Life Is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Life is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Sing His Praises
  • My Creed
  • Books I Love
  • Christmas Letters

Goblin Valley 2018

6/10/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture

The temperature was 96 degrees F when we pulled into the group camp site in Goblin Valley at 6 p.m.   Heat waves rose from the baked desert floor and fear rose from the pit of my stomach. My thought: “I brought 36 kids to southern UT to sacrifice them to the sun gods.    This heat is going to kill us……”


It did not.   No one died. In fact, no one suffered….at least not very much.   (Sleeping in a sand filled sleeping bag hardly qualifies as suffering.)

Monday morning 34 OPA students, 1 OPA sibling, 1 Hislop child (Miles), 3 OPA employees (Talyn, Dalton, and me), and 6 parent volunteers left the school parking lot in 7 private vehicles.   We drove to Diamond Fork canyon, hiked to and frolicked in the hot springs, and then continued on to Goblin Valley where we camped until Friday. My sister Marjorie and 5 of her children joined us.   While there we hiked canyons in the morning (Little Wild Horse Canyon, Horseshoe Canyon, and The Crack) and swam in the Green River in the afternoon. If not the best of times, they were certainly great times.   Following are a few highlights from our trip.

  • “Should we go over the rules about climbing on the rocks?” Talyn asked me as the kids started to set up their tents in the Goblin Valley campsite.   “There are none,” I responded. One of the things I love most about Goblin Valley is that it is such a user-friendly state park. One does not have to stay on the trail and one does not have to stay off the rocks.
  • “This is a killer campsite,” Nick told me.   KIller? Did he have the same worries I did about ending up as sacrifices to the sun gods?  When asked if “killer” were good or bad, he assured me it was good, REALLY good in fact. He, too, loved the user-friendly aspect of Goblin Valley.
  • We encountered a good-sized (6 foot) bull snake on the Diamond Fork trail.   Of course I caught it and encouraged the kids to hold it. I feel it is important to fight unfounded phobias.   A single snake can eat 100’s of mice in a year. YEA for snakes!!!
  • We also encountered bats.   They live in the Goblin’s Lair (east of The Valley of the Goblins).   At dusk Talyn and a group of students sat in the Lair’s entry, watching bats emerge.   One bat, apparently confused by the visitors, flitted back and forth between two students’ faces.   Later Bill highlighted bats by shining his flashlight into the night sky. The light attracted bugs and the bugs brought the bats.
  • We did not capture any bats but we did capture a flag or two.   Our last night in camp the kids played
    Capture the Flag in the dark amongst the goblins.   We did not lose any kids though some kids lost some squamous epithelial tissue.  
  • The sand in Goblin Valley is significant; it permeates everything.   “My sleeping bag has sand in it,” stated Ian. “What can be done?” Hum…. Sleep in it…..
  • Actually I never did sleep in my sleeping bag; it was simply too hot.   I did sleep on top of it though, me and about a million grains of sand.
  • Did you know that there are 10,000 stars in the observable universe for every grain of sand there is on Earth?
  • To beat the heat, we arrived at the Horseshoe Canyon Trailhead at 7:00 a.m., which meant a 5:45 a.m. departure from camp and a 4:30 a.m. departure from our sleeping bags.   No one complained...about the early awakening or about beating the heat.
  • Also to beat the heat we spend every afternoon in the Green River.  Going from 96 degree F air to 54 degree F water was refreshing/shocking.    Some kids never made it into the water--though they did not mind wrestling in the sand--and some kids never left the water, at least not until we told them it was time to leave.   
  • Mudslinging was a thing.   I do not get it...What is the appeal of having mud thrown at you?   Fortunately, I did not get it. The kids were very respectful of my self-proclaimed “no mud/no splash” zone.   They had no qualms about throwing mud at each other though.
  • Long, long ago some dinosaurs left tracks in the mud in what is now Horseshoe Canyon.  Knowing that Samuel is a self-taught dinosaur expert, we asked him which dinosaur he thought left the tracks.  “You know,” he said seriously and thoughtfully, “I have been pondering that. The tracks are in the Morris formation which is in the later Jurassic time period.  It is clearly a predator track and at that time there were only three major carnivores. Based on its size…..” and he went on to explain which dinosaur he thought made the tracks and gave more details as to why.   The two National Park Rangers and the 20 kids present at the time stood in awe as we listened to his very reasonable, very knowledgeable analysis.
  • Those same two Park Rangers told us the two taco trucks parked in front of an old gas station were the best restaurant in the region.   They spoke very highly of the food there. A bunch of us (30+) may or may not have stopped there after our dip in the frigid Green RIver…..  And some of us stopped twice. And all of us now speak very highly of their food too.
  • About halfway through our hike in The Crack we came upon a 12’ rope-aided vertical drop.   Just beyond the drop, in the steep walled canyon, was a waist-deep water obstacle. “We have to turn back,” the kids said.   “We have to turn back,” the adults said. “We will not turn back,” I said. And we did not. Some slid down the vertical drop, some used the rope, some used their friends.   Some people waded through the water. Some people rock climbed up the canyon wall. Some people found a path around the obstacles but no one turned back. Nope. Not doing it.
  • I used a walking stick (sometimes two) for all of the hikes.  The kids knew I am scheduled for a knee replacement in 2 weeks.   “If Mrs. Hislop can do it, I can,” became a mantra for some. “What they don’t know,” said my sweet sister Marjorie, “is that Mrs. Hislop can do anything.”    Truth be known, I cannot many, many things but I love it that my sister thinks I am so capable. Her complete confidence in me is one of her very endearing characteristics.
  • Hanksville is the place of the $20 repair bill.   Marjorie’s tire had a slow leak and needed to be changed.  One of the lug nuts resisted all our efforts to loosen it--we bent a lug wrench trying--so she had to drive to Hanksville to get it changed.   The bill: $20. After our expedition along the Behind the Rim Road (almost a Jeep trail) Yvette’s truck was stuck in 4-wheel drive, compound low.   Bill drove it to Hanksville to be repaired. The bill: $20.
  • Another vehicular tender mercy:  Thursday evening the “Service Engine Soon” light came on in my truck.   A Green RIver (at the time we were just 10 minutes from Green River and 45 minutes from Hanksville) repairman kindly ran a computer diagnostic test on my truck.   The test threw two “system too lean” codes. The repairman said it was probably the fuel pump or the fuel filter and said he could change my fuel filter the next morning…..which would put me out more than $20 and put me behind more than 20 minutes.   Dalton, whose father owns Ron Zundell Auto Repair in Ogden, called his dad and asked for advice. Mr. Zundell (Senior) said it was probably a vapor issue caused by the heat when the truck switched from natural gas to gasoline. He said that I could probably drive it home without incident, which I did.

And now I am home.   The trip is now a story I will (and am) telling.  Life is the stories you can tell. What a blessing it was to live (and now to tell) these stories.

P.S.  A zillion thanks to the parent volunteers who made this trip possible.   As I left my sweet sister, with tear traces in her eyes, said “You are surrounded by such great people”  and she is right. Talyn, Dalton, Brent, Lora, Martie, Bill, Yvette, and Danielle---You are the greatest!!!!

NOTE:  All student photos are published with consent.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
2 Comments
Erinn link
1/7/2021 07:19:52 pm

Great rread thank you

Reply
Erinn link
1/11/2021 10:09:54 pm

Very nice post

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Teresa Hislop
    thislop@msn.com

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.