"Man Up" - Our Fourth of July Adventures

It's turning into an annual event, our summer camping trip in the Owyhees. Grandma and Grandpa wait for us to drive up from Utah and we enter into our wild west haven. This year, Tyson got the week of Independance Day off from his internship at Ford which made it so me him and Jessie could all drive up to Idaho.

I LOVE my grandparent's farm! Grandma's house always has the best food and it's always so comfortable. Grandpa wakes up at 6:30 a.m. every morning does some work around the property (changing water, etc) and then waits for his loser grandchildren to finally wake up. 

On the 3rd, we hung aroud the house and went to see The Lone Ranger with grandma and grandpa because it's grandpa's biography...or so he tells us. 

The next day we were off on our adventure. Uncle Nate and Aunt Susan came up and we all caravaned to the hills. Our family practically lives up in these hills. We've gone since we were all babies, and I learned grandma took Nate and my mom up when nate was 2 weeks old. So there is that. All I'm saying is that they feel like home. 

Grandpa's trusty dog, Charlemagne...affectionately called Charles or just Charlie

So for the Fourth of July we rode motorcycles and four-wheelers all over the mountains which are extremely beautiful this time of year. The motto of our trip this year...MAN UP! The stuff we do is challenging! We couldn't have a camping trip without going up to Silver City, ID, an old 1800s gold and silver mining town in the Owyhees that never burned down or became commercialized. All up the road the ground sparkles with silver, or small pieces of mica, adding to the romance of the old ghost town. When I was younger, I always thought it was real silver.

CHILLIN'

red, white & blue

Tyson and Jessie

Idaho Hotel in Silver City...OLD

The view from Silver 

Avalanches

The Mason Lodge

The white church on the hill

Looking down on Silver

Comin' around the mountian

That night we came back to our campground but on the way, a lightning storm descended and we rode home drenched, dirty and cold. It just added more to the adventure!

The next day grandpa took us to Flint. Another small (and super legit) mine. This time we saw (maybe illegally) what the mining system was like inside. Grandpa showed us the stone walls surrounding the area and commented on the fine workmanship of its construction. No mortar and straight. Probably build by Europeans coming to mine the West.

Old-School Mining

mmh...that wall

We forgot how to read

old, dark scary, creaky. We probably shouldn't have climbed the rickety stairs to the top.

"No Tresspassing"... oops

mining

The Grandkids with Grandpa and Charlie

In Flint, there is a small cemetery for some of the more prominant miners form the 1800s. We had to go see.

On the way back to camp, we put the Rhino 4x4 in a ditch where the rain probably washed out the road the previous night, but with a little bit of effort we wenched it out.

A minor setback

Charlie kept his cool

This is after we got it moving a little bit

Our heroes

Sadly, it all had to end. We packed up, went home, showered, said our goodbyes and headed back to Utah.