Escalante/Wide Hollow Reservoir

At the end of July we went to Escalante with my family and camped at Wide Hollow Reservoir. On our way there, our GPS led us astray and took us on a 50+ mile dirt road. Eric is good at driving fast on dirt roads so he ended up shaving off 1 1/2 hours off the estimated trip time. That was nice. It was actually quite pretty driving on that road. The different elevations brought different landscapes. There was a memorial at one point that continues to impact me. The plaque told a story of a family whose truck broke down at that point on the road, during the winter, on their way to visit some family. The dad started walking the road to find help. The mom became desparate while waiting in the truck with the baby and started walking towards an area with a ranger station to see if she could call for help. She padded her feet with pillows and took off into the woods with her baby. She was later found dead with her body wrapped around her alive and warm little baby. The story is haunting but also displays the love of a mother.

Anywho... onto a lighter subject... it was a blast camping right at the reservoir. The weather was hot and sunny so whenever we felt too warm we just ran over and jumped into the water. Swimsuits all day long - that always equals a fun trip.

One day we hiked to Upper Calf Creek Falls. It was crazily hot hiking in, so the cold water was totally welcoming and refreshing. I only wish I could've bottled up the coolness and saved it for the hike out because oh MY, it was exhaustingly hot.

 The kids both sacked out on the hike out. They were obviously extremely tired, because I don't know how someone could fall asleep in that heat.