Goblin Valley 08

Alright, I know there are a lot of pics, if you want the explanations first go to the bottom of the post. First we have Cody, Kota, and Chey. This is what they did the whole way. They only get to play their game-boys in the car, so they took advantage of the hour and a half. A self portrait in the car.

Much of the way there looked a lot like this. This picture doesn't show it well, but it all reminded me of a watercolor painting. Lots of soft, sort of washed out colors, and flowing form.

Chey and Kota in a little nook.

Kai and Nate

Kai

The big "egg" that I decided wasn't worth climbing. Nate tried to talk me into coming up by telling me that I "have a wild new haircut but I won't try wild new things!" Crazy guy!

Chey liked sitting inside this little shelf.

Mommy in the cave!

Chey climbing up into the cave.

Cheyenne, Dakota, Kaileen, Aaron, Benjamin, and Caleb in the cave.

Dakota with his head light in the cave

The rock that fell. Or did it?

One of the only pics we managed to get of Nathan. Would have been a good one too if mom had known to fix the shutter on the camera lens first. Cody even looks good! (haha just kiddin')

Kaileen and myself in the cave.

Cody hiding from the rain

Wet goblins!

Aaahhhh! A goblin! Oh wait, that's me.

Lots of mucky mud mud mud!

Ok, now for the explanation. We decided to go to Goblin Valley with a family of friends and fellow homeschoolers. The drive was pretty good, only about an hour and a half away from home. I listened to music and played with the camera for most of the way, and as was before mentioned, the other kids played their games until they had to stop. In my opinion they missed a lot of pretty scenery. When we got there it was very windy and pretty darn cold. We went when we knew it wasn't going to be too hot, haha, oops! We ate lunch fast, careful to make sure nothing blew away. I was getting really annoyed with my hair. No longer long enough for a ponytail, and just long enough to drive me crazy on a windy day! After lunch we headed down amongst the goblins. Luckily it wasn't too windy once we got down there. We all decided to head to a huge egg shaped rock that we had spotted from the pavilion eating lunch, so on our way we played around and took pictures. I sat on one nice little "toadstool" rock that made a perfect little seat. My mom decided that Kai should sit next to me for a picture. Evidently it could handle one teenage girl, but two was too much for it. It broke! Kai and I started screaming and laughing and had to jump away. Too bad mom didn't know what was going on until it was too late, that would have been a good pic!

When we got to the egg I decided it didn't look that great, so I stayed below while almost everyone else climbed it. I think Lisa (one of the moms) got stuck, and Nate had to go back and help her. She needed his assistance a few times actually. Silly Lisa!

We found a really cool cave close to the "egg" and everyone had to climb into that. It had two little "rooms" and fit us all in pretty well. We had to climb up into it, and then either sit on the edge at the entrance or scoot along a shelf past a sort of crevice to get to the rooms. Later someone observed a rock that had obviously been part of the shelf at one time. There was a little concern after some of us decided that it had fallen! I must admit that Kai and I were sure we had just scooted across it, and an evacuation was declared necessary. However, further examination revealed that the rock, though at some point it was indeed part of the shelf, was in the same position it had been when we first got there. In other words, it had been like that for a while, and was now sort of attached to the place where it had fallen. Cave safe!

It started to rain shortly after that (actually it sort of already had been, but now it really was) and we sat in the cave and watched it for a while. Then we decided that it looked like we had to end the trip early =( because we couldn't live in the cave forever (although I think that was suggested). So we all tramped back through the muck all the way back to the cars. It was rainy, and muddy, and we were all wet when we got back. We were all a couple inches taller from all the mud left on the bottom of our shoes. Seriously! And wow, I looked fabulous at the end of that hike (let it be understood that that is unmistakable sarcasm)! Even that wasn't horrible though. And the whole trip was actually pretty fun, and I'm glad we went!

So, if you ever decide to go to Goblin Valley when there is a 65% chance of rain, you had better believe that it is probably going to rain. If that's ok with you, then go right ahead and go!