Finding water

Last weekend we left St. George in search of water.  Living in the Southwestern corner of Utah I am amazed that there is any water at all, but there are so many options for water play! When we go camping I tend to prefer not to get reservations in case when we get there we don't feel safe (like there isn't anyone else there) or if I can get a spot closer to the bathrooms or the lake by just driving up.  This method of camping has gotten me into trouble the last few weeks.  

On Thursday I had the boys pack up their backpacks and we prepped the back of the car for Friday night camping! Luckily I didn't have work Friday, but I did have commitments with Thing 1 until 1:00 so we had the car packed (including our freezer chest with plenty of ice) and ready to go.  After he was done we ran over the grocery store and grabbed a few last minute things that I should have picked up on Thursday, but didn't have time and then picked up the 2 littles and headed out of town.

I knew going into our adventure that there was no camping in Pine Valley, but I knew that there was other campgrounds in the area so we could still be close to the reservoir.

 One of the things I am still so grateful that I did this year was to get an annual National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass.  It's $80 for the year long pass and I can get into all the parks for free!!! It has been great to have and it means I can go to Zion for a picnic just for kicks or to Pine Valley to go fishing in the cool water. Well worth it and if your over the age of 62 it's $10 for a lifetime pass...so make your mom/dad/grandma/grandpa get one and do some bonding!

 Here is thing 1 bent over attempting to put together a make-shift fishing pole out of old fishing line, a stick and a sharp rock.  Love these kids!

 From the Pine Valley Reservoir there was this great little  stream that goes throughout the park. The boys had fun walking down the side of the stream and wanted to follow it longer, but I didn't want to get my shoes wet, so I made them turn around...mean mom. I learned a hard truth when we got up to Pine Valley...all those campgrounds that I saw...they are all part of the National Park system and were all reserved...nuts! So we headed off down the road and we will put that one on our list to try again later!

 From what I have been told Veyo Pies is world famous and we just happen to drive past it! We looked at the case together and decided on a Valcano Pie since we couldn't have a wood fire to toast our s'mores on.  The boys were so excited to be standing there in front of all those pies...we almost left with 2 pies, but I won when I reminded them we didn't have a lot of room in the cooler!

The closest body of water to Pine Valley was Gunlock State Park so we headed southwest.  It took me a while to find it because it is such a small little park that just had one little sign, but we found it and the greenery was welcomed.

Thing 2, "I'm the King of the Rock."

 I couldn't get him to open his eyes!

We used this as a diving board.

 It was about this point that we were going to leave for Enterprise Reservoir because it was 4:00 and the people that were at the campground weren't planning on actually camping and there were only 5 sites.  As we were about to leave we noticed that there was one car with 2 girls in it that we hadn't asked yet, so we got super creepy and asked if they were going to stay and to our surprise they were having the same argument! Apparently all our moms taught us the same lesson not to camp if there aren't any other campers, so we camped next to each other and kept each other safe.

 Such a nice sunset at Gunlock State Park.

 Guess who learn how to dive this summer? It was fun to go out for a swim after we had cleaned up the campsite before the 30 minute drive home.  All of us got in the water this time, Thing 3 had been worried about jumping off the dock the night before, but got a little more brave when I jumped in to cool off and clean off some of the sweat from the long night before.

 The water was nice and warm, but so was the ground.  It was tough to fall asleep when your sweaty hot without much of a cross breeze.  All of us had already stripped down as far as we could go and it was still too hot.