On a whim, and because me and my wife desperately needed a change of scenery we grabbed the popup, threw a lot of blankets in it, loaded up the ARB fridge and took off on a mini camp trip with the kids. from home from work to packed and gone 1.5 hours.
Goblin Valley state park is 3 and a half hours away from us, and we figured that would get us in just in time to get setup and have a campfire with the kids.
we rolled into camp around 730 and snagged a spot in the actual campground. We could have just brought a tent but it was faster to bring a mostly packed trailer, plus it had heat and it was going to be 38 at night.
That and the fact that the kids go gonzo when we camp in the trailer, they love it. I mean it would have been cheaper to get a hotel room nearby and drive the NoxBox (a lot cheaper) but where is the fun in that?
Towing means 9 mpg and 50 mph summits. Aint care, the cruiser handled it like a champ...an overweight retired champ. Making sure to fillup at half a tank every 100 miles got old though, but the places out here are pretty remote and you want to make sure you are always above a half a tank if you can. In fact Golbin valley state park is so remote, its not even on the grid. its 100% solar and propane powered. The visitors center, the “shop” and all 34 sites and restrooms. The water is even drawn with solar electric pumps. kinda neat. Zero cell coverage as well; Time to unplug.
Kids got up at 630, which meant we all did. Hey, killer sunrise though! fortunately we all slept warm and solid through the night, which isn’t SOP for our kids. It would have made the drive home that day very much longer.
Im usually the type that needs to be away from people when I go into the wilderness, but group sites like this are the best for families because there are always some other kids around and they love to play together. These are my girls with some other kids that were playing around. They were older but so kind to play with them. My youngest loved it, she didn’t want to stop playing with her friend “her”. when we called her back to get her hair done she went to find her friend again right after. “Her? where are you? Her its me!”. She later found out “her’s” name.
Goblin valley itself is kinda of a one day thing, which was one reason we chose it. Its the same reason me and my 2 best friends chose it 12 years ago as a half day layover from a trip to capitol reef.
As fate would have it, we got the exact same campsite we had those 12 years ago. It was here that, lying next to my friend and now wife’s sleeping bag on the cracked soil that I knew she was the one for me, we were dating a few months later and a year after that we were married. Coming up on our 10 year anniversary in a few weeks.
Anyway the kids loved to play in the hoodoos (which you can do totally free reign)
A little nerve wracking for a parent though, since there are some real dangerous drops and falls. All was good though, and they played hard from 9 to 1130 when it was snack time.
and maybe a little rest on the trailer
A note on trailers: Yes, it limits where you can travel, yes stuff breaks on it, yeah I don’t care if you don’t considering it “camping”. its pleasant, comfortable and lets me have more fun with the kids outdoors without feeling wasted from “camping”. There is a time and a place for “roughing it” but if you can, I recommend being as comfortable as you can be with a family. thats my 2 cents.
Ah memories, stopping near hans flat road for a pit stop reminded my of the maze, I can’t wait to get back out there.
Because we had just eaten a snack and we had a few hours before we had to head home we debated what we should do. Vicarious and his family were recently here and had a lot of fun on the little wild horse road (I’ll let him post that trip...eventually...) and while it looked like lots of fun, I wasn’t keen on 3 hours of driving followed by 4 hours of driving. Or rather, I knew I wasn’t keen on dealing with my kids and wife after all that. Instead we went south to hanksville, where we stopped for gas (again) at Hollow mountain gas station and tourist trap convenience store.
Its basically a rest stop inside a giant hollowed out cave. Kinda neat, especially since its way bigger inside that you would think and its partly exposed walls.
From there we drove over to swing arm city, just to show my wife what it was all about. We would have stayed and played but the wind was ripping a steady 20 and gusting well above 30. Nope.
The next stop was river ford at the fremont river. I was thinking it would be fun for the kids to splash in the river. NOPE! The water was maybe 35. I was thinking it would be fun to cross just for the heck of it but it was running pretty good. I could have done it, but not without in good conscious unhitching the trailer and it wasn’t worth it.
On towards cap reef proper. I LOVE that place. just the drive is intoxicating. and the fact that its a free park just sweetens the deal. It was colder here, but we ate a nice lunch and had some fun playing around. even though the orchards aren’t even blossoming, there were plenty of deer just milling around.
We stopped at the visitors center, got my 5 year old a replacement stamp in her passport book and drove on home. it was crazy windy again, and going on this loop meant much higher and steeper mountain passes but it was pretty.
I figure we spent about $180 in food, fuel, and camping fees for about 31 hours of fun. was it worth it? I think so.