As a family, we have been to Canyonlands a number of years ago when we checked out the Island-In-The-Sky district. We liked it, but we were not completely wowed by it. Not long ago when Lily commented to our friend Jessie that we weren’t wowed by Canyonlands, she said, “you’ve never been to the Needles District.” She was right.
This morning we woke up after a semi-dramatic night. Dramatic good and dramatic bad. Dramatic bad was that it was cold, and Lily and my airmat malfunctioned and lost tons of air in the night. Also, Clarissa woke up at night, and needed to jump in Lily and my double sleeping bag. Dramatic good was that it was really fun to cuddle with Clarissa and Lily for warmth, and the stars were unbelievable. Lily slept less than everyone, but she spent a lot of time gazing out her window at the remarkable stars.
In the morning, I played a super fun game with the kids in which we pretended the dirt was lava and someone was chosen to be the lavamonster. As long as people stayed on logs or rocks, they were safe, but as soon as they were tagged by the lava monster or fell on the lava (dirt), that person also became a lava monster to chase (walking slowly per the rules) the rest of the survivors. I had a blast and truly forgot my worries!
Then we headed to the Needles area. The drive was incredibly gorgeous. The cliffs were incredible, and sometimes had climbers on them. Once we arrived in the Needles area, we did the Pot Hole and Walking Slickrock trails. They were so fun! Much of the trail was over interesting rock and boulder terrain. The kids had so much fun climbing on rock features, and hiking on such interesting terrain!
Here are the pictures of the pot hole trail.
Here are the pictures of Slickrock
Here is video #1 and #2 of Clarissa happily working her way down the Slickrock trail.
After our wonderful and sunny hiking, we went again to our most favorite Moab eating establishment, Pasta Jays. Lily got an incredible portabello pasta dish, Mary got macaroni and cheese, Lydia got tortellini and the rest of us got spaghetti and meatballs.
Then we drove home! We rotating requesting songs to play on the way home, and just enjoyed our last bit of time traveling as a family.
At home, Lily and I were exhausted. She bathed to help with the skin issues she’s been having and to decompress, and I decompressed on the floor next to her. We both felt stressed and overwhelmed at the thought of all life is throwing at us right now. I also had a nice long prayer that helped me to center and remember that I’ve always found balance and light through focusing on the Holy Ghost, inviting into my life, and heeding It’s whispers.