Family Reunion #2 The Bayless Family (July 9th-13th)

The first step to a successful family gathering: Look your best! So Melissa trimmed me up.

 

Step two: Fix a flat on the trailer, less than 50 miles into your 230 mile drive. Wednesday the 9th we drove from Blanding to Escalante, UT (Circle D Motel) to meet the family for our Hole in the Rock trip.  The GPS took us on the short path, which included miles of dirt road.  It was fun but a little scary as we spent most of the drive in the dark, with a sick dog who did ask for an emergency stop once to get out and have diarrhea.

 

July 10th we all had breakfast as a family at Circle D Restaurant, good food, then hit the road.

Our friends, the Talker's, drove out Thursday morning from Monument Valley to drive the hole with us. As soon as they arrived we all headed out of Escalante to the trail head (about 4 miles) and broke up into trail vehicles.  James' family in his truck. Mom, Dad and Adam's family in my truck. Jordan's family in their rented Jeep Compass. Melissa, Zoe and I in our Rhino SxS and Fred and Revina in their Ranger SxS.

Our first stop and rendezvous point was Dance Hall Rock, about 40 miles in.  We enjoyed stretching our legs and getting some shade.

This picture was actually on the way back.

 

James was in the lead most of this first leg, so we got to spend some time with his family exploring while waiting for Dad and Jordan to catch up.

Fred and Revina love learning about the history of our/their home. It was great to have them with us, they had Gatorade... something that would come in handy.

 

The last 10 miles are the roughest of the trail, with the final 1/8 mile being the reason the whole trail is labeled 4x4 only.  (The road does wash out and become difficult in other areas too).

This is at the top of the hole (to our left) and the final time Melissa and I would see each other for 2-3 hours.

 

Nobody in our group had every been down the Hole to the lake, but that didn't stop my nephew Jonathan and I from trying. 

 

All interested parties made it this far where we met a 5-6 foot drop to the next level, all but Jonathan and I stopped.

 

Jonathan got tired part way down and volunteered to stop and rest a while before he would head back up.  We crossed paths with a boating group who was climbing up the hole, that gave me motivation to get all the way to the lake. 

LAKE POWELL!! I made it down the Hole in the Rock. 

Looking back up the Hole, it really hit me to realize that the San Juan mission went even further.  The lake covers a large portion of their path to what was the Colorado river.  It had taken me 45 minutes or more to hike down the Hole in comfortable shoes and jeans. They did it with wagons, teams and children and all without knowing much more than what lay a few miles ahead. 

 

Jonathan was pretty worn out by his hike and when I climbed back up to him, he wasn't feeling well.  We made it a little way back together when he was completely pooped.  I left him again to climb high enough to communicate with the family and get some water brought down.  Adam and Marissa came down to us (way past the big drop) and we started back up all together.  It was pretty clear Jonathan wasn't going much further without something more than water, so I went back up and collected two Gatorades from the Talkers.  With the help of some corn syrup, salt, and red food coloring and his dad and sister as cheer leaders Jonathan made it back to the top. My truck and Rhino waited while Jonathan and I ate and everyone else started back to Escalante to get their kids off the trail. 

After packing the truck back up we headed back ourselves.  On the way back Jonathan and I rode the Rhino a while and we even let Adam and Marissa take it for the last ~10 miles. 

 

Melissa was awesome.  She probably spent 80 of the 100 miles with me in the Rhino and only got out so other people could give the side by side a try.

 

We all ate together again on the 11th then James' family headed home and the rest of us went to Blanding.

We visited Five Kivas Pueblos

Zoe introduced Benjamin and Brendan to her boyfriend.

 

We spent part of a day in Bluff to visit the old fort and cemetery.

In front of the cabin.

 

Modern day Pioneers, Grant and Adi

Super knowledgeable tour guide, Sam.

 

Great-great grandpa Herman Dagget Bayles and Great-great grandpa Platte De Alton Lyman are both buried in Bluff.

 

Lunch at Twin Rocks Café.  I ended up in charge of three of my nephews, we had a blast at the cool table.

 

Saturday night (12th) the Talkers cooked a traditional dinner for us.   We had dry bread (Navajo tortillas) and fry bread with grilled goat meat.

It became more traditional by inviting anyone around.  Revina's PA student, his family and friends visiting from SLC all joined us too (with a homemade peach cobbler).

 

After the dinner Josh had a little homework to do, so I tried to help him out.  I knew how to do it with calculus and a graphing calculator, but his teacher wanted him to just "Guess numbers until you figure out two options." Not exactly my style of math.

 

Sunday morning (13th) before some of the family headed out we completed the family reunion by touring Hanson Bayles' home in Blanding.  The current occupants know the history of the home very well and were able to tell us a lot about how it was built. The bricks were dug, molded, and fired all on site.