Legend Trip: Jolly's Gulch

Over the summer, I worked at Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort which was a resort located on the east side of Zion National Park. The ranch has been in the family for several generations and that is how the legend of Jolly's Gulch has been passed down..
A long time ago, a guy named Jolly discovered this land and bought it. There he built a house and took his family. It gets really hot in Southern Utah and one summer, it was extremely dry; so dry that there wasn't any water to be found: not in the stream or the well. So Jolly decided to pack up his family and go on an adventure to find some water. Well, they arrived at a gulch (it's now a canyon people repel off) and legend has it that Jolly pushed his family, one by one, over the edge and into this gulch resulting in their deaths. After he committed this act, Jolly went back to his house, documented what he had down, and went back to jump off himself. Nobody knows if he was delirious from heat or didn't want his family to suffer this drought or if he was straight up looney. Many years later when people started the ranch, they decided to put some employees in the house that Jolly lived in and nobody has been able to stay in that house: they all choose the path of Jolly. If you visit Jolly's Gulch, legend has it that if you feel the wind pushing you towards the canyon, it's Jolly trying to get you over the edge, but if the wind is pushing you away, it's Jolly's family trying to save you from their fate.

Jolly's House

 Jolly's Gulch

 The house is about a mile away from the ranch, but it's still the family's property. There aren't windows, and everything has been taken out of the house. It's found on a dirt road, and if you keep going on that road for about another half a mile, you will reach the gulch.

My Never Failing Family

           This is my actual family, just missing my oldest brother Hayden and his wife Melissa.
 

In this picture from left to right is myself, my mama, my brother Pace, my padre, and my brother Samuel. This is the most recent picture we have of the most kids together because my family has a hard time getting together at the same time because we're all in different states with busy schedules. This photo was taken on Samuel's phone on the island of St. Martin where my brother, Pace, graduated from medical school. He's in the middle because this day was about him! After 8 years of school and clinicals, Pace is now a doctor! My family has visited this island several times before so this place is also a home to me. The ceremony took place in a resort and this picture was taken outside of the resort near the pool. Pace is wearing his graduation outfit and it has a cool "hood," as they call it, around his neck. Also, his hat is octangular which I thought was pretty rad. I remember Pace wanted to rush through pictures because on the island, it's humid and hot and Pace was burning up in his dressy clothes underneath the velvet-lined robe and hat. I recall him not laying by the pool before this because he gets sunburned easily and didn't want a tomato face in pictures. We all brought clothes that were either wrinkle-free or were supposed to look wrinkly because everything had to be jammed into our suitcases. My dad has his iPad in his hands because he used that to take pictures and Samuel used his phone. Pace has a "Congratulations!" packet in his hand because they don't hand out diplomas right there: it gets mailed to you. In this picture you can tell which kid got which parent's eyes. Samuel has the darker blue eyes like my mom and Pace and I have the lighter blue eyes like my dad.
People take photographs to remember events that are significant to them or may become significant. I believe that becoming a doctor is a massive deal! This is what we want to remember, not just the days spent at the beach, but also Pace reaching a goal he has worked hard towards for 8 years.