Road trippin' to the Rocks

 Hello Hello. Late blog, but I figure its worth it to wait a couple days for an interesting blog rather than another boring sunday blog about my work week... so here we are! I worked wednesday through saturday so the fun began sunday evening. I dipped down to Emery County after church to pick up Erin. We seriously planned this trip like last week. And I would use the word "planned" lightly because we didnt really plan it at all, I more just came up with the idea about a week ago, told her my idea and she was down. Things are always fun when little planning is involved. I picked her up and we were on the road to who knows where... we headed in the direction of goblin valley, but had no clue where we were going to camp.

In the middle of no where just happy to be alive. We drove around near the state park and there was plenty of RVs and campers just parked in the dirt. We kept driving and found the perfect spot. So so pretty and even caught the sunset. 

Parked in a little cove surrounded by these rocks. We climbed around for a little bit until it got dark and then we figured we should probably set up camp for the night... and by camp I mean...

make our beds in the back of my car. Honestly it was a great set up. I brought a memory foam pad, put my seats down and bang, a nice bed for two girls to crash on. Way better than sleeping in a tent on the ground. We stayed up way too late just talking and looking at the stars through my sunroof. 10/10 recommend car camping. Woke up the next morning and headed to our first stop... Little wild horse canyon. A slot canyon erin recommended thats just right outside goblin valley state park. This is kind of a funny story actually... so erin tells me its about a 1-2 hour hike through a slot canyon. Im thinking "sweet, thats quick and easy". Luckily we did pack a bladder of water, but we only grabbed two granola bars, one for each of us, for the whole hike. SO we start walking and seriously the canyon is super cool. It was nice and shaded and so dang pretty. We had to climb up some rocks at some parts and it was just a blast. We get about an hour and a half in and I ask Erin if this hike is a loop or if we need to turn around. She said "Im 85% sure its a loop" So Im thinking well if she says its a max 2 hour hike and if its a loop we should be almost there. So we keep walking and we run into a guy and his dog eating lunch. I ask him if this hike is an out-and-back or if its a loop. He let us know it is indeed a loop, but to hike the loop it is 8 miles. I thank the man just before I look right at erin with wide open eyes and both of us thinking WELL CRAP. Neither of us were prepared to do that long of a hike, but we kept trekking. Oh and we had already eaten our one and only granola bar before this man told us we weren't even half way done. As you can imagine, once we heard that news we picked up our pace quite a bit. luckily a lot of the rest of the loop was easy trail and not climbing through slots. Still super pretty and in the end we made it. We were both freaking tired, hungry and thirsty, but we made it. 8 miles before 11am and the hiking actually didnt stop there. 

sometimes when Im writing my blogs I get too involved with writing the story that I forget to add pictures in between so here is me that morning brushing my teeth on one of the rocks outside my car. 

The slots would open up every now and then to these big open sections that were so pretty. 

After we got back to my car, we downed some gatorade and had a snack as we drove on over to goblin valley. 

I didnt really know what to expect, but this state park is just one parking lot looking over a whole valley full of rocks like these. Its so interesting. You can walk around anywhere you'd like and just explore. Its honestly a kids heaven. I mean imagine the wicked hide'n go seek games you could play here?!

A super cool little pit stop and my feet show how much fun we had already had that morning. Blistered, swollen, dirty and tired. We ate our turkey sandwiches from the back of my car looking out on the valley. After lunch we headed back on the road for our next park... capitol reef! The very last of the Utah national parks to check off my list. Like I said, very tired, but we decided we could fit in one last hike. This one was only 2 miles so why not?? Hickman's bridge...

We sure did cram a ton into one day, but it sure was fun. Always feels good to get outside, enjoy the sunshine and visit new places. We drove through tons of small towns that Ive never heard of before and ended up at a burger joint in Ferron, Ut for dinner. Then an early bedtime and netflix for the rest of the evening. I love living in Utah. I love using my days off to do fun, new things. Me and erin talk a lot about our health problems and all the lifelong joys that come with them, but this weekend especially we were both just really grateful for our healthy-enough bodies to let us do these things. Its nice to have friends as stupid as me to sleep in cars and on a whim spend a full day exploring and hiking new trails. Erin is truly the best.