Sabbath Group Hike ~ May 8,2010

Our family hiked Hoodoo Canyon yet again this last weekend. We had invited a large group of friends to hike with us and was hoping for nice weather.

We woke up Sabbath to a beautiful sunny day with blue skies....it was so promising! But, not long after breakfast the dark clouds rolled in with pouring rain, sleet, and hail. We tried hard to keep from being disappointed and prayed that by 2 pm that afternoon it would be nice weather for our planned group hike. I didn't want to cancel the hike just because it was raining. Closer to time to take off from our house, we could see patchy blue skies again. Again, our faith was being tested in a small way!

On our way to the trail head where we had planned to meet up with the rest of the group, Jared jumped out to put paper plates up pointing the direction to the trail head. All of us gals had a good laugh watching him try and decide how the paper plates should go.What a good sport Jared was! Finally, reaching the trail head we met up with Uncle Kevin, cousin Sarah, Jonathan, and Hannah for lunch before friends would arrive for the hike.

We ended up an hour later start on our hike, due to a friend's unfortunate car problems (Jared was able to go and rescue him and at least give him a ride to the trail head for the hike). It was still overcast when we took off hiking and a few raindrops fell on us, but we made our trek up the trail. I noticed a lot of the wildflowers blooming last week had already past their blooming stage much to my disappointment, but I knew others soon would take their place as the season progresses. We all had a merry time visiting with friends as we hiked up to the lookout. It was so fun that 6 of our friends still braved the not so promising weather, to come hike with us.

When we reached the lookout, some of us climbed the rocks to the very top of the cliff to take pictures and see the view. As you can tell, we had some fun with the camera again! It is such a beautiful view from way up there!We ended up spending quite some time up there before climbing back down to join the rest of the group waiting below. We were more than ready to all get back and build our campfire to warm up. How come it always seems faster getting back to the cars, than climbing up anyway?

We all ate supper around the fire, roasting our hot dogs and visited some more. Believe me....the fire felt GREAT! There was just a bit cold out with night coming. We ended Sabbath with singing and music around the campfire. There is not a better way to spend time around a campfire than singing!I had fun watching the bats overhead swooping back and forth enjoying their meal of pesty bugs.

After packing up and saying goodbyes, we headed home. Jared and another friend retrieved equipment from home to tow our friend's car back into town. Before they left, our family and friends were blessed to see a beautiful, clear night sky, filled with stars. We stopped to watch as one after another shooting star fell from the heavens...It was such a treat and even more when we noticed faint Northern Lights rippling across the cold night's sky. Such a BEAUTIFUL night! It was one of those nights one could easily stay out and watch the stars all night.

The night turned into morning fast as Jared and our two friends had trouble getting the broke down car off our mountain. What a night for them! Our family finally made it to bed early morning, exhausted, but happy to have shared a wonderful time with friends...We are so blessed to have friends!

So, another fun filled adventure for our family and yet more to come! We are not tired of Hoodoo yet....next hope to backpak it, but this time all the way over to Trout Lake and back.