Off to a good start

Well, I feel like this new year is off to a good start.  Zac and I have been keeping pretty every weekend. I am pretty excited that we have finally got things going on our back patio!  Zac told me once the garage was done we would work on it. Well the garage is done and its time to work on the patio! We originally thought we were just put up a pergola but then decided on doing a covered patio to make it a more usable space. We talked about it on Friday night and on Saturday we started building, today is Sunday and its done! Well just the covered portion not the whole thing….we aren't THAT good.

 Getting everything into place

 Hubby design

 We decided on a metal corrugated roof

Zac set up the BBQ and my "bar" so we could see how it will look….and of course Hudson was a lot of help.  Cindy and Steve bought me those wine barrels and the redwood slab for my birthday last year and they have been sitting in storage just waiting to be used! I am so happy that I will be able to use them soon.

So our next project for the patio will be placing bricks.  When we moved into our house there were a ton of bricks in the back yard that had been from the previous fireplace.  I thought the best way to reuse them would be to make a patio out of them…so they have been sitting in our backyard since we moved in.  Finally we will get to put them to use.  Tomorrow we will be looking for a fire pit.  Zac wants to make it himself (big surprise) so we need to find some materials that will work.  Originally I wanted a wood fire pit, which I admit I still kind of want one but with the covered patio it just makes more sense to have a gas one.  If we did the wood fire pit we would either have to move it outside the roof OR build some type of a chimney. So a gas fire pit is the way to go.  We also might start the form boards for the sand (what the bricks will be placed on). We'll see how it goes. 

Once we get those things checked off our list we will need to work on fences.  The original fence that we placed is not only about 4 feet tall because of the amount of dirt we had to bring in for the garage.  So that means we need to build a retaining wall and lift the fence up a bit.  Also, the area behind the "bar" is going to be Zacs storage area so we will be needing to hide that. We plan to do some horizontal fencing which I think will look very nice.  Once that is all done it will be ready to decorate and enjoy! I can't wait to sit out there on warm summer nights and enjoy the fire and the smell of the BBQ!

We still have a whole other area to deal with on the house side.  Originally Zac and I thought we would make it a deck. However, we did a little more chatting and decided that we would LOVE for it to be a little vineyard! I mean we live in Sonoma county so why not? I think we would really enjoy trying to make our own wine and I love the look of vineyards so I think it would be a great way to use the space.  Its weird that we have added all these large things to our property: a 24 x 40 garage, a 24 x 70 driveway, 1500 sqft of lawn and a 20 x 20 patio area and it makes it feel BIGGER? How does that work?

Anyways, its a big difference from what we started out with. Ill have to do some updated before and after pictures.  This house just keeps getting better and better. 

These warm days have been getting me excited for summer! When Zac and I aren't working on the house we have been going on hikes, wine tasting and bike rides.  I have also been working on updating our master bathroom. That is on pause now that the patio area is full steam ahead but I will get back to it soon enough. Hopefully I can get a little better at my blogging as well because I feel like Im getting behind and I know Ill regret it.  It is so much fun to look back at all my old posts and see what I was doing years ago. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

The drought

We already only have two weeks left of January and the first month of 2016 is over with! It goes by so quickly. Everyone was so concerned about the drought that we were in but its been raining….a lot. Im happy to have the rain but it can make your days off more limited with the things you can do. 

I am still sitting here in bed on a Sunday morning.  Its very cloudy outside and you can see some sprinkles of rain in the left over puddles from the day before. Zac brought me some hot coco in bed and I thought this would be the perfect time to catch up on some blogging.  Zac and I decided to go over to storage and move the barracuda to our new garage.  On one of our non rainy days we took her out for a drive.  I had found a "cheese trail" where you go around to different places that make chess and you can taste and buy them.  We actually only ended up going to one called FreeStone. We were able to try a few cheese and then saw that they made crepes! So of course we had one cheese crepe and one Nutella crepe. Yum. After that we drove around to some more places but some seemed closed and some were at actually dairies.  So we hit up the Hop Monk in Sebastopol because we have had their cheese plate before and its amazing!

Driving around in that car makes me excited to one day fix it up how it deserves. The nice thing about it, is that it drives. You can just get in it and go.  I know a lot of project cars aren't so lucky. So for now she is safe and sound in the new garage waiting in line to be worked on. 

As I mentioned we have had a lot of rain in the schedule. Yesterday was no exception. So Friday night when I got home from work I suggested to Zac that we try and find some snow for Hudson to play in. He liked my idea so we did a little research to see where we could take him.  All the snow right now is about 3 hours away….a bit of a drive, but we really wanted to take Hudson.  So saturday morning we were up and ready to drive to the snow.  It took us exactly 3 hours but we were lucky enough to not it any traffic and the weather wasn't to bad to drive in.  The first place we stopped they were charging people to come in and use their sleds…we told them we just wanted to let our dog run around so he gave us a few suggestions.  We did a bit more driving and finally found a road that had not been plowed, so we knew only 4 x 4s or vehicles with chains would try and make it down the road (which means less people). We wanted to let him off the leash to run free in the snow!

So we walked up the road a bit and unhooked his leash.  Its funny how he has changed in his older age. When he was a puppy he would of taken off! But now that he is older he doesn't move as fast and stays pretty close to us the whole time. He also preferred to stay in the tire tracks instead of hoping around in the deeper snow.  He had so much fun! At one point he laid down in the snow and was just eating it. He was in his element. If he only knew we drove all this way JUST for him! It didn't take long to wear him out. Once we were done for the day we walked back to the truck and he hopped in and slept the whole way home.

My cute little family! So today is another rainy day. Zac and I are probably going to clean the house and then we might head out to our winery to do a tasting.  Like I said, this weather can really limit the outdoor activities but we are still trying to have some fun!  Tomorrow Zac is back to work.  I am going to be getting together with my girlfriends to do our own mini Christmas. I know we are already in the new year but things have been so busy this was the first day we were all able to get together.  I have a little surprise for them tomorrow night and Im excited. Hope they like it!

Well I should probably get out of bed and help my husband pick up the house! Hope everyone else has a good weekend!

2016

Well, just like that 2015 is over and we are 4 days in to the new year!  I must say that I absolutely loved 2015 it was an amazing year for me! When I look back over the year at all my adventures it makes me happy and I can't wait to have even more. I think that 2016 is going to be even better (if thats possible).

So to catch everyone up on everything we will start with Christmas.  For the very first time in my life I hosted.  I was a little concerned if I could pull it all off because all I have to compare it to is my mom….and she puts on AMAZING Christmas' each year.  It was so nice to have my family up here at my house this year.  It was also very nice because my dear sweet husband had to work on Christmas day so I was able to spend that time with my family.

My parents came up early.  I was working my last day and then headed home to relax for the next few weeks!  On the 23rd my sister was flying into Santa Rosa, I felt lucky that I didn't have to drive all the way to San Francisco or Oakland to pick her up….especially because her flight ended up being delayed!  She was suppose to get in at 10:45 and we didn't end up picking her up till 12:45 (way past my bedtime).  

Before we knew it, it was Christmas eve day.  We layer pretty low and didn't do much.  I had made sure to get ALL of my grocery shopping done before my family came up because I did not want to go out in all that holiday madness! So I thought that it would be a good idea to spend Christmas eve with the whole family.  It was Zacs last day before heading back to work so we planned to go over to his parents house for dinner.  We had such a good time spending it with everyone.  I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be part of a family that makes me feel like their own.  I know a lot of people marry into families and don't get along with them. That is not the case for me. 

So after stuffing ourselves full of delicious food and talking the night away we thought it was time to head home! I think we didn't end up getting home till maybe 9:30 or 10:00. Not to late but with Zac having to get up early for work AND still needing to open his presents for my parents it was time to get going.  My favorite part of Christmas is watching other people open their gifts, its so much fun!

After enjoying our Christmas together we had a few more days before my parents and sister left.  My mom and dad left pretty early on Sunday the 27th and my sister left Monday the 28th.  Before my sister left we were able to head over to Kunde ( mine and Zacs winery) to enjoy a small tasting.  I still feel like being a member of a winery is kind of a waste of money but I must say we sure take advantage of it a lot so maybe its not as bad as I think! Everytime I get to go there I just love it, its so beautiful. 

And just like that before I knew it Christmas was over.  It was time for Zac to come home and enjoy the new year! Now, Zac has worked the last few new years….probably for 4-5 years. I say that because I can't remember seeing him for that many years.  For some reason this year he was suppose to work but the stars aligned and he was able to get it off! Lucky me.  We didn't make any big plans for new years eve but we were able to spend some QT together and ended up going on a hike earlier that day.

 We were headed over to Calistoga that morning for some breakfast and thought might as well head up the mountain for a hike.  It has been pretty cold these few weeks and so we were prepared for a cold hike.  Cold hike = Huddy hike.  I have read about this hike before but have never actually done it.  I always like to take Hudson whenever I can but he needs cooler temps or water along the way.  Since it was only like 40 degrees out I figured this would be a great hike for him to go on without getting to hot.  The total hike was about 8.5 miles for us.  I think if we would of gone up to the north peak it would of been about 10 miles total.  We were surprised that when we hiked around to the east side of the mountain we found some snow!  We haven't had snow up on St.Helena in a LONG time….maybe since the last time Zac and I had a new years together. So I was excited to see it.

After our hike we were happy to warm back up in the truck.  It was already about lunch time and since we were in Calistoga we thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of food we don't get over the hill.  Busters.  Nothing like some warm BBQ after a cold hike!

We headed back home to get ready for our "Big" new years ( aka try and stay awake till midnight).  We barely made it to be honest and as soon as that ball dropped we had our new years kiss and headed to bed!

To start our new year out we layed low.  We thought it might be fun to do a date night in the Barracuda so we picked her up at storage.  We needed to bring her over to the new garage anyways so it was perfect.  Every time I see that car I love it even more.  Even though it is old and crusty and needs to be restored its still a fun time. So my hubby took me to go see a movie ( the new star wars) which I loved and then we thought we would do a late dinner.  After the movie we drove out to Sonoma and had dinner at the Girl and the Fig. I had heard a lot about this place but had yet to try it.  They were open till 11:00 and we probably got there around 9:00. The place was packed.  We maybe waited about 15 minutes before they sat us.  The food we got was good but nothing special.  I felt like it was a bit overpriced. It was still fun to go out on the town!

We have had a great start to our new year can't wait to see whats to come!

Christmas Party

Well, last night I had my 4th Christmas party with my office.  This year we headed over to John Ash for dinner.  It is such a beautiful venue, but I might be biased because thats where Zac and I had our wedding.  We had to work yesterday but only a half day.  Then we headed home to get ready and back to the office for some wine and to open our secret santa/white elephant gifts.  

I feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing office.  We have a really great group of people right now. I think we ended up getting to John Ash around 7:00 and probably stayed until almost 11:00.  We closed the place down.  

Now that the party is over we have two more days of work and then we will be off till January 5th.  Its hard to believe that 2015 is going to be over soon.  Its been quite the year, one of my favorites!  Im hoping that 2016 will be even better!  

My family is going to be coming to our house for Christmas this year.  It will be our first time hosting Christmas at our house. I feel a little overwhelmed that everything will go smoothly but luckily its my family and I know we will have fun no matter what.  My parents are going to be driving up on Tuesday and I will be picking my sister up from the airport here in Santa Rosa on Wednesday.  As for Thursday ( Christmas eve) we are going to be spending it with the Fleckners.  Zac has to work on Christmas day so I thought it would be nice for all of us to get together.  

Well, I know this is a short post but once I got going I kinda realized I don't have much to talk about. So Merry Christmas everyone!

The Smith

Well, the hubs and I just recently got back from a wonderful trip to the Smith river.  We fell in love with this place when we were there in January and knew that we would be going back one day, we just didn't know we would be lucky enough to go twice in the same year!

Who knew that November would be our vacation month.  I usually think of summer as the time to head out on vacation but for us it was November and I must say it worked out well.  Just a lot of driving weekend after weekend.

So I was able to only work a half day on Friday, Zac came to work to pick me up and we headed up north.  The Smith river is practically on the California/Orgeon border so it took us a solid 5 and a half hours to get up there.  The cabin that we stay at is in a small town called Gasquet ( which I learned is pronounced gas-kee).  Zac and I had planned to drive up Friday, fish Saturday, relax Sunday and then head back home Monday.  A few days before we left on our trip Zac told me that he had booked us a guided fishing trip, I was pumped! The last time we were up we fished for two days and didn't get ONE nibble! Hopefully this time would be different.

I think we arrived at the cabin about 6:40.  They have two options to get to the cabin. Last time we were up we drive our truck right to the cabin which takes a little extra time because your on a dirt road up the mountain and then all the way back down to the ranch.  This time we decided to take the bridge!  The have a small bridge that you part your vehicle at and then a little golf cart comes and picks you up to take you to your cabin. It worked out perfect for us.

We cooked dinner once we were settled in and headed to bed fairly early because we would be up early to head out on our fishing adventure.  I had been keeping an eye on the weather since we booked our trip.  I was hoping that it wouldn't be pouring rain on us…..and we lucked out. It rained up until we arrived and then Saturday it was pretty much dry and then Sunday and Monday was back to raining.  It worked perfect for us.  

So Saturday morning arrived and the alarm went off at 5:00!  We were up, getting ready, eating breakfast and dressing warm! It was still dark out when we left the cabin to meet our guide.  Of course that always makes me a little nervous because I don't like being in a boat when its dark but before we knew it the sky started to lighten up.  We met our guide at the local (only) gas station in the town of Hiouchi.  The first thing I noticed on his boat was the paint job….it had bananas painted on it.  If you know anything about fisherman they can be very superstitious….and having bananas on your boat is a no go. It made me smile.

We hopped in his truck and we were off!  We launched the boat with a few other people.  It was so interesting to listen to Mick (our guide) talk about how the weather looked, how the water looked, just constantly checking things out.  He has been doing this a LONG time!

So for those of you who don't know we were in a drift boat.  Bascially a boat with no motor that just drifts down the river.  Mick had a set of oars that allowed him to guide the boat and slow it down when needed.  You could tell that this was going to be a very relaxing trip.  Nothing that he was doing was rushed.  He took his time with everything but I think thats what helped us get on the fish!  It was cold out when we first started, mostly because of the wind….although if you're around Mick you don't talk about the "W" word!  Lucky for me he had a nice little heater that ran off propane and when the "W" word wasn't blowing it out it kept me nice and toasty!

As we drifted down the river we tried a few different types of bait and types of fishing.  The first fish we hooked was a small trout which its always fun to hook a fish but we were going for the BIG guys!  The next fish I caught was a salmon, but it was a silver salmon which you aren't allowed to keep so back into the water to live another day.  Zac was the first to hook up to the king salmon.  Even though I didn't catch it I was just happy to have a fish on the boat!  The drift boat trip wasn't free so we had to make it worth it by actually catching some fish! After the high of Zac catching his fish the pressure was on for me.  However, I told Zac I was going to hold out to catch the big fish.  And I did.  As soon as I started to close my eyes I heard Mick saying "HIT IT! HIT IT!" and I set the hook!  He put up a pretty good fight and before I knew it he was in the net and Mick was giving me a high five! I was so excited.  I could of stopped right then and there but we ended up drifting down the river until dark! It was a fun and successful trip!

Our boat and Mick our guide for the day

 Zacs little baby fish 

 And mine :)

When we were done fishing for the day all I was thinking about was the hot tub! Did I forget to mention that our cabin on the river has a deck with a hot tub? Its heaven.  So a little hot tub, a little food, some Srubs (we're been re-watching all the seasons) and bed. It really was the perfect day.

The next day we woke up to some wind and rain but we were warm in our cabin. We tried to sleep in as much as possible before getting up to make breakfast.  Today was going to be our day to do nothing. And thats exactly what we did….oh and watch a Christmas movie. Before we knew it our trip was over and Monday had arrived.  We got up pretty early so we could head home to Huddy! Its always fun being able to come home to him. Thanks for another amazing trip Smith river! Until next time!

Already?

 Well, its still hard for me to believe that Im sitting in my living room right now and there is my Christmas tree. Where did the time go?  So after are busy Thanksgiving holiday we decided that we would go pick out our tree on Monday. Pretty much because it was the ONLY weekend we would be able to do it.

The thing about heading up to the mountains to get your tree is that you have to be available pretty much ALL day.  It takes a few hours to drive to Lake Pillsbury, get up the mountain and then find the perfect tree!  The first year that we went it was cold but sunny, second year there was snow everywhere and last year it was pouring rain so I was wondering what the weather would be like for this years trip.  I had a friend who was up over the weekend and she said there was some snow but as we drove up I could see a little white on the mountain tops but not much.

We probably left our house at around 7:00.  Pretty early for a day off but we wanted to try and get home to make sure we could still put up the tree and the christmas lights on the house.  One we reached the lake we were met with a herd of elf.  I am always surprised that every time I go to Pillsbury I see them but I guess if no one is hunting them they are okay just hanging out in the open.

This year we decided to bring Hudson with us. Its hard to believe that this is his first year picking out a tree with us bit the last few times we have gone it has been with Zacs family and his brother usually brings their dogs which Hudson doesn't get along very well with.  But this year was his year!  We let him ride inside the truck because it started to rain on the way up. Plus he doesn't bark as much when he is inside the truck.  When we finally made it up the mountain we found a spot and thought we would take a look around.  We didn't have much luck finding a tree but it started snowing on us and it was just beautiful.  There is something about being up in the mountains and its so quite but you can hear the sound of the snow hitting the leaves.

No luck at our first spot so we hopped back in the truck and headed to our next spot.  We ended up riding a tree.  I must say it isn't the most attractive tree that we've had but it was all worth it just for the experience.  My favorite part was being able to see my sweet Huddy run around in his element.  He has really become such a good dog.  He would run out of sight just doing his own thing and then Zac would give a whistle and before we knew it he would come running through the trees to come check in with us.

After we found the tree we loaded it in the back of the truck and it was back down the mountain to get everything set up! Hudson was passed out in the back of the truck! Im pretty sure he slept most of the way home.  Once we got back to our house it was GO time.  I stayed outside a bit to help Zac with the lights.  Our new garage is pretty tall so I wanted to keep an eye one Zac with his ladder.  When the lights were on outside we moved inside and while Zac took it easy I worked on the tree.  I had to be careful where I put certain ornaments because not all my branches had the strength to hold them up…..my poor charlie brown tree.  But, its up and we are all ready!  One of my favorite things about the holidays is Zac sets everything up on a timer so when I get home the lights are on outside, the tree lights are on inside and the heater is on warming up the house. Its a nice way to come home!  So now we are trying to get the house back in shape before we are off again for our next mini vacation! We sure have been busy and I don't think it will stop until the holidays come to an end.  Hope y'all are enjoying the holiday season and can pick out a beautiful tree!

 My cute little family!

The new garage with all her lights! (Thanks hubby for working so hard to build a beautiful shop and give it electricity!)

My Adventure

It happened.  We went on our trip! I am still kind of shocked that it actually happened because it was booked so far in advance and that is always sketchy with the weather.  Especially backpacking in November. 

So just to back track on things, for some reason I got it in my head that I wanted to go on a backpack trip to Havasupai.  My dear sweet husband for some strange reason agreed to my crazy idea and back in August we called and booked our trip. If you know anything about Havasui then you'll know that you have to book it pretty far in advance, cause the permits go quickly.  Of course when we called the only available time was in November but I wanted to go so bad I told Zac to book it!

After we booked our trip I went into research mode.  I knew all the ins and outs of the entire trip that we would soon be taking.  I read blogs, looked at photos and read everything on google that I could.  I was ready.  Now it was time to wait a few months and if the weather would allow it, we were going!  

So everyday since we got our permits I was checking the weather.  I had some good days where I got excited that everything was going to work then a week later there might be rain or snow….it was all just up in the air.  I knew it was going to be cold no matter what so Zac and I started prepping by purchasing all our warm weather clothes.  Finally about a week before our trip I checked the weather and the stars aligned.  God answered my prayers and for that short 3 day period that we were going to be there it was going to be in the mid 60's! I know that doesn't sound THAT exciting but when you have been waiting for so long for a trip its the little things that matter….like having decent weather.

Saturday arrived and it was time to leave for our trip!! Our packs were all ready to go and we had a suitcase for after we left Arizona.  We would be doing a lot of driving.  Northern California to Arizona and then back to southern California and finally home to northern California. Zac got off work that morning and not long after he got home we were all packed up and hit the road.  It probably took us about 11 hours to get to our hotel in Arizona.  We decided to stay at Peach Springs which said it was about 2 hours from the trailhead however it ended up only being about an hour.  If any of you are ever planning on making the trip I would NOT recommend staying at the hotel in Peach Springs. It is the only one and it is RIGHT next to the railroad tracks.  Its never a good sign when you check in and they hand you ear plugs…..red flag. And that damn train goes by like every 15-20 minutes! It wouldn't be SO bad if they didn't honk that train horn every time they went by.  So obviously our sleep wasn't the best.  

The next morning we were up at about 7:00 and headed down to the lobby for our breakfast.  It seemed strange that all the sudden we didn't hear the train…..but thats besides the point.  I was so excited and nervous and just ready to get there that I wanted to just skip eating all together but doing a 10 mile hike requires having some fuel to work with.  After breakfast we packed up our room and headed out for the trailhead.  The road to Havasupai was very straight and flat so I think we drove a little faster then the speed limit.  That two hour trip only took us an hour and before we knew it we were there!  From all the research I had done I knew that the parking could be limited and we might have to park on the side of the road and walk to the trailhead.  We were going during the "off season" so we found a spot fairly easily and got out into the probably 40 degree weather.  

The view was just beautiful.  I could just not believe that we were actually there.  So I think by about 10:30 we were on the trail headed down into the canyon.  I was a little nervous because although I had heard that the trail was fairly easy I knew that the first mile was switchbacks down into the canyon.  We started off going pretty quickly and just like that we were at the bottom.  The hike is easy but I will give a couple words or warning. 1) I think we went a little to quickly down hill and my poor ankles were struggling towards the end of the hike. 2) Although an easy hike the whole trail you are pretty much in a riverbed so you have to watch your steps with the soft dirt, sand and rocks.  While we were hiking I kept thinking what perfect weather we had. You just couldn't ask for better weather. I couldn't imagine doing this hike in the summer it was probably sunny and 50 degrees and it felt perfect!

As we kept hiking we were running into quite a few people who were hiking out. Everyone was very friendly and greeted us as we walked by.  We also ran into a few mules and some dogs.  I know the mules seem like such an easy way to enjoy the trip.  All you do is pay extra money and have them carry in your pack so all you have to do is hike….but these poor mules.  I could not help but feel sorry for them.  They didn't seem to be taken care of very well and I can't imagine it can be that good for them running up those rocky trails all day.  If you do feel the want to go on this hike I suggest packing in all your own things or taking the helicopter in ( of course with an additional fee).  You can stay at the lodge they have in the Supai village but with just walking through the village I wouldn't recommend it.  The campgrounds and waterfalls are easy to enjoy but the village is pretty dirty, you almost feel like you are in a third world country.

Anyways, as you get further along on the hike the walls of the canyon get higher and higher and you start to see more greenery.  Once you have reached the 8 mile marker you are just getting into the village. as mentioned earlier nothing to see there.  As you walk through the houses and the "rodeo" area you finally reach the office where you can pick up your permit.  Lets hope that you have one otherwise that is quite the hike for nothing.  However with my research I have heard that you can show up and if you do NOT have a permit they will charge you DOUBLE the fee and let you in. I, however was not willing to test that out.  By this time both Zac and my feet were hurting pretty bad I was wondering if I would be able to make it an additional two miles to our campsite. As we powered through and finished walking through the village we came to our first waterfall….Little Navajo Falls.  It looked JUST like the pictures, that green blue water was amazing.  It almost looks like someone had put food coloring in the water.  It got our minds off our feet for a second but we had to keep going!

Before we knew it we could hear the rumble of water.  It MUST be Havasu Falls! As you are hiking in you come right on top of the falls.  We both stopped to look and again it met our expectations! It was beautiful.  How were we in the middle of the desert and there is this beautiful oasis. 

It was time to find our campsite for the next few days.  Now again with all the research I had done I heard that you would want to find a campsite on the east side of the canyon because you would get a bit more sun.  They were right. We crossed over a bridge and found a lovely waterfront campsite by the river.  Our first morning there we got a bit of sun and it felt wonderful.  But back to our first night.  We didn't end up eating lunch but instead we made two dinners.  After burning all those calories eating two dinners was easy! Plus we enjoyed one of the two bottles of wine I carried in (totally worth it).  There are no campfire allowed so when the sun set it was off to bed but luckily we were tired from our long hike and ready to rest our poor feet!  I didn't sleep very well the first night and was actually cold!  What do you except when you are backpacking in November.  Luckily the following night I fixed the problem and was nice and toasty.

The next morning we woke up excited to go explore but first came breakfast!  We had packed all dehydrated meals and today for breakfast was juevos rancheros!  It wasn't the best breakfast I had had but when you're hungry it does JUST fine.  So after breakfast it was off to explore.  At the end of our campsite was Mooney Falls and our goal was to make it to Beaver falls.  Today was a little warmer, Zac actually wore shorts and I was in some leggings.  We packed our daypack with some snacks and some sandals because I had read back a few river crossings on your way to Beaver Falls.

As we came to the end of the campgrounds we could again hear the rumble of water.  We came right on top of our next waterfall, Mooney Falls. It was spectacular.  I must say that this was my favorite waterfall out of all of them.  I believe it is about 190 feet and the way down to the bottom is an adventure in itself!  It starts off with a sign saying "Decend at your own risk" followed by a tunnel into the rocks with just spray painted arrows on either side.  As you go through the darkness you come out to an opening where you get an amazing view of the waterfall….but your not done yet.  The next part is a bit more tricky. There are large metal rods and chains stuck in the side of the mountain that you have to hold on to to get down until you reach a few ladders to crawl back to solid ground.  All the time being covered in water from the mist of the huge waterfall!

 

The pictures just don't do it justice.  Its one thing to see a picture but to actually be standing there in front of this massive rush of water just pouring over these almost brown/orange looking rocks. Stunning.  After enjoying the view for a bit it was time to head forward to our next waterfall.  On this hike we ended up having a total of three river crossings.  I was thankful to have my Tevas to walk across with!  Although I could of stayed in my Tevas the whole time my feet did get cold because the water was NOT warm, so I threw my shoes back on when I had the chance.

This blog post is probably going to end up being mostly pictures! But you know what they say, pictures are worth a thousand words.  So after our three river crossings and a few more ladders and climbing up some rocks we made it to Beaver Falls.  Beaver Falls isn't a very TALL waterfall but it has a lot all in one.  The water is still beautiful (but cold) and still amazing to see. If we would of kept hiking past Beaver we could of ended up at the Colorado River but with all the hiking the day before and still having to hike back to really get to check out Havasu Falls we were fine with turning back to camp.  I understand why people would love visiting this place when the weather is so hot, being able to play in that refreshing water would be amazing but I just don't think that I could make that hike in the heat.  I feel like I still got to enjoy the views with an enjoyable hike AND less of a crowd.

We made it back through our river crossings, back up the slick rocks from Mooney and finally ended at Havasu Falls to finish our day.  Since the sun never really hit the canyon this time of year it was time to head back to camp to warm up and cook our double dinners!  Our day of exploring had come to an end and as soon as the sun set it would be time for bed and time to hike back out.  We cooked our double dinners, enjoyed our last bottle of wine and tried to play a little cards before it got to dark!

 

Before we knew it, it was morning and time to hike out.  As soon as we woke up we started packing up our things.  We decided not to do a breakfast but instead eat some of our snacks that we had packed.  On our way out we made sure to fill our water bottles at the natural spring towards the front of the campground. It was definitely chilly that morning but we warmed up in no time hiking out.  Our feet felt much better then on the hike in.  We were planning on it taking us about 5 hours to hike back out.  We figured we would be moving a little more slowly then on the way in AND we had those switchbacks to go back up right at the very end which I was not looking forward to it.  We made it to the start of the switchbacks and I told Zac that I wanted to take a break, eat a snack and then power through to the top and thats exactly what we did!  We we finally made it to the top I think it was 12:00 on the dot.  So in total we hiked out in 4 hours! Not to bad to do 10 miles in 4 hours.  There was a lady selling drinks and snacks out of a trailer at the top so we bought a couple of waters and some gatorades for our drive to So Cal.  We did it!  I tell Zac it was a trip of a lifetime and I honestly believe it! So much fun and so many memories. I suggest anyone to add it to their bucket list!