The Violet Hills

This weekend we did, indeed, end up going camping! It was great.
Saturday morning a few of us got up early to organize the Outfitting building. I basically set up tents for 4 hours, or something. I'm a pro now. It was a little bit tetious, but the end product was a very clean building. I was in charge of setting every single tent they owned up, and checking for holes, making sure all the parts were there, the tent was clean, and all the zippers worked. Other people organized the snowshoes, skis, camping stoves, and everything else. That place is so awesome, because it has everything you could ever want to go on an awesome adventure!!
After that, we all packed our bags, and got in two cars, and headed for the Gos Venture (pronounced GROW-vaunt) River, with Jacob, a guy that works in the kitchen, and really knows his way around. We drove along the river in to the Red Hills, and camped there. We had an awesome fire, and talked for a really long time, telling stories and reciting poetry. Corny, I know, but also pretty awesome.
In the morning it was really foggy and wet, and we drove out a bit, and found a trail head, and just walked up a canyon. The trail disappeared after a bit, and it got even cloudier and rainier, but we just bush waked uphill. We got into this really awesome area that had been burned by a really intense fire, maybe two years ago. The trees were all black, and the soil was too - and REALLY muddy and slippery. There was mud caked onto our boots, adding a few pounds. We just kept on going up, until we got to theses limestone cliffs. I found a way to walk around and climb up, but a bunch of the guys are really into rock climbing, so they climbed the front. It was only about 10 feet tall, or so.

On top it was really cool, because the fog was so dense you couldn't see anything. There could have been an ocean out there, or something, but all we could see was white. We sat there, facing the cloud and eating a snack, and the clouds slowly started to clear, and we could see some trees, and patches of snow, and then the mountains on the other side of the valley! It was really beautiful, and pretty much indescribable.
We found where we were on a map, and saw that they top of a ridge was only about 3000 feet higher, so we hiked to the top. It was really cold up there, and the whole other side of the ridge was solid snow - a few feet of it! There was bright orange lichen on all the rocks, and the view was amazing. It was like a scene out of Lord of the Rings, or something.
Well, we had forgotten to bring lunch, and I was getting super cold, so we headed back down the canyon, through the Lavender Hills, and back to the Red Hills, where our cars were parked. After de-caking our boots, and having another snack, we piled back in the cars, and got back to campus just in time for a delicious dinner!
It was a ton of fun.

This week is our last week of training, and then next weekend I think Ronnie, my roommate, and I will be moving over the pass, to Teton Valley. We'll be working mostly with 1st through 4h graders, it looks like, and we have most weekends off.

I'll upload some more pictures when I get the chance!