A couple of weeks ago we were craving a bigger family escape. We reviewed our options and the closures and recommendations throughout the state and eventually settled on heading into the desert to camp. We were a little nervous that it would be too busy to be able to effectively social distance while camping, but we were relieved to find warm sun and wide-open spaces in the San Rafael swell.
It was glorious! We hiked until the dogs had to be lifted into the van at night, we climbed and explored, we played tons of board games. We reveled in the sheer normalcy of it all - no masks, no people to avoid, just our family in the desert. It was a blessed escape.Here's what our grand escape looked like:
We were excited to find that one of our favorite camping areas in the San Rafael Swell near Goblin Valley State Park was empty.
Of course, we couldn't go into the state park, but once we saw that the area was so quiet we decided to head to one of our favorite hikes, Little Wild Horse Canyon, to see if it was empty enough to hike safely. As you can imagine, quarters get close in a slot canyon, so we didn't want to hike it if the trailhead looked busy. But there were only a few cars at the trailhead and we were blessed by a bonus hike in one of our very favorite places (we assumed we'd have to skip Little Wild Horse this time because of crowds, but, hooray!).
The next day we headed to our second favorite hike in the area, Crack Canyon. There's never anybody at this hike, so we were confident we'd be able to enjoy the canyon in peace.
We were having such good time that we thought we'd try striking camp and driving to a different area for another night. We had never been in the area of San Rafael Swell closer to I-70 and thought we would give it a try.The roads were a little harrowing, but Rainy made it in grand style and with only a few new scratches as war wounds earned on the adventure.
We headed to Eagle Canyon Arch and happily hiked the ATV trail to a picnic under the arch. It's so fun that our girls are old enough to do 5+ mile hikes in a day and not even feel it! The dogs, however, did not fare so well. Apparently our old dog truly is getting old, because after 3 days of hikes and scrambles every day she was definitely feeling it that evening! Poor Chorney - at 11 she's slowing down a bit, but she's still faster than ChenXing, who has never really mastered the art of hiking or climbing or moving gracefully. We had to push that dog's butt up so many rock scrambles that we bought a belay harness for next time so at least we can lift her more easily next time!
We found a beautiful deserted pulloff for camping and enjoyed more board games and took on the challenging of burning all of our remaining wood! This led to lovely fireside snuggles and staying up to seeing the amazing desert night sky. It was the perfect end to a wonderful escape and we drove home tired, dirty, happy, and grateful to be able to enjoy such beautiful places.
Now, to plan the next runaway!
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