In the morning Abe and Liem biked all of Slickrock together. It was a huge accomplishment, and I am so thrilled that they didn’t die in the process.
In the meantime I took the kids to a viewpoint on the way to Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands. There was no one around, which I thought was ideal. The kids walked out to some giant boulders and played until Clarissa threw a tantrum and I had to drag her back to the car. Basil was pulling one arm, Clarissa was pulling another, and draped across both arms I had everyone’s coats. That was the highlight of our adventure.
When we got back we picked up Abe from Subway (he and Liem biked to Moab after Slickrock), ate, and then drove up to Hidden Lake in the La Sal Mountains. It was slightly hair raising because the roads were not marked and half of them were unpaved, but we were thrilled to finally made it to the lake! And just as we turned into the pull-off for the lake, our car sank cabin deep into the craziest mud we had ever seen.
Abe and Liem built a ramp for the van, and then Liem, Phuong, Phuong’s dad, and Abe all pushed the van while I drove in reverse. I honestly thought we would be stuck on top of that mountain forever, but after twenty minutes–the van was free!
After that everyone but Clarissa, who was taking the longest, deepest nap of her life, and I headed to the lake to fish. The lake was iced over, so Abe heroically jumped in and cleared a spot for fishing! All of the non icy part of the lake below was cleared by hand by Abe, who was chest deep in ice water.
People spent two hours fishing and caught five fish. Ammon was traumatized when Abe had to kill one because the hook was buried in it. He saw the fish’s head and burst out into tears.
Soon after a stray dog found everyone. Phuong, Lydia, and Mary brought the dog to the van and while they were there the owner happened to pull up and collected his dog. I cannot stress how remote this location was, so this was kind of a shock. But it turns out his ranch was on the mountain around the corner, so not so shocking when we realized that.
The dog, whose name was Betsy, was so sweet. She wandered back to us thirty minutes later again, and I let her play with Basil. The kids absolutely loved her because she was so sweet.
Then we drove home along Route 128 past Castle Rock and along the river. It was so stunningly beautiful. I took pictures resigned to the fact that they could not remotely do this place justice.
We stopped at a grocery store, picked up stuff to grill for dinner, and then let the kids eat in the RV in front of the tv while we joined Liem, Phuong, and Phuong’s parents outside of their RV for a candlelit dinner that was so delicious.
This was definitely the most adventure filled day of the year! We are so grateful to have such fun friends to share the day wit.