Picture a dirt road, no cell service, a rainstorm, oh….and it’s 11 pm. That’s how we got to the very spot last summer that took me back to being a little girl camping with my mom, dad, little brother and any friends or other family who showed up to this spot, a favorite of the areas locals.

COVID19 had my husband and I having mini honeymoons camping. We had went further and further away from any civilization until we made it to the camping spot I camped with my family as a child for the first time in Wyoming 40 yrs ago. This is as far off the beaten path as we’ve gone and nostalgia was strong.

We had been preparing through our camping trips all summer to get to this level of camping. We experienced all types of camping to get to the point that there were NO amenities anywhere close & the only luxury offered was a vault toilet the BLM has put in the now named campground of Grave Springs in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming.

We left later in the day and even saw the storm moving across the area we would be driving through. Usually my husband would call it a no-go & we would bail on the plan. But he had taken up a spontaneous attitude in the summer of 2020 & we again just went with it. In the middle of nowhere Wyoming, darkness fell & we hit the rainstorm.

I had faith in my husband’s ability to manage the red clay dirt roads slowly absorbing the rain that fell. He was nervous, yes. Mud is not his thing but safe driving is his forte and I knew we would eventually drive into the camping spot I camped at as a kid with no problems. Even if that meant we were setting up at midnight, it’s not like we would be disturbing other campers. This is literally a gem of a camping spot that is far from popular.

What I didn’t count on was the feelings that washed over me as I rolled down my tinted window to get a clear look outside. The smell of country rain mixed with dirt roads enveloped my heart. I thought about how much my dad loved this drive & this area. I envisioned what it would be like if he were included in this trip, traveling ahead, driving like a crazy man just to be set up when we got there. All for the purpose of saying “What took you so long?” I thought about as a kid my mom always telling my dad to slow down, especially in the rain, because he had a tendency to put excitement over safety & adventure over common sense. Yet here was my husband and I melding all of that together… We threw caution to the wind when the sensible thing would have been to postpone. BUT, we were definitely being much safer than the adventures I experienced as a kid😂!

We continued along the road that got wetter and more slippery, knowing that there was a pretty big hill coming soon that we would need to navigate down, on this wet clay road, in the dark, with a sheer drop off on one side. Again we decided we could keep going & although there were some hairy moments, my husband did an amazing job controlling our Durango to get us to the bottom AND up a hill immediately after that we had forgotten was there🤪!

As we crossed the last creek and pulled into the now established campground, the rain was gone. In fact, the very storm we just navigated hadn’t even hit the area of our final destination. As our headlights hit the large rock, known as “The Kids Table” in my childhood camp spot I felt overwhelmed. Not just because we made it, but because I felt like I made it. I made it back home, to the beginning, to my roots, after being lost and searching for so long. In a metaphorical way, I was back at the beginning.

We set up camp as I told my husband stories about where we hung clothes to dry as a kid. I asked if he thought these trees remembered me, to which he lovingly replied “How could they forget you?” We spent 2 days in solitude, no cell service, just us & nature. He whittled walking sticks for the kids who spend their summers in Georgia with their mom. I searched for a long lost grave that this area is named after but only found what looked like circles of rocks marking where a pet was laid to rest. We made a beautiful fire and roasted marshmallows. I remembered scenes played in rock formations with my best friend and brother. My husband caught amazing images with his camera that he had always wanted to get on our small day trips to the area, but had never been there during the sunrise, sunset, or pitch black of night when the stars are more beautiful than anywhere on earth. I also spent a lot of time down by the creek at the entrance. The creek where my dads physical body was sprinkled so he could be in his favorite spot where he had the best memories.

The Summer of 2020 was a summer of growth. In the new term of “Social Distancing” and a global Pandemic my husband and I grew closer, relied on each other’s skills, tested our boundaries, failed, learned lessons, succeeded in 2nd tries, and became stronger together. In this particular trip I let walls down, he stepped out of his comfort zone, and we both found things inside ourselves that we had lost in all the grown up shit we had gone through.

It all began with a dirt road & some rain drops….