Hole in the Rock

After our family had finished passing around and reading "The Undaunted", a historical fiction book telling the story of the Hole in the Rock pioneers, and their journey from the Cedar City/ St. George area to the Bluff/Montezuma Creek area, we wanted to go see it for ourselves. Again. We've been down through that area a couple of times, both times I was a teenager. Once for Youth Conference, we went on a pioneer trek. And instead of going to Wyoming, like everyone else in the world, we stayed in our own neck of the woods and did part of the Hole in the Rock trail. Later, we went as a family with a bunch of other families on a jeeping, four-wheel expedition to see the Hole in the Rock. I remember parts of that trip, but in planning this trip, I was so excited to get to done it again, now that I understand a little better what they did and went through, and hopefully remember it better.

The old train has been washed out in some places, and the road that was, no longer exists. We has to take a completely different route to get there, and those roads are not for the timid, or the faint of heart. This was the "bad spot" that after we had gone down, we were afraid for when we would have to come back up it the next day. The difficult terrain and crazy obstacles we saw after this though, made it funny when we got back here and remember how worried we had been about it.

There were hard spots all along the trail, places on the "road" where I grabbed my two kids and jumped out of the car to walk those tricky places rather than ride in the car, just in case it tipped over or rolled. All of my fears were unfounded of course, but it was that scary of a road.

The whole time I was thinking of those pioneers, who had wagons with mules and horses and oxen and no four-wheel drive.

These next few pictures were taken by my sister, Kimbrey because after a couple of hours into the first day, I abandoned my camera and concentrated on hauling my kids in and out of the car. She's better with a camera than I am anyway.

I actually took this one of my little trooper pioneer baby. She did so good on the trip, and even seemed to like the "extreme rock-a-bye" the went on in the car, often falling asleep when the bumping and rocking was the worst.

Shade was few and far between, and here I was thinking it was going to be cold, so I packed only warm clothing for myself and my kids. Oops again. I can't win.

Kimbrey took this picture, and I edited out the boogers.

And she took this one too. So beautiful, even after two days of camping.

And when we saw my child with doughnut in one hand, and a sucker in the other, for breakfast, Kimbrey was the one who had the foresight to take a picture. Aiden did pretty well on the trip too. The biggest challenge for him, pooping in the wilderness, was averted and it apparently could wait for a toilet. So there were no big catastrophes.

Our Hole in the Rock clan. We never made it to the actual Hole in the Rock, because the road had gotten pretty bad, and we didn't have the time to get all the way before we had to be back. But it was a fun family trip, we got to see some things that very few people in the world have seen, and beautiful scenery. Someday I hope to go back, and see some of those places again, like San Juan Hill, The Chute and Slickrock Hill. I would also like to go on the other side and see the Hole in the Rock right up close. Since we got back, I have read "The Undaunted" again, and I am in awe at the faith and "stickity-tooty" that those saints had. They came across that country, even though it was impossible. A journey that was supposed to take them six weeks, took them six months. They were called to a mission, and they did not stop until they had completed what they had been asked to do. I am just so grateful that there were such strong people that were able to pave the way, and in many ways made our lives what they are today.