Backpacking in American Fork Canyon

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Matt grew up going backpacking with his dad, and even though I love camping and try to go every chance I get, I had never been backpacking before. So we got out our packs and started planning where we wanted to go. Since it was my first time we thought we would try somewhere close by with a short hike. We settled on exploring a spot up American Fork Canyon.

As you may have seen from our previous posts, Matt and I like to go on adventures with friends and family (so if you are ever down to go on an adventure with us, don’t hesitate to let us know!), so we called up my younger sister, Hannah, and she came with us.

We thought we would try scouting out a spot just past Tibble Fork Reservoir, where we went fishing just a few weeks ago. You can read about that fishing trip here. As you are driving past Tibble Fork Reservoir, the paved road curves and goes up towards the left and turns into Silver Lake Road, but there is a dirt road that continues straight and goes even further past the reservoir, which is American Fork Canyon Road. You can drive back about 1/4 of a mile until you reach a gate. Since it is early spring, this gate was closed. We parked on the roadside in front of the gate and strapped up our gear.

We started walking along the dirt road until we found a spot that we liked. We ended up hiking back for about 1 mile until we found a large clearing with 5+ spots used for camping. These spots are right next to the river. As we looked to the left towards the river, we saw a couple of fallen trees with some boards nailed to them to create steps to get across the river. We walked across and found the most perfect and secluded spot nestled underneath some trees with it’s own makeshift fire pit.

We chose a spot to pitch our tents and got started in setting up camp. Matt and I used our favorite, affordable backpacking sleeping pads. These pads are cool because you can snap them together so that they don’t move all over the tent and it feels like a queen-size sleeping pad. We also like to take our queen-size backpacking sleeping bag.

We set up our double hammocks (which we are obsessed with and you can buy here) with our favorite hammock straps, and our cute collapsable camping chairs. These chairs work so good for backpacking, but honestly, we keep one set up at our house because it’s so comfortable to sit in and we end up using it a few times a week. I’ll post the link here, but they are often sold out so here and here are a couple more options. The chairs that Hannah and Matt used are even smaller and lighter, but not as comfortable, but they are still a super great option for backpacking. You can buy them here, or if you want one with a backrest, here.

As we were setting up camp, it started to rain and things started getting thoroughly soaked. We quickly grabbed our chairs and huddled under a dry patch beneath some trees. That was quite an adventure, having everything get super wet as soon as we set it all up. We decided that since we couldn’t sit in the hammocks or make a fire, we would try to get started on dinner.

Before our trip, we bought some backpacking food to try out. From Backpackers Pantry we got three cheese mac and cheese, chicken risotto, and Kathmandu Curry. I’ll be the first to admit that I was not looking forward to eating these freeze dried meals and thought they would be tasteless and not very good. But to my surprise, they were actually packed full with flavor and were decently filling. Matt says they always taste better after a long day of hiking, too. I guess I have that to look forward to on our next trip. 🙂

By the end of dinner, the rain had stopped, so it was time to explore. Hannah and I walked up the mountainside while Matt attempted to make a fire. Hannah and I came across a few more great places to camp up the mountain, each with makeshift fire pits. We thought again how lucky we were that we got the entire mountainside to ourselves. This location seems like it would get very busy during the regular camping season.

After a while, we headed back down to camp. Matt was unsuccessful at making a fire because all the wood was too wet. So we changed into our warmest clothing and congregated in Hannah’s tent to play games for the rest of the evening. We played “May I,” which is a game that uses a couple of decks of face cards, and Color Smash.

Finally, it was time for bed. We each crawled into our sleeping bags and turned out the lanterns and flashlights. The next morning we ate instant oatmeal for breakfast and decided we would try to make a fire again. We scrounged for some dry pieces of wood and found a few. Normally, we would have used our homemade fire starter made of wax and lint in cardboard egg cartons to try to get the fire started. But for this trip we only had vaseline and cotton balls to use, because Matt wanted to try it as a more space-efficient alternative. After an hour, we finally had a decent fire.

We sat and enjoyed being out in nature until the fire died down, then it was time to pack up camp. We quickly got everything packed into our backpacks and then we were off. We hiked the mile back to our car, which was easier going back since it was mostly downhill.

We really enjoyed being out in nature and feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful state with canyons practically in our backyard. I had a fun time backpacking for my first time and I am excited to do it again in the future.

Here are a few more things we never go camping without:

A Go Girl, so us girls can go to the bathroom anywhere we need to
A collapsable LED camping lantern that is lightweight and super bright
Travel spice jars, so we can season our meals just the way we like
A Coleman camping chair for a comfortable place to relax
Our queen air mattress so we can get a full nights sleep
Our favorite travel game so we don’t get bored
Don’t tell our dentist, but we use these wisps to brush our teeth when camping. It is so much easier than bringing a toothbrush and toothpaste and using water
A magical face cloth that cleans off your face with just water
Travel Vaseline for when your lips are chapped or you want to use it as a fire started (paired with cotton balls)
Silicone wedding bands that are perfect for any outdoor sport or activity
A Kindle Paperwhite (this is my most important thing) so that I can read in nature or before going to bed