Running Away to the Desert (Again)

Learning: A four-day weekend surrounded by two four-day weeks is just about the right pace for me right now.

Last week, Qualtrics (and all of SAP) decided that in the face of hard times, they would turn Memorial Day weekend into an extra long weekend by giving us Friday off as well as Monday. It was pretty cool to be given that extra unplug and unwind time, and I'm extremely grateful for a company that is not only financial stable but also is attentive to and acting on the extra needs of employees in these tough times.

With this extra gift of time, we decided to high-tail it to the desert, along with approximately half of the state of Utah. Fortunately, the desert is pretty big, so there was plenty of space for all of us. The extra van in this photo is my parents', there wasn't actually a traffic jam of VWs on the dirt roads. Although... that would be pretty epic if it were the case.

We're self-contained in our van, so we don't need campgrounds (although flush toilets are awfully nice when you can get them). So we just headed down the Burr Trail in Escalante National Monument until we found a secluded (and ecologically responsible) side road to camp on.

There was a large sandstone hill-rock-thing down our dirt road that Ben immediately vowed to conquer. We had, of course, packed along a set of three unicycles so that he and WanYing had a few to choose from for whatever camping unicycle needs might befall them. We like to stick to packing only the necessities while camping - beer, hot dogs, unicycles, sleeping bags.

I got to play photographer for the unicycle slickrock adventures and it was a blast, except for the part where I got totally freaked out trying to climb down the giant sandstone mountain and my children had to talk me down. Yes, I was scared to walk down the same slope my son carried/rode his unicycle down. I stand by my self-preservation instincts.

Here are some of the choice unicycle shots and movies:

It had been years since we had hiked to Calf Creek Falls, so we decided it was time to make the trip again.

Here's Sasha on our last trip to the falls :)

And here's another one from the way-back machine! Thank goodness the kids can hike 6 or 8 miles under their own power now!

It was such a lovely hike - hot on the trail, cold at the falls. The trail was busy, but not so busy that you felt like you couldn't find your 6-foot bubble. And the dogs loved it.

I'm pretty sure this is the same place as where I took Sasha's photo 8 years ago!

On Sunday we decided to try a new adventure and drive to Spooky and Peekaboo Slot Canyons. This meant driving 26 miles down a dirt road, which didn't sound so bad until we discovered that the road was essentially one huge washboard. It was astoundingly awful and I have pledged to Steve that whenever he wants to upgrade the van's shocks, I will not stand in his way.

Deeply awful drive that it was, the hike more than made up for it. The 1.4 miles to the slots themselves was super beautiful and a total unexpected bonus to the day.

Like everything else, the slots were busy, but traffic moved through pretty well except for one chokepoint where we ended up waiting 30 minutes for a family to navigate one of the 12-foot drops.

The slots were the perfect level of adventure for us. Plenty of squeezes, a few drops to navigate, a few climbs to get over, but nothing that required a rope. I can see why these slots are so popular!

I am so grateful for the time and space to get away with my family. The freedom of running away to the desert, where we can experience adventure and move our bodies and still do it in a way that is safe for ourselves and the local communities is a huge blessing.

I'm sure we all have a bunch of figurative steep grades and sharp curves ahead in the coming weeks and months. I'm just grateful that last week we got to enjoy these literal ones on a family adventure!