Camping - Snow Canyon State Park

I was raised by a woman who taught me that there is nothing worse than camping, fish is disgusting, and being polite is the most important thing you can be. These principles have affected my life more than you know.

Well my nature loving husband begged me to come along on his last camping trip to St. George to complete his research last weekend. (He received a grant last year to do a bee survey in Snow Canyon State Park.) And I knew that I had to oblige, even though I probably would be miserable the whole time. You see, I just wasn't built for the outdoors. I'm so fair I've had people mistake me for an albino. I'm allergic, and apparently very appealing to mosquitoes. I just don't do the outdoors much. My husband on the other hand, could very easily forsake society and backpack around the country for the rest of his life. Opposites attract.

Anyway, whether I was fully sold on it or not, I packed all of my necessities into my pink backpack and strapped myself in for the long ride to St. George after work on Friday. Overall the trip was surprisingly better than I thought, with just a few bumps along the way. (Literally, I was eaten to death by mosquitoes both nights.)

Here are the highlights!

1. Snow Canyon is beautiful! Southern Utah is known for it's red rock, and it didn't disappoint! 
   
   

   

   This picture was taken around 7 am, I couldn't believe the moon was still up! 

   
   

   

   Johnson's Canyon

   
   

   

   All of this black rock is from lava flows. Cool, huh?

    

   

   Johnson's Arch

   
   
   2. Watching Andrew do his research was really cool. He's described it to me before, but actually watching him complete the process made me realize how much work he was really doing.
   
   

   

   First you have to scout a good location off the path to place your different colored traps that attract the bees.

   

   Then you fill the cups with soapy water and leave them for a day.

   

   While we waited, Andrew used this cool contraption to collect more bees.

   Andrew's research is on a bee survey. So he preserves and pins all of the bees that he collects, so that he can identify and analyze what species are present in this state park. It was really cool of Snow Canyon to give him this permit to do a collection, and even better that the school gave him a grant to do it all!

   
   3. I was pleasantly surpised to find that Andrew's secondary research was actually kind of cool. ha! He did some lizard tail sample collection for his professor who is doing research on the genetics of lizards in the region. Andrew used his lizard noose (Yes, I have made fun of him for this. And yes, it actually works!) to catch lizards then he would take a small sample of their tails. He is actually really good at this!
   

   
   

   

   One unlucky lizard who he caught on his noose.

   
   

   

   The lizards have really cool looking underbellies! (On top they were just gray and black)

   4. Hiking! Ok I'll let you in on a little secret: I really enjoy hiking. There were some cool short hikes around St. George. Heck, my favorite was one we spotted from the road!
   
   
   

   

   Me at the top of this cool hike we found while driving through St. George. Andrew is terrified of heights so he wouldn't even go close to the edge.

   
   

   
   

   

   It was just over the side of the road!

   
   5. And lastly, just spending an entire weekend with my guy, no cell phones, no worries. Just a lot of great conversation. How wonderful it is to be able to do this.
   
   

   

   He's handsome even when he gets mad at me for taking pictures and grimaces. :)

   
   
   Overall my first camping experience wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I did get eaten alive by bugs, and trying to share a one person tent didn't really go so well....but the 5 points above more than made up for it. I might just have to give this camping thing a try again.