When your 10 year old tells you “this is maybe my best day” and pauses to add “ever”, all those days of planning and packing and worrying about what might go wrong are instantly worth it! Today was an epic day. We started the day early in Arches National Park (our 11th national park!) with a mission. We wanted to hike to Delicate Arch which is written up as “strenuous… narrow ledges… exposure to heights… do NOT plan to hike this midday… take at least 1 quart of water per person.” Sounds exciting right? So while we didn’t wake up super early (because all this fun we’re having is tiring) we didn’t dilly dally either, and we were at the trail head before 9am and snagged the one of last parking spots. This is a popular trail and I was happy to see lots of people for a change. There’s comfort in knowing if I drop from heat exhaustion there’s lots of people around to go for help, LOL.

We LOVED this hike. It was work but between all the huffing and puffing, we kept saying “This is (gasp for air) such a cool hike!” Then dad jokes: “I think (gasps for air) it’s more of a hot hike.” Insert kids’ eye roll here. After a mile or so we did find the ledges and “exposure to heights” as they called it, and I started to get nervous and clinging to the cliff wall so everyone coming down had to pass on the edge side. The kids kept noting I was afraid of heights, which I’m usually not, and I explained I’m not afraid of heights, I’m afraid of falling or watching them fall on the slippery sandy rock. But then you finally reach the summit, and there’s the Utah license plate standing taller than you can imagine. It is incredible! The sandstone swirls around it, and it’s like climbing across the inside of a cereal bowl to get to it but the effort adds to the thrill of it. I was shaking the entire 45 minutes that we stayed to enjoy the view and told Mat it’s not the hike that’s going to make my legs sore — it’s the fear! The crowds of people were all so friendly and everyone was patient and courteous letting the people in front of them enjoy the arch, offering to take pictures for whoever was in front of you. Maybe it was the adrenaline but it all felt so warm and fuzzy to see everyone getting along and enjoying a beautiful spot.

The kids telling of this story may go differently: ‘it was awesome, I loved climbing all around, only mom was scared…’ but I think sometimes the fear adds to the excitement and experience. We hiked down pretty quick, in less than 40 min, and hit the visitor center as the mid-day sun was starting to do it’s thing. We happily returned to the RV for lunch and walking Murphy, who luckily seems to be over his stomach bug! After our siesta I had plans to explore another park in the area but knowing how remote it is, and how not all my ideas turn out great (think of all the missed sunsets) I was worried it’d be a tough sell but our kids have been such good sports this whole trip they happily agreed to my offer of “comfy chairs (backseat), shade, and air-conditioned downtime while I drive us somewhere neat.” So I drove us 90 miles into nothingness to find Goblin Valley State Park, also recognized as an international “dark sky park” for start gazing. The 90 minute drive was so worth it. and I had Mat entertaining me with quotes from Labyrinth the whole time, after telling him we were going to see hoodoos.

Have you see the movie “Galaxy Quest”? There’s a scene where the crew lands among a tons of boulder piles that all come alive and chase them. We were there among the “hoodoos” today. The state park set up tables and shade just above “the Valley of the Goblins” and they tell you that you can explore anywhere in the valley. There are no trails to stay on. The poster even advertises kids jumping across the tops of the hoodoos. Well technically, the ones we played on are “stunted hoodoos” called goblins. So we dropped into the valley and started slowly exploring, and then started climbing, and then started running around. Once again we had the place to ourselves. We did see a few other people here and there in the distance occasionally but really it felt like a huge playground just for us! It was just the coolest place, but again, pictures can’t do it justice.

The kids begged to play hide and seek but I was reluctant. I don’t like the idea of purposefully not being able to find my kids in huge park full of huge goblins that turns into one of the darkest places on earth every evening, but Mat told me I needed to relax and they’d be fine so I tried to be fun mom and play along. And fun it was! Once we started and everyone agreed to yell “polo” if the seeker yelled “marco” to give us a general idea of their whereabouts, it became a blast. Mat and I had just as much fun climbing and hiding and searching the goblins as the girls did. It was the most epic hide and seek game ever! Luckily it wasn’t until our way out that we read about the numerous venomous creatures, the hospital being 100 miles away, and some of the holes being called “keeper holes” that are easy to get into but virtually impossible to get out of, or “fun mom” might never have relaxed.

As we climbed out of the valley the kids told us it was their best day ever. They tried to think of ways to have future birthday parties here or how to get all their friends here for one big epic day of fun. But we reminded them that this place is so remote and being 90 minutes from Moab probably doesn’t see a lot of visitors from here, much less from NH! So that’s twice today that we put in real effort and got to enjoy something awesome – just a different kind of effort – one was a hot hike and the other was a long drive.

But our epic day didn’t end here. After thousands of miles of driving and 3.5 weeks of traveling with the company of just us, we crossed paths with our neighbors who live 200 yards from us in Derry!!! Not just neighbors… the girls’ best friends and a family we appreciate more than they’ll ever know having been part of our tiny bubble during crazy covid quarantine. So an awesome dinner at Moab Brewery with amazing friends was the perfect end to a fantastic day.

Monday, August 2nd, 2021