The Maple Canyon Adventure

Lately I have been feeling very grown up. The Robertson's decided to graduate and move away so my nearest family lives FIFTEEN whole minutes away. Slowly being cut off, you see. Being a grown up is hard work. I actually make my own food, hang out with my friends on a regular basis, and buy my own dinner at restaurants, all things I never did when my sister still lived in Provo-town.

To celebrate my newly-minted grown up status I came up with the logical idea of planning a get-away to Goblin Valley for me and all my friends. Great idea, right? The answer is no. Apparently I am just not cut out for planning anything remotely major. I managed to sleep in, lose my keys, have a melt down, and buy generic marshmallows which all melted together, all before we even left the house. 

Event planning is not in my future. 

Luckily, Logan, Elise, Kristen, and Emma kept it together. We rallied at around 9:30 AM on Saturday and changed the location of our trip to Maple Canyon down in Moroni, UT. 

Such a good idea. 

It was just so liberating to roll around in the dirt, eat bags of Twizzlers, and climb all. weekend. long.

In order to fully reap the benefits of the "Maple Canyon Experience", one must adhere to the four C's.

Camping, Climbing, Canyoneering, Churching.

Maple Canyon has many places where you can camp. It's only 8 dollars a night and if you're me you  will somehow get away with only contributing 1 dollar. A gurgling stream will gurgle cheerfully all night long as it runs about 2 feet away from your tent. If you feel like this would bother you, bring ear plugs. 

It gets real cold-like at night so bring fuzzy socks, sweaters, and a blanket poncho. (If you do not own a blanket poncho I suggest you go purchase one at your local thrift store. Or take an old rug and cut a hole in it so you can stick your noggin through.) 

Food. You may want to pack something besides uncooked pasta and Oreos. 

Tent. Five people have a difficult time sleeping in a three person tent, in case you were wondering. 

Facilities. There is a very clean and very fresh smelling outhouse up the road from the camp sites. It is also possible to just go in the woods somewhere, as long as Logan the Leave-No-Trace police doesn't catch you. 

Kristen and I took this picture from the safety of the car. 

Siamese poncho buddies. We were so good at avoiding helping in any way. 

The climbing in Maple Canyon is world-famous. So famous in fact, that pretty much nobody has ever heard of it. But according to the climbing forums on the Internet, it really is famous across the globe. Climbing here is unique because the rock is conglomerate, meaning that there are a bunch of boulders and rocks cemented together to make one giant, bumpy, wall. Hint: At first you will be scared that the wall will fall apart, then you will get super comfortable, and then rocks will fall on your head. Nothing is more terrifying than your hand hold falling out while you're on a multi-pitch climb. Learn from my mistakes and use caution. It would also be beneficial for you to make sure that both the belayer and climber are wearing helmets.

We climb! 10 points for Hufflepuff for being so hardcore! 

We decided last minute that we wanted to do some extra exploring before we took the trek back home to Provo-land. When you go to Maple Canyon I implore you to check out Box Canyon. It is on the right side of the road as you drive in and is huge. Even Elise noticed it, and she is not well-known for being observant. Box Canyon is very deep and winds around with different caves and rocks to explore and climb on. Apparently if you go far enough, the canyon gets more technical with repels, a waterfall, and all that jazz. I am definitely coming back because A) the acoustics in this canyon were off the hook (We were actually singing about Gollum fairly loudly when other hikers past us) and B) I greatly desire to finish this canyon.

I love conglomerate rock! 

If you come to Maple Canyon, please please PLEASE be aware that rocks will fall out of the sky and make you poop your drawers. But really... be careful. 

We scrambled up to this cave only to realize that it was a latrine for a colony of birds. 

And churching. Elise woke us all up 5 minutes before it started in a panic. People were brushing their teeth in the car, eating pretzels for breakfast, and changing into their Camping-Sunday-Best. The Jeep was flying down the country roads when we noticed a commotion up ahead. It was a giant herd of sheep out for a Sunday stroll. Definitely a highlight of my life.
We got to go to sacrament meeting in the bustling Metropolis of Moroni and I am 97.3% sure that everyone in that town was there. We came in late, looking and smelling like we had just woken up in a tent. People looked fairly disgusted but we just whipped our campfire hair at them and sat down. Overall, a very pleasant affair.

This herd paid us no heed. But why should they? Such balla animals. 

We are dirty and my skirt is obviously very see-through. 

This was a poor attempt at trying to write a post that was reminiscent of those brochures that one could find at the now extinct travel agencies. Did it work? Not really, but one must fluff their feathers in order to spread their wings. (hehehehehehe....what?)

Go to Maple Canyon! Sit in dirt! Eat crappy food! Climb! And don't forget to go to church!