Valley of the Goblins

We had our first experience camping in the dirt digging holes, but we did make a potty run to the pit toilet at the trailhead of Little wild horse canyon Friday morning, and I have no regrets. Except that we should have gone to the state park's visitor center, almost as close, which has Flushing toilets and a Sink!
We had several things we wanted to do, and decided to first hike to the Goblin's Lair, since it had no shade. As we entered the park, we learned the high for the day was 85, which turned out to be 87! In the desert with the sun beating down and no shade. great. Two weeks ago it'd been in the 50's; guess that magical 70's is an illusion of averages. We packed up the water/backpacks, and set off for the lair. We passed by lots of lizards, which Padfoot really wanted to chase, and lots of wildflowers. The boys took turns holding Padfoot, and at one point Cameron was holding him when Padfoot burst after a lizard, knocking Grace over and dragging Cameron behind him for a few yards, but Cameron hung on and was a champ about it.

The wildflowers were the only cool thing to see as we hiked, the ground being mostly rolling rock/sand, with cliffs to our right. We came to the entrance of the lair, climbing up the steep rocks to get a peek inside. The dog wasn't going to make it in and out, so I hung out with him while RD went up and down the rocks helping kids make it in and out.

The cave was great though; the kids don't like hiking, but Reese remarked it was worth it, since the cave was pretty awesome. They all thought it was cool and fun, and steep.
                         
RD ran up and down the entrance to the cave helping a few peeps down the rocks again, he's such a stud. Aubree by now was tired, so she got a ride on RD while I got his pack, which meant along the way I also got the bag of dog doodoo (we forgot our shovel on the hike), which made it kind of unpleasant. Sweet Grace stayed with me with that aroma around us though. By now it was getting hot, so we looked forward to some lunch in the shade.
There's a pavilion at the goblins, so we lucked out to get a table, and enjoyed the lunch break. The wind was whipping up, but it was hot enough it felt good. Reese and I agreed we could spend quite awhile hanging out there. :) RD and the girls drew pictures, trying to guess what each other were drawing.

RD wanted to get going to the Little Wild Horse Canyon hike, so we headed off, someone claiming our table as we packed up.
Aubree wasn't up to another hike and tried to refuse to participate, but we got her going  eventually, using up lots of gum. It took awhile to get into the narrows part, so we took a couple breaks in what shade we could find. And the kids climbed around.

Some of the canyon was flooded, so we had to climb up the rim at one point, and turned back before the next flooded part. The narrows were really cool. The day had turned really windy, so the narrows were intensified and pretty crazy fun.

sometimes the wind was too much

 We went back to our camp to find our tent partly knocked down and a layer of sand all over everything from the wind. The wind was fierce and relentless, so we all sat in the car to mull over options. We decided to have snacks, check out the Valley of the Goblins, then come back and eat and decide if we were going to pack up or stay another night.
Bree fell asleep on the short drive over to the park, so we circled through the campground to check it out; it wasn't camping, it was a trailer parking lot. We were so glad we had camped out off the park, even without toilets, it was totally worth it to have space.
Valley of the Goblins was super fun, no hiking, just running around and climbing the goblins all over, finding cool spots and each other. Cameron had padfoot, and it was fun to watch them jog around exploring. Padfoot has turned out to be a pretty good climber himself.

We picked up some ice cream bars on our way out of the park (our bribe to go which ended up being dinner), and when we got back decided to pack it in and go home. We quickly packed up our stuff, knowing we'd have to unpack/cleanoff/packup again when we got home. As we left, the kids talked about how it was a fun trip, and I think it'd be fun to go again when it's not as hot. Maybe we'll try the yurts in october/november.