Monday, May 27, 2019

escalante - day one


Every May for the past several years I get this yearning to head south to where the red rock and blue skies are. I love adventuring with our family and I love the solid time together. The kids were doing well in school so we didn't feel too bad having them miss a couple of days. We were all in need of some time away!

This year we decided to explore a new place we'd never been to before. We fell in love with Escalante pretty quickly. One of the best parts was that it was not NEARLY as busy as Moab is these days. 

We left after school and work on Wednesday. We didn't pull into town until pretty late, but everyone was awesome at unpacking quickly so that we could get to bed. The next morning was beautiful and we couldn't wait to get to our adventuring, but breakfast first. Eating breakfast in nature is the best!




Day one we made our way to peek-a-boo and spooky slot canyons (after the long 20+ mile bumpy dirt road ride). What an adventure! At one point Justin felt he couldn't fit through the 12 inch wide areas so he ended up turning around and met us at the entrance. I had a moment there where I thought I was insane for taking these five children by myself through the rest of the canyon. Lucky for me the older boys were amazing at helping us all get through safely and in the end I totally don't regret going through. It was so cool...except for the couple of snakes we encountered. :) 





:: my favorite part was watching everyone pitch in and help each other through the difficult parts ::


:: we did it!! ::

Dry Fork Canyon was nearby so we went a little ways in to check that out. The boys found a lizard that made it's way to Taylor's shoe, so naturally they fell in love with the little guy. We would have kept going farther, however Corbin and Levi encountered a rattle snake so we ended that hike quickly. :)






The kids favorite part of the day was devils garden. They loved running free, jumping off rocks, exploring. It's natures most perfect playground.







After a long day of adventuring, we were happy to come 'home' for a campfire, tin-foil dinners, and some cuddling in the tent while we read and play games.