With spring break underway, we decided to get out of town for a few nights so we headed down to the desert. It was awesome! Our first stop was Goblin Valley. Words can't even describe it so the best we can do is photos.
our home for the first night
Goblin Valley
Your imagination could run wild with some of the formations...
On the next night, we stayed near the San Rafael Reef, just in front of the San Rafael Swell.
I think one of Andy's favorite parts was "talking" to the cows.
This is the result from Cooper having too much fun in Goblin Valley. His feet were really sore so we put on his "sneakers" (aka "desert shoes") during a hike.
We think we spotted pronghorns, but we're not really sure what they were.
The wind really picked up around lunch time and never really stopped until dinner time, which was perfect because that meant we could have a fire. Boy, were we fooled. I'm not sure what time it was, but it had to have been right after going to bed, but the wind really picked up--all night long. It was not a good night for sleep--we probably got about 3-4 hours. Whatever it was, it felt like we were awake more than we were sleeping. The wind was blowing so hard at times we thought the tent poles would break. We got up the next morning to more wind, to the point where it felt relentless. It wasn't slowing down. Needless to say, the desert is not great for my contacts as it is, but throw in some 40 mph winds and it really is not good. We decided to take a different route that day, hoping the wind would die down because we had planned to stay one more night somewhere down in the desert. Our route took us up through the San Rafael Swell. We encountered every kind of weather possible--wind, rain, sun, and snow. Yep, snow in the desert. Anyways, we drove along admiring the beauty of some amazing rock formations. To make a long story short, we ended up driving home that night. I learned some things during this trip:
1. It's inevitable that sand will end up in anything you eat and drink. You just have to get used to it. Don't worry if you hear a loud crunching sound as you bite into a sandwich. It's just sand.
2. Make sure to always have your eye glasses with you (if you wear contacts). Thank goodness I brought mine along.
3. If you have a dog, his/her eating habits will change because they are in a new environment and tend not to eat as much. That does not, however, mean they will not have the farts. Oh my word...we had to put up with some very bad Cooper gas on the long drive home. Not fun when you're enclosed in a small space. Whew...
standing in front of petroglyphs and pictographs that are more than 2,000 years old
Temple Mountain--I believe it's named that because it resembles a temple in Lehi, UT (or somewhere in UT).
