We just returned from a four day trip to Moab. Our home away from home, when we are looking for a little warmth and dry ground… Not that Moab is warm in January, but everything is warmer than our mountain town.
We have explored many nooks and crannies around Moab over time. One of our pursuits has been to take all the entrances into Arches National Park.
We have had a lot of fun on the fringes of the park, but we also have gone deep beyond the parks.
As our familiarity increases with the area, we find ourselves doing what we love to do, which is veering off the beaten trail.
Wandering Side Canyons
On this last trip, we spent time wandering a number of side canyons we had been scoping from a distance for years. These wanderings have become my favorite type of adventure, but they aren’t without their hazards.
We always have a map, but the rest of the reconnaissance happens on the ground in real time.
We pick adventures where almost nothing can be found on the internet. That is the beauty of them. But that has meant running into unforeseen obstacles like mountain sides of scree and canyons with rockfall obstacles without obvious workarounds.
With a little kid in tow, the unknown can feel a bit scarier, but on this last trip to Moab, I found it to be an amazing and wild ride. We picked our way around rockfall in the canyons, navigated to safe routes, and then stood surrounded by towering red walls all by ourselves.
West was ablaze. He ran around the slick rock discovering everything. Sand, moss, ice, Juniper, and rocks of all colors and composition. A land of wonder, unveiling itself to a curious little mind.
6 Lessons for Exploring Wild Places
Over time we have learned a few lessons about going into wilder places, especially with a toddler:
- Maps. Fluency in maps is a wonderful skill. It opens up places and helps you understand the entirety of a landscape beyond just the trail at your feet.
- Comfort in understanding landscapes. This comfort mostly comes with experience, but also observation. The desert can be disorienting so you need to pick landmarks so you always have something to head towards. This is true in the mountains as well. It’s good to understand how water flows and how to find high points to orient.
- A willingness to turn back. We never go up something, if we aren’t 100% certain we can get down it. If a road feels a bit too rough and tumble for our capabilities, we turn.
- Extra snacks and water, always. This is great outdoors 101, but it’s particularly true with a toddler. Lots of cookies, extra cookies. Chocolate. You never know on a grand adventure, where a little treat will go a long way.
- Curiosity makes for a great day. Being curious about “what’s over there” has led to some of my favorite days outside. It was imperative for us to understand our limits and zone of comfort, but once we established that baseline, extraordinary places opened up to us.
- Respect nature, always. We will never leave a trail, if it means walking over cryptobiotic soil or fragile alpine environments. Respect for trees, animals, plants, and place is always our first principle.
