Goblin Valley

Charles and I love everything there is to do outdoors. Every hiking, camping, backpacking opportunity that is thrown our way, we are sure to join. So when I got a call from a friend on Wednesday inviting us to head to Moab with them over the weekend I jumped on the opportunity.

We left on Friday, bags packed, dog in back, excited as could be. We were both so utterly anxious! I had never been to Moab, but had the opportunity of listening to Charles speak of his childhood memories (with much admiration) of going to Goblin Valley with Opa. Why not go?

When we arrived, we set up camp and immediately headed out to hike and explore the area. As it turns out, the place we set up camp actually used to be a mining village for uranium. In 1898 the area was covered in duplexes and small stone buildings that housed the miners and their families. While we ran out of time to get pictures, we did see that there were still remnants of small structures hidden in the camouflage of red rock.

The next morning, we headed down the street to Goblin Valley State Park.

I had seen pictures of this place before, but I was in absolute awe. The four of us, Charles, Cassie, Patrick, and I ran down and climbed on almost every rock we could. We were like kids in a candy store. We also soon discovered, one of the great things about having friends with you, is they can help take pictures of the adventure.

So get ready, because we took quite a few pictures:

The picture to the right is just a scenery shot from when we first walked into the park.

 And without a doubt, you know we climed ourselves up to any place we could, even just for a picture. Though, I'll be honest, it wasn't much of a climb, just an overly steep hike ;)

As the day wore on, and the avdentures continued, the sun began to beat down on us like ants under a magnifying glass. We then ventured out to find every cave we could to get some cool shade. Some of the caves we climbed to wrapped around to other exits, and some, well some were just to much of a climb for Zedd. No worries though, he had his resting spot too.



After four and a half hours of play, we headed back to camp for some hobo stew and shut eye. Charles and Patrick guys lit a wonderful fire, and cheesy as it sounds, I had to take a tribute picture....

The next morning, we cooked breakfast, packed up our tents and sleeping bags, threw the coolers in car, and cleared out. BUT, we weren't quite done. We still had to visit Little Wild Horse Canyon.

Little Wild Horse is a slot canyon, meaning if you see rain clouds above your head, you might want to get in the car and drive away. These canyons were carved by the water, and are the only outlets for the rainfall.

We hiked






                We climbed

And we even carried our little trooper through all the places he just didn't want to go. (Right after Charles decided he would walk the freezing water for Zedd, Zedd decided it wasn't that deep, and trudged through it anyway. At least you tried Charles)

We then doubled back through the canyon, got in our car, and drove home. Twas a fantastic weekend :)