Time in the Desert

Last Wednesday evening we made an impromptu decision to get the heck out of Dodge. During a play date with our friends Hailey and Saso, their Mama, Petra, told us they were headed to Indian Creek for the weekend. Indian Creek is an amazingly beautiful part of the southern Utah desert, and is situated along the road that serves as the southern entrance to Canyonlands. Indian Creek has become an international climbing destination, and Spring and Fall are the seasons to be there.  After deciding we were going to go, we had lots of schedule shuffling to do, and we quickly packed up, tried repeatedly to fit everything into the Subaru Outback, decided it simply would not fit, threw everything into the truck, and forgot lots of things.  Despite the hasty retreat, once we arrived at the Bridger Jack camping area, we were able to pretty much chill out.  For a few hours anyway.

We spent our REI dividend and used the 20% coupon to buy a palace of a family tent--a 6-person, 6-foot tall monstrosity with a full vestibule. It was awesome!  Scott figured out how to set it up while I worked to get the girls and the puppy fed before it was completely dark. The girls played with Hailey for the few hours of daylight, and the parents tended to kid requests, gear needs, and getting settled into camp. Finally, I was able to enjoy a beer in the starlight.  The magic of Indian Creek finally started to seep into my being.

The next morning we woke and quickly packed up our gear, food, and water so we could head off to Donnelly Canyon to climb.  We arrived to a very packed parking lot, which wasn't surprising since it was a Saturday and Spring.  We all hiked up to the crags, and Nena started worrying about the safety of the puppy.  Nuptse had a near-death encounter as we were trying to leave when she got out of the house and was nearly flattened by a speeding car. Thankfully that didn't happen, but the fear of that plus the exposed boulders that Nuptse was scaling started a bit of panic for Nena.  Finally, we decided that it would be more fun to descend and play in the river than to hang out at the crag while the grown-ups climbed. In the end, the river was pumping a bit too much, so I took all the girls back to camp and Petra and Saso stayed with the guys to climb.

The girls had a grand time playing with their Hotwheels cars, stuffed animals, two tents, the back of the truck, and the vast vistas of Bridger Jack mesa. There was nary a conflict, and I was able to enjoy a book and the warmth of the sun, in between hunting down snacks, escorting them to our homemade pooper, retrieving cars that fell down into boulder cracks, calling for Nuptse who discovered that there are still a few nincompoops people out there who are uninformed about Indian Creek's poop policy (scroll down a bit) and who left their poop in easy puppy access (Gag!!), digging holes to bury said poop, and preventing the puppy from digging up said buried poop, among other things. (Whew...reading all that makes me tired.)

Finally the rest of the crew arrived, along with our dear Uncle Teague, and dinner and more fun ensued.

Sunday we hiked into Canyonlands and Nena bombed it up a small  Via Ferrata just when I thought she'd want to turn around. I'll post pictures as I get a chance.  I (of course) forgot my camera while in Canyonlands, but took a couple shots on my phone.

Monday we scrambled around on the awesome sandstone boulders, found some really cool small skulls, took a hike down to the actual Indian Creek, discovered a gorgeous collared lizard (I'll post our photo, too), hiked back to camp, dismantled camp, played cars, bouldered some more, waited for Daddy to get back from climbing, and generally just enjoyed the day.  That evening we drove up to Moab, and settled into the Bighorn Lodge, one of our faves thanks to their dog-friendly policy and their proximity to the delicious food and microbrews at the Moab Brewery.

Tuesday we hiked the beginner loop on the Slickrock Trail, watched a bunch of new mountain bikers cut their teeth on the awesomeness of the Moab slickrock, went to the musical instrument park and listened to Daddy perform for us, and then I hiked the Portal Trail with Nuptse in an effort to thoroughly wear her out. We ate at Eddie McStiffs, shopped on the town, tried to swim at night but the water was just too dang cold, and ended up watching a cool show on the History Channel about ancient cultures documenting visitors from space hundreds and thousands of years ago.

Overall, it was a lovely get-away and enough time to actually feel a bit rested and recharged.