Grande Escalante

Ok. So the central part of the southern half of the state of Utah is a 1.9 million acre area that is called the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It has one paved road that goes from one side to the other...most of the attractions it boasts are down dirt roads. One of the most famous, Hole in the Rock, is 54 miles down a dirt road!! This place is massive and barren...but we loved it!!

We arrived in the late morning on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Our ideal place to camp was a first-come, first-serve campground that only has 13 sites, and is the trailhead for one of the most popular hikes in the Monument...in other words, we weren't planning on actually being able to stay there. We pulled up and there were so many people parked in the parking lot and along the road that they had a ranger stationed at the entrance turning people away. We pulled over and asked the ranger if there was any chance of camping here in the next couple days and she said that the family staying in spot 10 had literally just pulled out, so we needed to hurry down the hill and claim that spot ASAP...PTL!! It was a blessing on so many levels, and probably our favorite spot that we ended up camping :)

After setting up camp, we headed 17 miles down a dirt road to a place called Devil's Garden that we heard was a great picnic area and had rock formations for kids of all ages to play on :)

Getting sunscreen-ed up for playtime!

 

Hiking up the 'big rocks' with Daddy!

Of course Daddy had to climb on top of them...Naomi yelled up 'Daddy no jump!' hahaha, she knows him so well already :)

 We also found a few little crevices Naomi could climb through and she loved that!! How cute is this little rock climber?!?

This place was like a dreamland for Josh, you can run around and climb on everything and jump off anything :-)

The next day we decided to do the hike that started in our campground. It was the one I was looking forward to the most on the whole trip, but wasn't sure if it was a good idea since it was 6 miles long and in the desert...but we rested well the night before, hydrated up, packed lots of water and snacks, and off we went!

 Why was I so excited for this hike? Remember we are in the desert for 12 days...and look what we found at the end of the trail!! A 126-foot waterfall :)

One of our few family pics of the trip!

Naomi slept most of the hike there...and was quite grumpy upon our arrival. She even cried when people jumped in the water because she didn't want them to. Only mommy would satisfy...then a PB&J sandwich helped...and then some sticks...and some trailmix...and finally some small kids and dogs showed up and that really cheered her up :)

 She also had her first pee 'in the wilderness' here...quite a big family moment ;-)

Back to the campsite for a relaxing afternoon and then some fun exploring after dinner! The campground is nestled down in this canyon with green trees everywhere, a creek running through it, and these holey red rocks all around...Naomi had so much fun!

 

 That evening we met our neighbors, a family from Germany that was on a three month roadtrip with their one-year old. It was like deja vu back to last summer. We spent most of the evening with them, and Naomi loved played with Nora's (aka 'Baby Nori') toys. The next morning we delayed our departure a couple hours just so we could hang out with this sweet family and get to know them a bit better. They've invited us to Germany (a dream trip we really hope can happen at some point in the not to far off future!!), and we exchanged contact info. Hanging out with them was one of the highlights of our trip :)

'Baby Nori' started pushing this cart around the morning we had to leave after watching Naomi do it all evening the night before. Her parents said they will always remember Naomi as the one who taught Nora to walk! ;-)