Day Six | ThE tWo LaNe RoLlEr CoAsTeR

We woke in our frost covered tents, to enjoy the experience of pulling stakes out of the frozen ground. Did you know trying to pack a tent that is frozen is quite a challenge? Many of us couldn’t get our tents to fit in our bags right and the packing of bags in many vans was a hot mess. You could only open the back doors an inch to avoid a luggage avalanche. On our drive to our next campsite we stopped at the shut-ins of Johnson’s Shut-ins National Park. We learned more about the flood that happened five years ago. The flood caused many changes to this area; there are many signs that state where you should run when the sirens go off, in the case of another flood. The park service made many changes to the traveling path in the shut-ins. Instead of walking on gravel paths, you walk on a metal and wooden elevated path. This path is also a new discovery to prevent the destruction of the ground cover.

On our way back to the vans, many of us decided to explore the shut-ins even closer. Lost of people were jumping from rock to rock to see how much closer they could get to the open water. We were lucky enough to have this place to ourselves to explore, because in the summer it is packed full of families enjoying the many pools and water slides that are formed. The shut-ins are a great place in the summer to cool off with a nice swim. We loaded up in the vans once again to head to our other campsite. 

Taking the curvy back roads we ended up missing a couple turns and had to turn around a few times. Thankfully we got to the campsite at a great time to have half a day to work on our vegetation transects. This campsite was also equipped with more than two bathrooms and two showers for all thirty-nine of us, unlike the last site. We were excited for our next day on the river, and off to bed we went to sleep with spiders and try to keep warm. 

Kathleen and Sam