Rock Canyon and the Square Dance

On Saturday we went up to Rock Canyon, just above the university in Provo for a short hike. The weather could not be more different from Yellowstone. It is baking hot at around 30C and then add the altitude and a short hike becomes a huge trial. We get breathless very quickly, factor 50 is a must and we all have two water bottles, we have never drunk so much water!

Joe explained that the area was home to rattlesnakes and grass snakes and to be careful if we heard the rattle. The cicadas made an unnervingly similar noise so we were on edge as we walked up the steep sided path. Rock climbers clung to the crevices all around us and forced us to look up at the zigzag compression patterns of the geological strata in the cliffs.

Clare setting off up the canyon

I gave out small Petri dishes to everyone to collect samples from the environment, sure enough James found an intact sloughed off snake skin proving Joe's warning and later Sue saw the fabled rattlesnake. 

Throughout this last week our encounters with wild creatures have unsettled us and delighted us. How is it we are prepared to be so fearful and yet so pleased to see them at the same time?

More activities threaten to scare us this evening with the Square Dance which Joe has arranged for the entire group. This may be the most feared activity yet?

Bill and Bullseye strut their stuff!

As it turned out we did OK, we were mostly chaotic and undisciplined, but it wasn't so embarrassing - we were all about the same level of bad. But then Bill came in wearing his blowup horse, the star of our Kickstarter video, and he brought the house down! 

These group activities have really cemented this disparate group of creative people, making fools of ourselves is a great leveller and there are clear bonds established now. Everyone is getting on amazingly well and it's good to see and amazing to think it has only been 6 days since we all met.

Michelle Rowley