Superstition Mountains Campout

This past weekend (12/14 - 12/15) Matt went on a campout with the scouts from the ward. They went up to the Superstition Mountains and after camping at the trailhead they hiked into some indian ruins (Roger's Canyon Cliff Dwellings) the next day. It was about an 8 mile roundtrip hike down into and then out of the canyon.

The trail was pretty scenic. It's hard to see in this first picture, but there's actually a waterfall behind Matt.


Matt was a little surprised to find snow on the mountain when they got up there. It was a cold night - the car thermometer read 29 degrees when they got there at about 9pm on Friday and then when they checked in the morning it still said 29 degrees. Needless to say, it wasn't the best night of sleep that Matt's ever had!


This was a picture taken on the hike down into the canyon. It stayed cold enough for most of the day that during most of the hike everyone was still wearing multiple layers, hats, and gloves.


Here's another picture of one of the little waterfalls taken by Bro Williamson. The trail actually switched back and forth across the cold stream. Some of the rocks that they used to cross the stream were deceivingly icy and Matt slipped in more than once, but so did almost everyone else.


The Cliff Dwellings were actually three big caves on the side of a hill. Matt's camera stopped working on the hike down after one of the slips into the creek, but here's one picture from the highest cave, which actually had a couple of different rooms built out of rock inside of it. Matt would have taken more pictures if he still had his camera, but Bro. Williamson was nice enough to let him borrow his point and shoot camera to take a few pictures inside the ruins.