Green Canyon Yurt

I took my first little road trip in my new car. I filled that trunk with everyone's adventure equipment and pumped the jams and hit the road with these two in the car. Kristen and Tyler. Kristen is my new friend in the ward. Tyler... well, Tyler is this guy from Australia that visited our ward two Sunday's ago. I probably wouldn't have noticed him or talked to him... but he bore his testimony in our ward. I kept running into him and talked to him a little bit... then went back to where he was sitting outside and asked him if he wanted to go on our yurt trip since he is bumming around Utah for a month and we had some opened spots. He turned to me (a total stranger) and said "what is snowshoeing and what is a yurt"? I explained both to him and he said he was in. This is a perfect example of why I love Australians.

Last year, on this same weekend... I did a snowshoeing trip to Lily Lake Yurt.  That was my first yurt experience... and I liked it enough to give it another go this year. This year however, I wanted to control who came on the trip. We booked a yurt that held 12 and Allison and I wondered if we had that many friends to fill the yurt.

This year was an entirely different experience. First of all... we haven't been really having Winter. So there wasn't a lot of snow. In fact, I hiked the entire way there without my snowshoes. It got a little harder at the end, but I was fine. I did use them on the way back which was helpful for the icy part of the trail. Secondly the hike was a little longer to get to the yurt. Last year, I believe our hike was about 1.5 miles. This year it was 3.75 miles. That doesn't seem like that far... but in snowshoes and the trail not being marked plus carrying your backpack uphill... we were all pretty tired when we got there. Third, we got a yurt that fit 12 people instead of 8. The yurt was a lot nicer than last years. A lot more space, more comfortable beds... and the temperature inside the yurt was perfect... unlike last year. The yurt also provided a lot more stuff.

We ended up filling 10 of the 12 spots. Not bad... not bad at all. I was the only person that knew everyone there... a lot of people didn't know other people there... except for Tyler, Tyler didn't really know anyone. Not even really me. I'm so glad he came though because he brought a lot of laughs to the group. He has such an interesting story and he is so much fun to be around. We all had so much fun getting to know each other, eating and sharing food together and playing games. There is something that bonds a group together when you are all stuck in the same room together for a long period of time. Everyone had so much fun. I just adore this group and I couldn't imagine anyone else I would have rather spent my weekend with. It made me so happy that everyone loved it so much and had so much fun. Everyone left friends or even better friends. Such a good time. We had a lot of laughs in that yurt.

The next day it was time to make the 3.75 mile snowshoe hike back. This time would be a breeze though because it was all downhill. It was WAY faster to get back than it was to get there. We were all sad that is was over. Maybe I can get everyone together to reunite for an awesome camping trip this summer. Except for Tyler of course. He will be back in Australia.

I'm glad I organized it. Even though we hardly had any snow it was so fun. I love that everyone loved it and was so happy to be there and that we all got along so well. I guess I will keep this a thing. Winter Yurt trips. What a great group. What a great weekend.