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I’ve been thinking that it would be nice to have a 4 seater bike trailer so I could take all of the kids on a bike ride. Maybe something like this would be better. Why just have 4 seats when you could safely and comfortably take 8-10 kids? By my calculations, we could have 6 more kids and still be set. Thanks Failblog!

Last week, I spent a few days backpacking with some scouts in Capitol Reef National Park. The park is awesome this time of year. We had high temperatures of almost 70º F and lows were only in the high 30’s. We even had water in the canyon that is normally bone dry. It was definitely a long hike with some unexperienced scouts. We covered about 10 or 11 miles in two days. I’ve been to Capitol Reef a few times, but I’ve never seen this part of the park. We hiked through miles and miles of high walled canyons that seemed to never end. Even though the main attractions of the park were pretty crowded, we only saw a handful of people in this secluded canyon. You can see from the topo map that you get pretty far in to the backcountry on this hike. You could do this as a long day hike, but I think I would try to spend at least 2 nights next time so I could explore some more of the side canyons.

Just about the whole hike travels through a deep cut canyon. There were only a few pools of water while we were there, but obviously there are some pretty large flows that run through here from time to time.

Most of the trail is downhill following the streambed. There is one section where the canyon makes a series of 10′-15′ drops. You can downclimb those, but the first is pretty sketchy. We used the trail that goes around the drops. Part of the bypass trail cuts across an escarpment that can be just as scary for those afraid of heights (and loose sand and rocks steeply sloping to the canyon below). The scouts work their way across the escarpment (above, left). Paul and I hiked back up to the first drop during lunch. Once we made it around the large muddy pool at the bottom, Paul climbed up the drop just to make sure we could have done it (above, right).

Here are some highlights from the photos from the LDS General Conference that I helped photograph last weekend. There was rain, snow, sunshine, and even a new apostle. My mission president spoke this conference too. Anyway, it will be exciting to see what the Ensign staff uses for the May Conference Report issue. I’ll let you know which photos make it in when I find out in the next few weeks.