Goblins and Arches

Sandwiched between our time in Utah and Colorado, we decided to spend a week on vacation with just our family.  A few months ago we went to Omaha, Nebraska, which sits on the Missouri River.  The kids were astounded by the "mountains" in the town and Jason and I knew it was time to head back west.  The beauty and adventures of the Rocky Mountains are more appealing to us now than they have ever been.  But, knowing our audience, we decided we could probably handle one adventure a day, coupled with a nice air-conditioned hotel with running water and a pool that we could relax in every night.  We started out in Goblin Valley.

Emma is prone to car-sickness and she was doing so good... until we pulled into the gates of Goblin Valley, which is about 4 hours away from my parents house.  We got her cleaned up and then spent a good 5 minutes admiring the tiny caterpillars that were spinning cocoons on the visitors center wall before we hit the main attraction.

It was hot and windy there, and we determined that it must really be a goblin's lair, full of angry goblins that were punishing us with their wicked sand.

Only Adam and Jason were brave enough to climb what we dubbed "Morales Mountain".  The rest of us stayed in the shadows of the goblins.

Noah seemed quite happy with his place, which worked out great.  He was in that snugli for 4 days straight!

It was so hot and SO windy there.  The "goblins" are made out of sandstone so the whole valley is covered in a bed of sand.  Sand that can really hurt when it's pelting your sunburned calves!  Still, we all had a great time traversing the goblins and launching "hoo-doo bombs".  And we guzzled lots and lots and lots of water.  It was really a great introduction to desert hiking. 

My brother Jared suggested that we hike the nearby Wild Horse canyon, and we made it about a quarter of a mile down the sandy trail, doing lots of this.

The kids were far more interested in building sand castles and drawing in the sand than they were in another hike.  So we played there for a bit and then headed over to Moab to check out our hotel.  

The pool was a perfect respite from the desert heat, and Jason was so excited to get in the pool that he hopped in with his phone in his pocket.  I think he secretly didn't want anyone to be able to reach him while he was on vacation.  A soggy phone took care of that pretty quick!

Everyone got a good night's rest, and the next morning we were up and ready to take on our next adventure.

We thought the wind was bad in Goblin Valley, but it turns out it was even worse in Iowa.  That morning we woke up with reports from our neighbors that our trampoline had taken a trip of it's own during a storm in the night.  

Those were not the kind of "wish you were here" messages we wanted to receive while we were gone, and we had a big mess to deal with when we got home.  But there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it from Utah, so we headed up the mountain for Day Two of our family adventure.

My main goal for our trip to Arches National Park was to hike to Delicate Arch!  I knew it wouldn't be easy, but it is an unforgettable experience.  The website describes the hike like this-

Take at least 1 quart (1 liter) of water per person! There is no shade. Open slickrock with some exposure to heights. The first half-mile is a wide, well-defined trail. Upon reaching the slickrock, follow the rock cairns. The trail climbs gradually and levels out toward the top of this rock face. Just before you get to Delicate Arch, the trail goes along a rock ledge for about 200 yards. 


We started out a good pace.  The kids were thrilled to spot some cactuses (cacti?) and we explored a little log cabin that some crazy people lived in a few dozen decades ago.

We crossed a bridge, followed a well-defined trail, then started our ascent up the slickrock.  That's when it got hot and windy!

Many people that we passed cheered us on and encouraged us to keep going.  We passed a family with four young kids on their way down and told them they were our heroes!  They made it to the top and so would we!

We took a lot of water breaks in what little shade we could find.

And we talked a lot about what a hard thing we were doing.  Our family motto is "Morales's do hard things!"  and I think we all said it more on this hike than we ever have before.

This was certainly not an easy vacation, and the kids probably thought we were punishing them instead of building up their characters, but we had a lot to be proud of when we finally got to the top.  

As we got closer to the top people started warning us about how windy it was at the arch.  They told us to hang onto our hats, sunglasses, and kids because it was "hurricane-like" up there.

Unfortunately, they weren't kidding.  Like the description says, the last 200 yards of the hike follow a rocky cliff carved out on the side of the slickrock, and you can't see the arch at all for the entire hike until you round the final bend.  And when we did, the wind nearly knocked us all over.  We all linked arms, scooted over to the nearest ledge and quickly took a picture before turning back to protect our little lightweights from flying off the rocks.

We stopped for a break around the corner, again trying desperately to keep everyone from the edge of the cliff.  That little arch up there had crazy whipping wind shooting through it.  Once we finished up our snack we headed back down, walking considerably quicker than we had on the way up.  It still took us quite a while to get down, but eventually we made it back to Marshmallow- hot, tired, thirsty, and triumphant.  I was so impressed with how determined the kids were to finish that hike.  We were all in it together and accomplished our goal as a team.

We made one more stop in the park that day at The Windows, which was probably the kids favorite part of the day.  It was shaded and cooler by that point in the day and there were lots of rocks to explore.

They scurried right up to the top of the rocks and peered over the edge.  When I asked them what was on the other side they said, "Nothing!"

Jason hurried up there, confirmed that there was nothing but a huge drop-off on the other side, and shuffled them away from the edge.

After that we headed back down the mountains into Moab to get dinner.

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We were definitely asking a lot of the kids to have them sit in a restaurant after such a long, hot day, and the night ended with some tears and high-tailing it out of the diner when Adam couldn't make a decision about what kind of ice cream he wanted.  He is extremely analytic of all choices he ever has to make, especially when it comes to food, and he does not like to make choices without exploring ALL of his options first.  That, combined with Emma taking off her shoes and crawling under and over and around her chair, made for an early end to the night out on the town.  Just as well, too.  We had a much better time once we got back to the hotel and were able to swim and shower and sleep.  It takes getting super dirty to appreciate the wonderful feeling of being clean again- I think I was picking red sand out of everyone's ears for a week after Moab.

The next morning we headed back into the park to check out Balanced Rock, something we had chosen to skip the day before in an effort to preserve every ounce of our hiking energy for Delicate Arch. 

This picture makes me laugh- "Please, I can balance a giant boulder in one hand while juggling a baby and comforting an armless Emma.  Motherhood is a cinch!"  If only... 

Then just like that it was time to get back into the car and move on to the Colorado portion of our family vacation.