped I'd have, especially after working 3 months straight on the pioneer history blog sites.  I was called as a history specialists just before Christmas, and worked every day on finding and posting pioneer stories on 3 different blogs I created.  We also set up a Stake blog for posting photos, etc. but it was so complicated to use, it wasn't as beneficial as I had hoped.

I got sick by the 3rd day, and didn't have any Vit. C. for fighting off a cold.  We stopped at the Anasazi Museum in Boulder and had hoped to talk to Mike Nelson but he was gone, so just left a note. He is Pres. McKay's grandson and worked at the edge of the Cedar's Museum..

The sage was in full bloom across the 60 miles to the Hole, and also got some great shots of cactus, cows, and hoodoos at Devils Garden.


The kids had lots of fun exploring these sandstone formations, climbing, and hiding.  We had our first meal here.  It was about 16 miles off the mail highway close to Escalante.

Dance Hall Rock and the dance social that wasn't--but the fiddling was good. 

This is the kind of hiking you can expect at Hole in the Rock. Steep, rocky and challenging.

This is the sight I'll always remember. I have a core deep appreciation for those first 250 pioneers who blazed a trail, not only down this impasse, but the rest of the 200 miles to San Juan.