Canyonlands Needles: the Hike, the Water Hole, and the Rain

It rained during the night, but had cleared up by Sunday morning, leaving a damp ground that was not so bad. We had a campfire church meeting for the kids, singing primary songs, and the adults met in our tent and we read part of a keynote address from Rob's cousin. Then we went out on this scenic loop:

 This is very nearly the whole group. I think we're missing two people here.

In the afternoon, there was a big need to go get in some water. We'd heard about a place outside Canyonlands on BLM land, and we tried to find it, but couldn't. About six of us went back to the campsite and then the others found this great orange puddle.

 This was tucked back off a trail, which is why our scouts had missed it.

 The kids were pretty happy to get wet.

 And there were these very handy places for the adults to sit too.

 Having our own environmental scientist on hand was nice. As he said: if it's orange, nothing is living in it. Pretty clean in terms of bacteria.

 And a pretty soft entrance too.

 Joss and the littles jumped off the short side . . .

 And then the bigger kids kept upping the ante to go higher and higher . . .

until they were jumping in all the way over on the left side. Go Sebi! I couldn't have jumped in there!

Here's Maddie jumping in.

By the time we were all back at camp ready to eat dinner, it was well and truly pouring on us. Thankfully we had two pavilions to hide under and eat. But eventually the kids discovered that there was a natural waterfall going in one corner of the campsite and they all ran over and splashed around until they were cold and drenched. That was really the highlight of the trip for several of the kids.