Goblin Valley (May 2016)

We went to Goblin Valley the first weekend of May with our friends the Harman's. We'd been trying to make it happen for over a year and finally found a weekend that worked and decided to go no matter what! The weather didn't look promising but it all worked out.

We left after school on Friday and made the 3 or so hour drive to the park. We had been on so many road trips lately that this one felt nice and short. Amy's kids tend to get car sick so their drive wasn't quite as easy as ours, but we all made it and found each other despite no cell reception. The camping spots in the park always fill up months in advance but there are tons of unofficial campsites people have made on the BLM land surrounding. We drove around looking for a spot, off-roading a little in the mazda and the Harman's minivan which stressed me out, until it started getting dark and we picked one. It ended up being perfect. The girls sat in their chairs while we hurriedly set up tents before it was really dark:

It was a lot colder than normal for that area so having a fire and roasting marshmallows was just what we needed:

We put the kids to bed and stayed up talking until we were all too tired and cold. The girls and Dan all seemed to sleep great that night, but I was freezing and could never warm up. I was awake pretty much all night.

Cold morning snuggles:

We had pancakes and muffins for breakfast and the kids went exploring. Our campsite by morning light:

The kids found an old abandoned car:

Cold nose and cheeks:

Both our cars made it back on the main (dirt) road heading to Goblin Valley. It was so gorgeous, I could have camped there for days!

Olive refused to use her gloves, only socks:

The kids loved running around through the hoodoos and finding shapes and secret tunnels and trails:

Ellie said that this was her elephant:

And this was her turtle:

At this point Dan had taken Alta to explore something and had the car keys but not his phone. Ellie and Olive were tired and hungry but we couldn't find Dan anywhere. We searched all over and finally found him. We were all a little cranky by that point! But we got our lunches and ate outside at the overlook. It was sunny but pretty cold and windy.

I had wanted to attempt to hike the beginning section of Little Wildhorse Canyon in the afternoon. We were all pretty exhausted by this point, especially the kids, but we decided to give it a shot and see how far we could make it. We didn't even get into the really slot canyon-y section but it was still really cool. Harris and Milo were totally done so Amy and Brig turned around early and took them back while we went a little further with our kids and Andersen:

We got rained on as we hiked back but it was definitely worth it. Some day our kids will be prepared to do all 8 miles!

We said goodbye to the Harman family at the trailhead and then drove home to Draper. It was a short but fun trip and we'll be back someday soon!