Our Outdoor Adventure

Lauren strikes a pose on the "Tarzan" swing. Note the steer in the river at the bottom of the canyon. That was good motivation not to fall.

Amy walks the plank. This bridge was made of cables and boards. The boards were about six inches wide. Very tricky. To make this a mental challenge as well, the bridge was very high over the canyon.

Amy gets it going on the rappelling obstacle. Of our family group, she went first. The guides kept telling her to eat more taquitos, because her weight wasn't enough to send her down.

This shot shows how fast we "zipped" along. At first I thought we'd get to do this once. Cool! But, noooooo! There must have been around eight zip lines crisscrossing the canyon. So much better! The catch is that by the time I was zipping along about the fifth time, I was having more trouble catching my breath and was feeling a little faint. Much of the reason is that it was around 95 degrees with no wind, and the physical demands did not end at zipping. In between each challenge, we hiked up some very tricky terrain.

Valerie rappells down a 95 foot cliff. Well, if my little sister can do it, I can do it. See below.

I absolutely loved getting to experience some very challenging firsts. Rappelling was just one new challenge during this five hour excursion. This one, however, came toward the end of a brutal physical and mental natural obstacle course. Our guides took very good care of us, but, in the end, we still had to anti-up the will and physical "umph" to get through. We were all very glad that it had been so difficult, because we felt a great sense of accomplishment. Still a highlight of the trip.

I picked this picture because I was smiling, but now I feel a little dorky because I realized all I was doing was climbing a ladder. The choice was, "Are you climbing the rocks or the ladder?" Lauren chose the rocks.

Lauren put the guides in their places when she told them she'd go back if they didn't stop rocking the ropes. Trouble is, back was just as far as forward.

She flies through the air with the greatest of ease! Emily has always liked to lead the way on our family hikes. She was no different this trip. The first person on the first obstacle... was Emily.

This one's called the "Tarzan" swing. There's no worries about holding yourself straight. Notice the pads on the cliff face beyond. Lucky for us, Emily did not end up smashed on the mountain.

This rope walk was probably the most scary for me. They let three people go at a time, and when someone else rocks forward or back, it swings you along. If that isn't enough, the guides would rock the ropes to make it more difficult.

A unimog turns out to be a Mercedes Unimog, which was the truck that sped through the canyons to get us to our first point on this adventure. Click on the link below to see what the terrain near the road was like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoDeHM=mMNo (I'll keep working on this link. It doesn't seem to be working properly.)