Summer // THREE

A U G U S T

I wrote this whole post and then it got lost somehow? Or maybe I dreamed that I wrote it, but really didn't.. Really not sure. And I fully realize how weird that sounds! haha 

Either way, I don't really feel like typing it all up again so this post is going to be light on the text. 

Quick recap: 

We went to a Bee's baseball game (my first!)

We drove down to Moab, went to Arches national park and river rafted on the Green River

We enjoyed the summer sunshine in SLC with some hiking, some climbing, and even some camping! 

Then we said goodbye to Pelle and Simon (who went back to school), said hello to Lotti (our german friend who came to visit for a month), and we all started our new school years! 

whew! 

With our big trip to Guatemala at the beginning of the month and school starting on the 24th of August, the month went by in the blink of an eye and hardly felt like "summer" at all. 

spotted the Blue Sky windmills at the mouth of the canyon in Spanish Fork! 

The M.O.A.B. (Mother of All Burritos) 

^^ seriously though, the best melons in the world come from Virgin River, Utah

xx Jess 

Snow Canyon

Camping with my little sis + twin bro for 3 nights in the desert of southern Utah was the best first weekend home. We climbed up way too many cliffs, hiked for miles, explored secret underground caves and roasted mallows under the stars. 

Hello summer! 

she's 6 years younger than me and we are the same height.. nbd. 

our trusty campsite 

spelunking was quite an adventure. These pictures were at the mouth of the caves where there was still some light. For most of the exploring though we were in the pitch black and had to use our trusty iphone flashlights (we weren't planning on cave exploring) for light. At one point we all crawled on our bellies through a narrow crack to reach a secret room in the cave. 

while spending so many hours roaming the desert we decided that the sage brush is the most perfect shade of green to compliment the red soil. To some this may seem like a barren landscape, but I absolutely love it. I think red rocks are the coolest. 

While hiking with a ranger up a closed canyon she said that she spots a desert tortoise once every few months. So as we were walking I jokingly called "tortoise where are you?" and then immediately my eyes zoned in on a tortoise just a few feet away from us! Pretty comical timing. 

we also did a ton of free climbing. Pelle loves to climb and is definitely the expert of the group. For anyone who has the gear + expertise to harness climb, there are hundreds of bolted routes within Snow Canyon. So check it out! 

our last full day there we decided to go on a 5 mile hike around the rim of the canyon, but in reality it was a 10 mile hike! Someone had mistakenly told us that the distances on the map were round trip, when in reality they were one way. We definitely were hot, sweaty, tired and completely out of water by mile 8. But we made it! And treated ourselves to some ice cream afterwards. 

^^ the best two adventure buddies 

I have made it a goal this summer to be out in nature as much as possible! I love it and am excited for the many camping/hiking/exploring adventures sure to come this summer! 

Hope your memorial day weekend was as lovely as mine! 

Bush Camping

we camped our way through Botswana, for most of the two week adventure, but the three nights we spent in the bush were unlike any other! 

we were so remote that we had to drive for a few hours in safari jeeps, plus ride for 2 hours in shallow wooden dugouts just to make it to our camp site! And by campsite I mean a wild area just off the Okavango Delta waters. There were no "amenities" , so we carried in all of our gear. Which meant that space was at a premium, so I fit everything I needed for 3 nights into my tiny camelback and then carried a 5L jug of clean water (priorities!) and our tent. 

rugged. 

we peed in holes, waded through mud, adventured through tall grasses, and climbed trees to watch the approaching savannah thunderstorms. It was all so glorious, I nearly cried. 

I kept on looking out over the horizon in disbelief that a) it was so flat! I could see for hundreds of miles and b) that there was no sign of human civilization. The okovango delta truly is one of the last wild places left. Even thinking about it now makes my heart soar. 

I have had the pictures for this post uploaded for the last week, but I almost didn't publish this post..  none of these photos come even close to reflecting how special this place is and that really bothers me!  I wish that I could've better captured the spirit of this place, but maybe it is one of those things that isn't meant to be captured in a photo (Walter Mitty  "ghost cat"reference anyone!?)  

we did a lot of animal tracking while in the bush (with our trusty guides, of course!) mostly at sunrise and late afternoon, when the animals are most active. one morning, we woke up before sunrise and spent the next five hours in small groups exploring the savannah! We found the skull of a hippo, lots of tracks, lots of birds + small animals, and a huge herd of zebras with a dozen giraffes nearby. It was incredible.

there were no paths to follow, at times we had to take off our shoes and walk through thigh deep mud or quietly crouch in the grass. That first afternoon we went exploring the grasses were swaying like the ocean swells as a huge storm blew in. The sun was still bright but the black clouds were rapidly rolling in. The air was electric, the grass was soft, as the light patter of rain began.. I have never felt so alive.






I also have never felt so clearly that I am a guest of the wild, not there to tame it. Before we went into the bush area our guides gave us a very serious lecture about safety. "There is no time to think, you just have to react. If I say run, don't question me. If I say climb a tree, you do it. If you don't, if you hesitate, you might be dead." And they meant it too. This wasn't just something to scare us into behaving. Two nights I woke up to the sound of lions, hyenas would roam through our camp at night, the poisonous snakes and scorpions were the least of our concerns. Let's just say that you didn't leave your tent at night unless you reallly realllllllyyyyy had to. and even then, you always acted with extreme caution and took a buddy.

We often ventured through plants that were nearly as tall as us. This particular variety of grass was my favorite. It is so unbelieveably soft that I took to mentally calling it "the cashmere plant". I spent most of our walking hours with my hands outstretched, letting the grass gently sweep over my palms as I walked by.

I was excited to continue our adventure, but part of me never wanted to leave this place. I hope that I will always remember how it felt to live in the wild. This is going to sound very hippy-dippy but, reconnecting with nature was exactly what  I needed at that moment. To rise with the sun, explore natures beauty and then fall to sleep enveloped by the noises of the wild. Yes, the danger was real. I am happy to report though that we all were respectful/smart and we all survived.

Personally I would extrapolate that statement even further, I didn't just survive, I thrived!