This past weekend, we took a jaunt down to Goblin Valley. Apart from being a perfect end of winter getaway and having stunning landscape, it is also known to be one of the darkest areas of the country as far as light pollution goes, and so makes for amazing stargazing.
We booked one of the park's two yurts. They're fairly new and the heater makes them beautifully cozy on a chilly desert winter night. (They also have a swamp cooler for the summer, but we didn't need it.)
As it turns out, we didn't take a single picture of our yurt during our stay, but they can be looked up easily. In fact, we watched
this video before we went up. They've changed a couple of things since the yurts were built, but in all essential ways, they're the same.
We were far more interested in our surroundings. While the following photos don't do the area any justice whatsoever, they still give you the idea. (Click on the pictures if you want a bigger view.)
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| This was the view from our porch. |
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| This was part of our "backyard" |
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| Another part of our "backyard" |
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| Back fence. :) |
Ben brought a pitching wedge and a box of golf balls so that he could practice his swing. He bribed promised the kids Starburst if they ran out to retrieve the balls for him.
He was ridiculously happy to be away for the weekend. (I usually don't get pictures of him smiling.)
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| Rewarded! |
Before dinner, we made the trek out to the main event. Goblins! These structures are also called hoodoos, tent rocks, earth pyramids and fairy chimneys. I like the last one best!
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| I call this one "The Angry Armadillo Glaring at the Oblivious Pig"... can you see them? |
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| We only explored a small area of the valley on the first day. It's much bigger than you'd think! |
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| The kids LOVED climbing on the hoodoos. |
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| Every time we saw the far upright rock, we'd start saying "I can SMELL you..." If you haven't seen "Up", then you need to. You'll get it! |
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| It was all about climbing! |
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| Henry tumbled off a hill and was complaining of his finger hurting. A little dance ensued to check all limbs for soundness. :) |
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| We saw quite a few of these black birds while we were there. We assumed they were crows, but they turned out to be ravens. They were HUGE! |
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| I'm imagining an intense game of Whack-A-Mole |
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| My manly-man! |
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| Hamming is genetic... |
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| Genetic. |
This is just day one of our trip. I have more pictures that I plan on posting up tomorrow.
Until then!
2 comments:
Awesome! I didn't know you were allowed to climb on them. If the yurts fit more people, I'd be all over that place! :D
The park rangers encourage people to not climb on them since you can easily fall off.. but they know everyone is doing it!
They just put up the warnings so that no one sues them. :)
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