Wolfe's 2nd Easter, Utah, and More!
Wolfe is growing up fast! The weeks seem to fly by and there's never enough time to catch up on things. We had a very mild winter in Denver, so not much snow at all. We took the kids up to Devil's Thumb Ranch skiing. While this was Wolfe's second time there, the first time he was only about 7 months and he stayed in the room while we took turns skiing. This time he went out skiing with us riding first class in a charriot that Kurt pulled behind his skis. Wolfe was not used to the snow and didn't like bundling up in winter clothes and boots and mittens, he did ok though and slept a lot of the time we skied. We would stop at yurts for lunch breaks and to let him get out and play around. The second day we took a rather ambitious route to a hut we planned at stopping at only to find it was a private hut and not open, we had to push on to another one which was not bad for Sarah and me, but Kurt had a rough time- it was warm enough the snow was melting and his skis were sticking bad, but after some cursing and eating the rest of the nut bars we all made it to the yurt. Sarah did great and got some practice going down some pretty big hills. Everyone was tired by evening, except Sarah who loved swimming at the pool. We would order pizza and have dinner at the hotel room. Sarah and Wolfe even had their own room and would play. Wolfe loved the big walk in shower and bath tub and mom would take him in the tub after skiing. Making hotel rooms kid proof for Wolfe was a little challenging and he would get into anything he could reach including the mini fridge and getting everyone's drinks!
Wolfe had a great Easter, Grandma and Grandpa were out to visit so he had lots of attention. We hunted for eggs in the backyard and Wolfe got a stuffed lamb. The eggs had little goldfish in them.
We took a trip out to Utah and spent a day in Arches National Park and Canyonlands. It was a beautiful trip, but the whole Moab area has gotten really busy and what used to be pretty easy to find blm camping has gotten much more difficult. We came in from the west side of Moab and down highway 191 checked out Dead Horse Point State Park for camping which had gotten good reviews. Although they had a couple campsites left we were really underwhelmed, there was no view from the campsites and they were all close together we decided to check out some BLM camping instead. There were several BLM camp grounds along 313, but they were all full and by this time it was getting pretty late and Wolfe was getting restless. We debated about trying camp sites along 128 or going to the Cane Creek BLM campground that we had camped at before on climbing trips to Moab, decided to try the Cane Creek Camp Ground. The road down is not great and has some drop offs as it winds down the canyon. No one was crazy about the semi treacherous drive down and after a long day driving it seemed even longer, but eventually we made to to the first BLM campground and found a pretty cool campsite with great view of the canyon and next to some big rocks. Despite the half hour drive on the sketchy road we decided to stay since it was getting dark and we with how busy all the other campsites figured it was best to stay put. Also Kurt and Sarah were arriving the next day which was Friday and we wanted to have a campsite for them to meet us. We set up camp quickly with the pop up tent and after some mountain house dinners and beers we all hit the hay.
Beautiful views the next morning and we figured we would go into Arches National Park and see some of the sights. Grandma and grandpa had never been there and Arches is a really cool park. We spent the day exploring Arches. Wolfe is at that age where hiking is tough, he wants to walk but his idea of hiking is checking out rocks and flowers and anything he sees that looks interesting...makes you realize how focused on the goal adults are when we hike. We did a few short hikes in the park and saw most of the highlights before heading back to camp.
Kurt and Sarah had already arrived and were out on a hike when we got there. Wolfe enjoyed playing with Sarah on the rocks after being in the car so much. We had a campfire that night and thought we would have a peaceful night's sleep, until a rave in the desert started playing load music and flashing lights across the canyon walls. The rave went all night long and we watched in the distance as buses arrived and the music continued. Probably toward the wee hours of the morning the music got mellow and we thought it would stop, but it got reenergized and went right on through to the morning. After a crappy nights sleep we packed up in the morning and headed for Canyonlands.
We went into the south part of Canyonlands and did part of a really cool hike across big rock formations. With the relatively long drive we didn't have a lot of hiking time and still had to find a campsite. After the hike we ended up finding a good BLM campsite on route 211 near Hamburger Hill. Just as we got there it the wind whipped up and it about the time we had the tents set up it started to poor and rained well into the night. We thought it would be a quick rain and that we would come out and start a fire, but ended up just going to sleep as it rained on and off much of the night. The next morning was nice and sunny, and we climbed around on the rocks near the campsite and then packed up to head back to Denver. Canyonlands was really cool and a lot less busy then Arches and the camping near Moab, we wished we had a couple more days to explore, so are planning a return trip this fall. Wolfe enjoyed all the adventures and seeing Grandma and Grandpa, if he doesn't remember he can look back at the blog! Click on photos below to see full size images.
