Labor Day Hike to Darby Wind Caves

Derek and LeRoy missed out on our first hike to the Darby Wind Caves and both have wanted to go for the last two years. We realized that it wasn't going to work out with everyone's schedules so had to pick a day that most of us could be there. That meant Levi would miss out, and we missed him.

We started with our usual stop at the Spud Drive-In.

It's unusual to find something that makes Derek look so tiny but the screen structure of the theatre accomplished that. Justin was really wanting to do a flip off the lowest beam but once he got up there he realized that is was a much further drop than he expected.

After miles of hiking, multiple needed rests, and a few stops at the edge of the cliffs we made it to the base of the cave. We stopped for a brief snack at the monument honoring the five women and girls who were killed by lighting in 1951 during their hike down from the caves. While there we read a little about the camp and the girls and looked for the trees struck by lightning.

The hike into the cave is slippery and steep but well worth the effort.

Once inside, Justin decided to scale the rock walls. The height and grandeur of the cave is spectacular!

After carefully maneuvering over wet, loose rock we got to the small entrance of the cave and wriggled our way through. The suffocating darkness can get pretty creepy and the breeze sweeping through the cave is extremely cold. We learned the last time we visited the cave to come with plenty of light, layers of clothing and gloves.

Justin asked LeRoy to take a picture of the two of us. When he saw the picture he said in a flirty voice, "just me and my best girl hanging out in a cave".

Coming out of the cave is like crossing winter and summer seasons in a matter of minutes and our bodies took a bit to adjust as we carefully crossed the terrain with numb fingers and shaky legs.

As the last one out of the cave I had the opportunity to watch my children work together and protect each other from harm.

The water that runs out of the cave provides a waterfall that runs wide and fast during the spring but during the late fall months it runs in a trickle. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls where Bret, Aaron, Kristin and Nathan were crazy brave enough to stand under the bitter cold water.

The hike out is always the hardest because we have already experienced the best of the trip - the cave. That's when silliness comes in. The silly songs, funny jokes and goofy faces keep us going through the final tiring miles and solidify our memories.

At one of our stops Erika informed us, "growing a human while hiking is exhausting".

When Hyrum gets tired he gets very quiet and then he gets his second wind and it's all poses and theatrics from there on out.

Derek and Justin kept busy noticing the finer details of nature and capturing them with phone cameras.

Spiders and flowers were aplenty.

Daymia kept us at a quick pace coming down the trail declaring, "the faster we get down this mountain the fast we get burgers!" And once we were finally on the road again Justin begged, "drive faster! I'm so hungry my socks look good".  Our traditional stop at Basin Burger filled all our bellies and our final hike of the summer was complete.