Salmon Tolman Fam: Spring Vacation Part 2: {sort of} lost & {goblins} found!

Friday, May 16, 2014

Spring Vacation Part 2: {sort of} lost & {goblins} found!

This is the 2nd post in a series about our Spring Break Vacation this year.

After leaving Grandma Rose's house in Pleasant Grove, we headed south towards Moab. I let Ammon look at the map for a while, so I relied on my memory to tell Josh directions on how to get to Moab. I told him to take the Nephi exit, and we'd head south on that highway. When we were driving past the Spanish Fork exit on the freeway, the sign also said it was for Moab. "Is this our exit?" asked Josh. I answered: "I don't think so. This must be another way to get to Moab, but it's not the way we're going". So when we stopped for gas at Nephi, I got the map back from Ammon to double check, and sure enough, the exit that we'd passed 25 miles ago WAS indeed the exit we were supposed to take. This of course really angered Josh, but it didn't really bother me...mostly, because it helped me follow through with a plan I'd had to go visit the Goblin Valley Utah State Park.

Weeks prior to going on vacation, I decided that I wanted to squeeze in a visit to Goblin Valley. I'd never been there before, but I knew of some friends that had gone there with their families and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to include it in our vacation plans. I looked on the map, and realized that it wouldn't actually be on the way to Moab. At that time, I was trying to decide the best way to get there, either down the Ephraim highway from the Nephi exit to Interstate 70, then head east towards Moab and hit Goblin Valley along the way OR head down the Price highway from the Spanish Fork Exit until I-70, then go west for 10 miles to the Goblin Valley exit, then backtrack to Moab.

Josh was never sure if he wanted to go there or not, so we hadn't solidified our plans regarding the visit to the State Park. But once we got to Nephi, we had to make a decision: either backtrack the 25 miles to Spanish Fork, then on to Moab, OR continue on the same path we were on (which was originally the longer way) and go to Goblin Valley on the way to Moab. I got my original wish: we decided to go to Goblin Valley. So, wrongfully going the longer way ended up not being a complete loss; I felt happy to know that we were going to the place I wanted to! Josh, however, felt the opposite about taking the wrong exit, and from Nephi to I-70, he was irritated with me! ;)

Once we got on I-70, and started heading east, it looked like the shortest way to get to Goblin Valley (which is on a loop road with both ends of the loop being a freeway exit) was the west exit (the exits are 20 miles apart). As we were heading east, I kept referring to the map so I could keep track of how close we were getting (in case the kids asked "are we almost there?"). This was a very boring stretch of the trip: there is nothing on I-70 of any interest to the kids, so I kept trying to entertain them with several games. This being one of them:

When we got to mile post 132, I realized that we missed the exit that would've led us to the Park. So, we turned around on the freeway, and backtracked a few miles (and Josh was doubly irritated at me by now for being a terrible navigator, so I chose to ignore him and occupied myself by taking photos, including the one pictured above). As we approached the exit that we were SUPPOSED to take 3 miles earlier, I realized why I'd originally missed it: there was NO markings or signage whatsoever saying that it was the exit for Goblin Valley. We took the exit, and shortly after beginning the drive down the road, we realized WHY there was no signage for Goblin Valley at that freeway exit: it was an AWFUL road. It was a single-lane, very bumpy, dirt road that led to a single-lane, very bumpy, rocky road on rocky cliffs. The twenty miles we drove on that road leading to Goblin Valley was the LONGEST and WORST part of our entire trip. The boys were tired of being in the car and were whining, Josh was mad that he'd followed so many wrong directions that day and was impatient, and I started resenting everyone for being mad that I'd planned a fun trip and I yelled at them all. Josh was SOOO afraid that we'd get a flat tire on that terrible road and would be stranded in the heat with a cranky family on a rocky ledge. Thankfully, though, THAT didn't happen. About two miles before the park, the road became a two-lane paved road. If you ever want to go to Goblin Valley, don't make the same mistake we did: make sure you take the eastern exit from the freeway (even if you're driving from west to east, you will still save so much time and drama by taking the 2nd exit!)!! We FINALLY made it to our destination:

And after just a few moments of being at Goblin Valley, all the anger and frustration and impatience dissipated. We all LOVED this beautiful place! This is the view from where we began our trek around it on foot:

The kids were happy to be free from the car prison, and able to explore the park without following any kind of trail whatsoever! There wasn't a lot of people there, and the weather was simply gorgeous, both of which also helped improve our moods rather quickly!

For two hours, we walked and explored and hiked all around the amazing Goblin formations and took lots and LOTS of pictures!!!

Josh with a Big Nose

Kanyon on a Camel Head

Micah on a Dragon Snout

Josh with Lovely Lady Humps

Kanyon found a Rock Lounger!

Jonah is a turtle!

Micah under a Large Peanut!

Josh playing Peek-a-Boo!

I love that picture of all my boys!!! As I was taking the photo, I saw something small scurrying by out of the corner of my eye. We spent the next several minutes trying to catch it!

We got close to capturing it, but never could. Can you see it in the photo below?

It's a lizard in the center of the photo, with the tip of its tail in the shade and its body in the sunshine on the rock.

After over an hour, we finally made it to the end of the Goblin Valley to the rock cliffs!

This is the view looking back on where we'd just come from. We parked our car at the top of that center low hill:

Can you spot my own little guy down in the valley of Goblins?!

And can you spot my oldest boy trying to climb the cliff wall?!

Ammon was determined to scale the ridge!

And once he made it there, he couldn't seem to get down. He thought he could jump. And he kept telling himself that he could. Josh tried convincing him of that possibility as well.

But no matter how many times he told himself he could jump, his feet wouldn't follow. He was in this position for over 15 minutes.

We got impatient for him to jump, so we started to head back to the car. Finally, he just decided to come back down the same way he went up! By the time we made it back to the car, we were all tired and happy. After exploring so long in the heat, everybody was glad to sit in an air-conditioned car for the final stretch of the drive to Moab (which we made it to without getting lost or traveling on bad roads again! Yay!).

It was worth the extra drive and madness to go to Goblin Valley, and I'm so glad that we did. I loved all the different formations we saw there, some of which were in the above photos. Here's some more that I really liked: