Hole in the Rock

Last year we took a trip down to the Hole in the Rock trail, near Lake Powell, with one of Spencer's brothers and a few of his kids.  There are a couple of different trails you can take to see the famous "Hole in the Rock."  One is a fairly mild dirt road that leads to the top of the Hole in the Rock, or you can take an extremely rugged, off-road trail that closely follows the path taken by the pioneers who originally blazed the trail.  Of course, we took the extremely rugged route.  The whole point of the trip, after all, was to test the 4Runner's off-road capabilities.  And they were definitely tested.  The "road" (I use that term very loosely here) was super bumpy and slow and tooth-rattling.  We didn't really know what we were doing or how long the route would take, so we ended up only going about halfway that time, and I remember thinking that I would never need to attempt that trip again.

Fast forward to a year later and with me now 7 1/2 months pregnant, and we set off again to tackle the Hole in the Rock trail.  What?!?  I thought we weren't going to do this miserable trail ever again!  Oh well, this time we were much more prepared.  Spencer is part of an off-road internet forum community and many people on the site will plan off-road trips for other local enthusiasts.  One of the guys Spencer had met previously decided to plan a Hole in the Rock excursion.  He set up the whole itinerary, mapped the trail, found GPS coordinates, the works.  All we had to do was basically show up and try not to embarrass ourselves among these much more experienced off-road drivers.

I debated quite a bit before the trip about whether or not I should go along with Spencer.  I knew how bumpy the road could be, and I wasn't sure if it was such a good idea given my "condition."  But as the day drew near to depart, the weather forecast looked good, I was feeling great, and I really didn't want to spend 3 days and 3 nights by myself at home while Spencer was off having fun.  So it was decided.  We would leave together right after Spencer got off work on Thursday night and come back Sunday (this was March 22-25, I've just been procrastinating blogging about it because I knew it would end up being a LONG post).

The guy who put the whole trip together did a trip report on the off-road forum, which you can read here if you're really interested.  It's much more detailed than what I'm going to share.

The main group left Thursday afternoon, and we were planning on meeting up with them later that night at a campsite, but ended up missing the turnoff for the camp and just camped by ourselves and met the group Friday morning.

Here's our group near the beginning of the trail on Friday morning.

Side note:  All of the camping on this trip was real camping - no running water, no showers, and no toilets.  I was quite proud of myself for being able to camp this way for 3 nights while pregnant.  And I was quite grateful that I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  Really, quite grateful.

To illustrate just how rugged the trail is, let me just point out that we drove the trail all day Friday, from about 10 am to around 8 or 9 pm when we finally arrived at the end of the trail, and the distance we covered was less than 30 miles.  We did stop for lunch and went on a couple of short hikes to break up the monotony, but still, it was a treacherous road and the pace was s l o w.

This is where we turned around last year, about halfway along the trail.

Here's a great overlook on top of grey mesa where you can see part of Lake Powell.

The slow pace actually proved to be quite an advantage for me, because I was able to get out and walk alongside the trail during most of the really bumpy sections.  Walking was much more comfortable than the constant jostling back and forth and up and down on those uneven rocks that made up the trail.

Anyway, we got to the end of the trail well after dark, set up camp, and sat around the fire for a little while before heading to bed.

The next day (Saturday) we hiked down more of the trail that the pioneers took (which is much too dangerous for vehicles to attempt now),

The beginning of the walking trail at our campsite.

Can you imagine bringing wagons up this rocky hill?

packed up camp, and headed back the way we came in.  We were able to go at a much more relaxed pace today because we were going to camp along the trail this time instead of doing the whole trail in a day.  This gave us more time for hikes along the way.

One of the more adventurous hikes, where we had to traverse over a shallow slot canyon with pools of stagnant water underneath us.

Spencer and I are enjoying the view from one of the hikes we took.

The rock formations were so beautiful.

Spencer is taking a break on one of the longer, steeper hikes.

We set up camp that evening along the trail, had a relaxing dinner around the fire, and on Sunday morning we finished up the trail and the group went their separate ways home again.

Once we made it back to pavement, we decided to go with a couple of other drivers to see some old Indian ruins.

I guess we hadn't done enough driving for the weekend, because we also decided to tag along and drive an extra hour to visit Natural Bridges National Monument.

If you look closely you can see an arch in the middle of the picture.  This whole area was down below the horizon line, so if you just drive past you wouldn't even know it was there.

Here I am at one of the overlooks.  I'm holding my hat on so the wind doesn't blow it away.  It was windy.

 I am so glad I decided to go on the trip.  We had a lot of fun together, and it felt good to be out of the house and doing something fun.  Now that we've completed the ENTIRE trail, I don't know if we will feel the need to do it ever again.  But it is a great experience to have.