Goblin Valley & Little Wild Horse Canyon

Let's just take a minute to appreciate those blue skies--man!! So beautiful and so appreciated, I don't think I saw the sun again in Indiana until last week. The beauty in southern Utah is unreal. 

We detoured on our way home past a couple of fun spots--first up was Goblin Valley!


We had a blast climbing around and exploring all the hoodoos. 



After an hour or so we drove a couple miles down the road to our next stop--Little Wild Horse Canyon! We'd wanted to do more slot canyons when we were in southern Utah over spring break, but didn't have the time to detour over, so we were all super excited to check this out (except Matthew, who laid down in the parking lot and yelled about how much he hated hiking). 

Neil ended up carrying Matthew, so everyone else thought it would be fun to get a ride too (I was actually impressed with how far they went like this!). 

Once we got into the canyon little Grumplestiltskin decided he would, in fact, walk on his own. 

Gosh this is just such a beautiful place!

The kids ran along the rocks for awhile until it really started narrowing...

Every single bit of rock was so beautiful. 

The former geology TA in me was in heaven! (We used to go on field trips to the San Rafael Swell in college but I'd never been to this particular canyon before.) 

Here's your reminder to always check the weather at the ranger station before you head into a slot canyon--it's easy to see why you would not make it out if there was a flash flood. 

So fun navigating all these twisty turns (and the kids looooved running up ahead and trying to surprise us). 

Can you see the high water mark in the rocks from all the floods? So cool to compare the two textures. 

We could have spent a whole day here but sadly we only had about an hour! 

Some bits you could just run through and then others you had to navigate down some pretty good drops. (And some you had to turn sideways and take off your pack and sort of inch along!)

So fun and totally worth the side trip!

Here was a really fun spot, the kids loooove it any time they get a chance to crab walk like this.

(I took this picture at the beginning when Matthew was still mad.)

Goodbye Utah--it was a fantastic week!! One of the rare trips that actually felt like a vacation--thank you everyone for being such phenomenal hosts!

 

Rock Canyon

On our last full day in Utah, we decided to take everyone for a hike up Rock Canyon. It was a beautiful sunny day so we dressed pretty lightly and totally forgot that we would be in shadow most of the way! This had consequences. 

And the consequence was named Matthew. 

He was cold. He did not want to hike. He continued to be cold despite wearing Neil's ski jacket over his own parka. And he SCREAMED longer than I have ever heard a kid scream. When he sets his mind to something, man, he can absolutely outlast parental fortitude (as I type this I'm thinking about the yelling he did over dinner today and how I finally broke down after an hour and said fine whatever don't eat just stop the screaming). 

But it was a beautiful hike!! We went up to the overlook a couple miles up the canyon. 

You know who did NOT complain? The person who'd just had an ACL repair, that's who (go Ruth go!!). 

Eventually we made it up to the overlook which was sunny and beautiful and everyone immediately got hot and shed all their layers. 

One thing that's fun about hiking with Deckers is that the snacks are always really good. My dad had cranberry bread, Ruth had ginger cookies and some kind of cool jelly candy squeezy things, I had...something. Probably Clif bars. 

So gorgeous! Neil flew the amazing drone that Paxton gave him for his birthday around and around and we had a great time checking everything out (I think this is pretty close to the campground? Dad hikes up here all the time). 

On our way back all the kids climbed down into the cave...

Seriously so beautiful and magical. 

Abigail really really really loved this forced hug from Juliet...

(Also if you look closely in these pics you can spot almost every grandkid wearing an article of my dad's winter gear.) 

Then that stinker Matthew ran the whole way back down the trail. 

I never get tired of how beautiful Rock Canyon is!

There were a bunch of people setting up ropes right next to the kids but they just scrambled up. SAFETY FIRST GUYS. 

Such a fun hike and I'm excited to do it again this spring (but no whining, okay?!).