Fossil Springs

Alright another Gunnell adventure :) Well Reyn wanted to go hike fossil springs. So we called up Joe and Morgan (reyn's old mission companion and his wife) in Payson and asked if they were up for it. So Monday night we drove to Payson and stayed the night at their house. We stayed up and talked for hours, it was mid night before any of us got to bed. Then Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. we took off to Strawberry.

We drove through the crazy bumpy road, very slowly, because the edge wasn't far, and it was a long drop down. We drove that for about 7 miles. Parked one of the cars and continued driving. We took our truck through some rough primitive roads. We saw fossil springs, but didn't get out to hike there. We kept going the boys wanted to find the hot springs. So we kept on driving. Justin and Joe in the bed of the truck. Reyn driving and Morgan, Boston, Royce and me all in the back seat. What an adventure I tell ya! Then we stopped, realizing that we had NO idea where we were actually going to end up. We saw someone driving up towards us so we waited til they got to us. We asked them if the hot springs were close, the told us another half hour drive. So we continued the drive onto way back rocky primitive road. We could only go like 10 miles an hour. So we get through the driving get to the bottom of any roads and park. We see a trail and started our hike. We only go in about half a mile. The whole time we are walking the water is still, so we weren't getting in that. Then there was moving water to play in, so we stopped and played for a while. The trail had ended, so we thought. After a while, the sun beating on us, Royce and Boston getting tired and cranky we decided to head back to our truck. Joe gets this bright idea to ask a man (who was camping down there) for some directions. When Joe came back he says "Well the good news is we are only a mile away from the hot springs. The bad news is they are only a half a mile away from where we just hiked out of." So apparently right where the hike "ends" actually doesn't. We would have just had to cross the water and walk a bit and we would have found the hot springs. What! We were sooo close! So it was about 2 p.m and we decided that we couldn't hike back out there. We did throw the idea around a bit, hiking to the hot spring, but the wives and children couldn't continue. We were in the sun too long as it was. So we drove out. It took us an hour and a half to drive 14 miles. The roads were seriously so scary haha.

We had fun, quite an adventure! The boys are ready to go back now. They want to find the hot springs so bad. SO I think soon they are going to go back. The girls and babies will stay behind.

Over all though we had fun, didn't get to hike like we thought we would. Didn't get to play in the pretty water. We were close to it though. We were just so worn out, so we ended the trip.

Once we got back to Payson we ate dinner and Justin, Reyn, Royce and I all headed back home to Mesa.

Someday we will all go play and hike fossil springs. As for now we only know where it is. :)