The Fall

Ok, maybe not THE fall, but MY fall. . . Let me start at the very beginning. . . Goblin Valley is one of my favorite places in Southern Utah. It's like an Alien planet. In fact, it was an Alien planet in Galaxy Quest - remember the rock people? Anyway, Jon and I were talking about it and realized the kids didn't remember ever going there, so we decided to go there on our way down to Moab (more on that later). It was so nice to get into warm sunshine! The colors in Southern Utah always amaze me. They did more than usual this year because you just never see orange dirt in Texas. You see LOTS of orange with UT memorabilia, and it actually is the same color, but NOT the same.

Can you believe this landscape???? The "goblin" part of Goblin Valley refer to the pinacles of sandstone everywhere. You can run all over and climb and explore. . .

So we did just that!

I was exploring a goblin about 15 feet high. I looked out over the valley to Jon on a goblin across from me, and felt something going on around my foot. I looked down and what I thought was rock was turning to sand and melting away. I remember thinking, "I wonder how long it will take to hit the ground" and the next thing I knew, I was seeing a blur of orange rock and blue sky. I hit the ledge and thought, "Oh, that came faster than I thought it would" as I bounced down the next level and thought, "I wonder how many more times I will hit" and then landed for good. Jon said I looked like a rag doll falling (he wanted to do an illustration on this picture documenting The Fall with where I landed etc.). I certainly FELT like a rag doll. I had scrapes and bruises on all sides of my body, but amazingly no serious injury. This is the offending Goblin and if you look right under my left hand, you can see a blur on the landscape made by my backside.

I don't think I have ever seen Jon run as fast as he did, and you'd never know he had a bum knee! Looking up at the Goblin I fell from. It looks scarier looking up at it than looking down when I fell. We keep saying how amazed we are I didn't get really hurt! How many people can say they fell off a Goblin??

I thought about posting pictures of my bruises etc, but I'll spare you those. (JK, I REALLY don't have pictures of that!)

The kids on various goblins and caves . . .

Definitely a memorable day. Even though I left a good amount of skin and blood here, it will still be one of my most favorite places ever. Coming up . . . Arches, Tampa and tumors . . .