Goblin Valley Landscapes

Goblin Valley Family Pictures

David & Patti

MaryElla & Ezra

And the Scott Wolfords

And Tommy looking awesome

Camping in Goblin Valley 2003 - 2013

In June of 2003 David Deru convinced our family to take a camping trip to Goblin Valley. We're really not big campers but David assured us that it was super fun and we would all love it.

So we packed our three little kids into our blue van and drove the 4.3 lightyears to Goblin Valley. The first night we were there a hurricane-force wind accompanied by a microburst sheered our tent poles and we slept moist for most of the trip.

I had pretty good memories from the trip, but I wasn't sure our little kids remembered much. Imagine my surprise when in January Anna mentioned how fun the trip was and suggested we do it again. I talked to Mary who talked to Patti who talked to David (who's always in for a good time) and things started rolling. Nine years, eleven months,  and three weeks after our first trip to Goblin Valley, we found ourselves back ironically at the exact same camping spot.

As I was looking through the pictures, I found some similarities (and more than just that I was wearing the exact same hat Millie Tesch gave me.)

Steven looks pretty much exactly the same

Except now his name is Tommy. 

Becca has pretty much the same hair

Except now it's on Mimi's head

Anna . . . 

. . . is still wearing a hat. 

Lucas straddled the slot canyon walls and you can barely even tell which one is from 2003 and which one is from 2013. Give it a try. 

His legs might be a teensy bit longer in 2013

Coming soon - family photos, landscapes, and favorites.

Activity Days Fishing

I'm still drowning in Goblin Valley pictures. Next vacation I'm going to have a fifteen picture limit.  I'll take it, and if it isn't better than one of the fifteen I've already got on the card, it gets deleted.  Kind of like photography hunger games.

Until I get that done, I'll post a few pictures of the Daddy-Daughter fishing expedition Ellie and I went on.

Trout farm fishing is like having zucchini in the garden. No one likes eating it much, but the instant success makes you feel like a gardener/angler.

It took several tries before I realized that chumming with fishfood was the only way this was working.  The "bait" on the end of the hook was just a piece of leather.

As we got the technique figured out, the fish came quick. 

Catching three fish was enough for us.  We enjoyed a picnic at the pavilion and marked this one off as "mission accomplished." That was until we got them home and realized that we had to filet them ourselves. 

But after an advanced tutorial from our friends at YouTube, we marked that one as reasonably successful as well. 

Goblin Valley Time Lapse

It'll take me a bit to get some pictures ready, but I wanted to post a couple of things.

The weather overall was fantastic. The weather during camp set up was horrible. I thought it would be fun to do a time lapse of the camp set up. Initially we saw the overcast skies, but we didn't notice the impending microburst until it was on top of us. I had the camera set up and then put a plastic bag when we got a couple of drops. Right before the gale and floodgates hit us, I put the camera away. The time lapse ended up being shorter than I wanted.




It's short enough to watch a couple of times. Watch those clouds become quickly ominous.

Here is a sequence of trying to pose the kids for a picture in Little Wild Horse Canyon.

Sorry Steven - the gif maker chopped your head off. 

Here is a three image sequence of the winning team at horse shoes. 

More to come


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