Shimrock + Hogwarts Canyons

This weekend's canyoneering adventures took us to North Wash in Southern Utah. It's kind of become a tradition for us to do one of the Irish Canyons around St. Patrick's Day, hence the shirts and shamrock tattoo sleeves. ;) 

Ginger power!

The first canyon we did was one of the forks of Leprechaun Canyon, aptly named "Shimrock Canyon" due to the amount of shimmying required to get through. This is by far the narrowest canyon I have ever done. Most of the narrow sections were less than 2 feet wide and there were a couple places that were less than a foot wide. Also, these canyons are carved in Navajo sandstone which really rips up your clothes, packs, exposed skin... anything that rubs against it. I have a story about that I might share another day... Maybe. 

There was no way I was going to make it through with my pack on! 

This is where Dallin got stuck and had to back up and try again higher up.

Good thing I don't get too claustrophobic, although I did have a couple twinges of panic a few times. 

Enjoying a wide spot!

This part was really cool. I loved the striped walls. 

Finally through the narrows! Yippee! 

The next canyon we did, Hogwarts Canyon, was just a mile or two down the road. Unfortunately I forgot to wear my Gryffindor uniform. Darn. ;) 

This one was short and sweet. The highlight was this awesome arch. Check it out!

He's cute. :)

See me rappelling?

My favorite!

The final rappel

We spent Easter Sunday with my family and then headed home.

 All in all, it was a perfect weekend... except for the fact that I had to stay up last night working on my seminary lesson since for some reason I thought I already did it... Oops. Thankfully it turned out okay, despite the fact that my students were a little squirrelly. Typical manic Monday, I s'pose. :)

And just because this makes me happy, although it is unrelated...

Happy Monday!