travel diary - canyonlands national park, utah // day four

on our last night in canyonlands we camped at the top of golden stair case. gordon and i decided to wake up early and watch the sun rise. that might be one of my new favorite things we do together on our adventures.

last campsite of the trip.

and we hit the dirt road one last time.

lots of road climbing.

so excited to stretch and be to top of it all!

the last time we will see this sign (well, until the next adventure that it).

travel dairy - canyonlands national park, utah // day three

after a long and windy night, we started day three.

just outside our campsite was the granary trail.

climbing in between rocks seems to be the only way to get to cool places.

the hardcastle's at the granary.

i've now asked for gordon to show me where were are on a map.  it might be good for me to know what roads we've traveled and such.

after our short hike we hit the dirt roads once again to make our way of the dollhouse.

and once again we saw the signs.

golden stairs.

hey look, it's chocolate drops again.

you can't quite tell from this photo but that's not one big rock. there are cracks that you need to jump over to get to the other side.  naturally, gordon wanted to test his luck and venture to the other side.

death or glory.

he said it was a bit sketchy coming back.  seems like his adrenaline rush faded a bit.

yesterday we were at the bottom...today we are at the top!

travel diary - canyonlands national park, utah // day two

the views from our campsite were seriously some of the most beautiful scenes i have ever seen.

yoga all day.

don't let the sun fool you.  it's still march.  the mornings and nights are cold.

gordon and the littlest Chiara chewing on grass.  boys are weird.

while others in our group set out for an overnight backpacking hike, we decided to hang out with the family and hike the trail at chimney rock.  the littlest Chiara wanted to hike along side gordon.  his dad kept telling him that gordon's legs are much longer than his and that he might not be able to keep up.  well that eight year old sure showed us.  he's quite the hiker!

dropping down in to the maze district.

that mister of mine...always willing to help.

i love this photo. like i said, that littlest Chiara hiked his little heart out.  and this was only the half way point!

twist and turns and tall rocks standing alone.  it's all very confusing when you're down in it.

i guess that's why they call it the maze.

pretty rocks covered the wash floor.

spotted: pictographs!  this one is called harvest scene.

we didn't realize how close we were to the chocolate drops.  

the maze sure mixes you up.

if you drop in you gotta climb out.

celebrating their hard work with knuckles and fireworks.

this is the oldest Chiara.  she was scared of heights.  we had to straddle this rock to get to the other side of mountain.  she chose to climb over it.  perhaps a bit more dangerous but gordon was there to help.

the kids and i kept measuring chimney rock with our figures hoping that the space between them would grow which meant we were getting closer to the cars.  

hiking 8 miles is no easy task...especially with kids.  but everyone did a great job and there were only two melt downs (none of which were mine, surprisingly enough).

travel diary - canyonlands national park, utah // day one

on the road again. and with new friends!

once again we went on an adventure in southeast utah with some new people.

it's been a lot of fun meeting up with people with our same love of the outdoors and adventure.

this time we met the Chiara's.  they are a great family who we spent lots of time with.

gordon and i said to each other multiple times that we hope our future kids will love the outdoors as much as the Chiara kids do.  and that our family works together like they did.  watching them was a sigh of relief...because we want to continue our adventures forever, hopefully with kiddos in tow!

we rolled in late and stayed just outside of goblin valley state park.

we got an early start the next day and hit the dirt roads towards canyonlands national park.

we saw 4wd vehicles recommended signs a lot.

gordon making our ride smoother by airing down our truck tires.  thank you honey.

toyotas unite!

the dirty devil river.  

it had to be crossed.

have we mentioned how much we love utah...gosh it's beautiful.

here's that sign again.

rough(ish) terrain. the road to canyonlands was slow moving...but really awesome too.

taking the road less traveled always proves to be remarkable!

oh, that's just cody.  in his BRAND NEW taco.  no added car body protection or anything.  

that's risky business right there.

my guy showing the chilins his wrist rocket skills.  they were trying to hit a specific spot on a tree.  no animals or people were harmed.

hip hip hooray!  we made it!

the wall.

the wall from the side.

entering the dollhouse.  

setting up camp.

campsite with a view!

no fires allowed so we hung out by a lantern while other played their guitar and sang.

it was a great end to our first day.