Goblin Valley 2014

The boys finished up their fall term this week and had Friday off so. . . . we thought it would be a good time to go on a little October trip to Goblin Valley.  We camped over night in the campground just outside of the valley of the goblins.  

We camped just below this "Goblin Castle".

Hiking into the park from our campsite. It was a little over a mile.

While there we found the scout troop from our old 5th ward who were camping there as well.  We had a really fun game of capture the flag with them. 

The Elephant

The weather was absolutely perfect and we enjoyed an amazing sunset as we walked back to camp!! 

Amazing colors!

This is my favorite formation. The Gardians of the Valley.

That night the stars were so bright it was amazing! One day I'll be able to take pictures of the stars without it looking like a big black thing with a few fuzzy spots. 

We had a little visitor in the middle of the night that found Buddy's food and made a nice meal out of it. Jacob's guess is that it was a kit fox. There is a little canyon next to our site that we could hike in. The kids found the bag from Buddy's food up there. 

We went back into the valley and played hide and seek Saturday. The kids wanted Buddy to sniff them out.  He was a bit clueless, I must say, but everyone had so much fun!  We stayed until lunch then headed back towards home. 

Isaac carried Bonnie all the way back from the far end of the valley.

Jacob hid in this little pocket on the top of a goblin.  When he was laying down I couldn't even see him.

We stopped for a while in Capital Reef on the way home. Dennis took the kids on a hike through Cohab Canyon which was only about 1.5 miles. Dennis got some wonderful photos! Jacob and I took the car and met them on the other side of it. 

A little mermaid on a rock.

We watched the local deer herd that live in the camp ground with all the orchards there. Kind of fun to see them up close. 

There were a couple guys this big there.

The canyon was so beautiful with all the fall colors. These are some panoramas that Dennis took.  Beautiful time to be there!  It was a great trip!!  

Bonnie said it was the "best trip ever!" She asked me if we could go again today. Her favorite part was camping at Goblin Valley.

Khora's favorite part was playing capture the flag.

Afton's favorite was exploring the canyon around our campground with her dad.

It's funny that the trips that are just kind of thrown together seem to be the best!