Little Wild Horse, Goblin Valley, Black Dragon

Alene and I took Caiden and two of his cousins (brothers Ryan and Brady) down to the San Rafael Swell.

We left on Friday evening, which put us somewhat in a bind trying to find a campsite. As we got down to the area, we pulled off the road on US 24 and got lost on some side trails. I wasn't super nervous, but it's SO hard to see at night, even in a truck with your high-beams on. We just could not tell where the roads crossed so we could find our way back to the highway. Eventually, I was able to follow my old tracks from the way we took in.

We found a spot much further down by the canyon we were going to hike (Little Wild Horse) and it turned out to be a pretty nice little place. On Saturday we hiked 6 total miles (3 up and 3 back) of Little Wild Horse. Next time we go there I want to do the whole loop trail, which is 9 miles total.

We went back to the campsite and let the boys play around while Alene and I took a short nap. We then headed down to Goblin Valley and had fun exploring around there.

On Sunday we drove around the area a bit just getting a feel for some good camp spots (future reference), then drove down to the Temple Mountain wash and down to Chute Canyon (the first place I went camping with Alene). We stopped at the Temple Mountain wash area on our way out and hiked around on the reef rocks for an hour or so, then headed out of the area down to Black Dragon canyon, which was really nice. We hiked back 1/4 mile or so and looked at some ancient petroglyphs.

One funny story from the last day was Caiden's little quote about Oatmeal. It goes like this: That morning when we were eating breakfast (Oatmeal), my son refused to eat his and I told hime he would not get any red vines later on if he didn't eat his. After pondering for a bit, he said, "Daddy, do you want me to eat the devil?"

I busted up laughing inside. I can imagine at that age (7) not wanting to eat something and thinking of it in the worst possible way. I think "the devil" would be the best way to describe it, or anything you're afraid of.

I remember years ago my youngest brother (Billy) wrote a story (he's 15 now and a pretty good writer still). He used one metaphore like this, "I was scared as a baby being chased by satan". That is pretty much the best description I could think of too

Here is a link to the pictures from our trip.

Black Dragon Canyon

Little Wild Horse

Goblin Valley