Every year for Spring Break my side of the family usually heads down to our favorite family camping spot in the San Rafel Swells area called the Wedge. We’ve been going to this place for over 20 years and just LOVE it. Its rarely crowded, its only 2.5 hours away, and its BEAUTIFUL and reminds us all of Moab.
Unfortunately this year the weather was supposed to be rainy, cold, and crummy and unlike most years the weather report just got colder and worse instead of better the closer our trip got. Darn it! So we had to rethink our plans and decided on going to Moab (another one of our favorite places) since it was supposed to be about 10 degrees warmer and didn’t have a solid forecast of rain.
My Mom and Dad and brother Luke were supposed to head down with us on Thursday – but unfortunately my Papa ended up having to be rushed to the hospital with Pneumonia so they ended up staying back to be with him. It was a bit lonely camping all by ourselves but we still had a pretty good time.
We arrived in Moab around 5pm that evening and hit up our local gas station for some subway sandwiches for dinner and to fill up our water jugs. Then we spent about 2 hours driving all over kingdom come looking for camp sites. Most were either SUPER lame, or completely full, or were like large tent parking lots in big open fields. OR were outrageously expensive. So we ended up driving around for quite awhile. We ended up going on a dirt canyon road for what felt like forever and eventually got more into the backwoods of Moab where there weren’t as many “camp grounds” and where you could be more isolated camping on your own in designated areas. It was in this area where we were finally able to find a spot. And it was a pretty darn good one at that. We had neighbors the first night (a couple around our age that kept to themselves) but lucky for us they left the next day which allowed us to have room for my brother Jake who was coming that day.
After finding our spot, we as quickly as we could attempted to get camp set up. The sun was going down though, I needed to pump a bottle, the trailer wasn’t leveling well, all the kids needed to be taken to the bathroom, Adalynn was fussy and wanted to be held, Adam couldn’t get the jack down right, and the kids were all complaining about starving to death wanting us to build a fire and start some hot dogs. So needless to say it was a bit chaotic! Those first moments Adam and I were looking at each other like “what were we thinking?” ha ha.
We were eventually able to get our tent trailer set up though, a fire built, beds made, and hot dogs and marshmallows cooking and all was well. I think all of us were in bed by 9:30! We were beat!
All the kids slept wonderfully that first night as Adam was able to get our tent heater working which kept us mostly toasty. Adalynn was the only one who struggled and all she did was wake up around 6 am wanting to be snuggled. So we just brought her in bed with us. But she was able to fall back asleep that way and we all slept in until around 7:30.
That first morning the boys mostly spent playing on the rocks, exploring, and using all my kitchen utensils to make things in the sand (they made sand brownies with sprinkles aka rocks on top and then put sticks in them as candles). Then later after breakfast we took some hikes. I was able to try out my new tent stove (which worked great) for breakfast and made us up some blueberry pancakes with grape jelly and agave nectar (I’d forgotten the maple syrup). For some reason camp food always tastes better!
Pancake breakfast
Then we took the kids on a morning hike up the hills behind our camp spot to get some pictures of the surrounding mountains and explore the area around us. Then later we played some games with the boys and had chips and salza (homemade) for a snack. Adam then took the boys on another hike to check out a cave they could see from where we were camping and in the meantime I put Adalynn down for a nap, cleaned the trailer and then napped myself for a few minutes. When the boys got back we had peanut butter and jelly for lunch with chips and fruit and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing sequence, cards, hot dice, and other games.
Adam showing the boys a cave he found up on one of the mountains (which they tried hiking to later)
Our view from camp
Hiking up the hills behind us
My little Mountain Climbers at the top of the hill!
We thought this big boulder balancing on smaller boulders was pretty awesome.
These things were all over in Moab.
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Playing the Buzz Light year version of “Operation”
One of our new favorite snacks. Homemade Salza! YUM! And so easy. Who knew?
Doing Kung Fu moves with Harry! (He practices these in the mirror almost daily)
For dinner that night we did tinfoil dinners (where Harry and Dawson got upset because they thought they were having REAL hamburgers instead of just hamburger meat in their tinfoil dinner with vegetables) and then we cleaned up and took a little drive to see if we could find Jake and his family who were supposed to be arriving any minute.
We found them about 10 minutes up the road and were able to guide them back to camp where we had a spot reserved for them.
On the way back though we had a HUGE tender mercy happen to us where we truly felt the Lord protecting our little family. We were driving along the windy canyon road back to camp and on one of the turns a Subaru car came whizzing around the corner going WAY too fast, and completely in our lane. At the last second the car finally saw us and swerved just as I swerved even more hugging my side of the road. It was just enough to keep us from a head-on collision and from possibly being thrown off the road, down a 10-15 foot cliff and into the river. We missed each other by inches!
I was completely shaken up afterwards and just felt so so grateful that we had been watched over. I knew the angels had been helping us that day! And we all said a prayer of gratitude for keeping us safe. I can’t even imagine what would have happened to my little family all 6 of us squished in our truck had we rolled off that cliff. I just can’t even go there in my mind. We truly were so blessed.
That night we helped Jake and Stacey get unloaded – and then Jake let us use his generator to charge our batteries so we would have heat that night. THANK YOU JAKE!!! The kids had fun roaming the rocks all over camp together and exploring the area. Then we pretty much just sat around talking in Jakes trailer until it was time to get kids to bed.
The next morning we got up and had cereal for breakfast and waited for Jake and his family to wake up. Then Jake made his family breakfast (their traditional breakfast burritos cooked over the fire) and then the kids and boys took 4-wheeler rides while Stacey and I stayed back with Adalynn who was down for a nap. It was fun to catch up.
My brother Jake cooking breakfast over the fire
Our cozy little camp spot with Jakes truck and trailer
The kids had a ball climbing on all the rocks and hiking
Even Adalynn seemed to be in camping heaven.
“Hi Mom! Life is good!”
Jake and Stacey (who is pregnant with her 4th!)
The rest of the afternoon we just spent hanging out in camp together and then around 3:00 it was time for us to pack up and head home for church the next day (Jake and Stacey stayed an extra day). It took us until around 5pm to get all packed up – but all the boys fell asleep in the truck shortly before we got into town and so we decided not to get dinner until we reached Green River to give them more time to rest. We hit up the Arby’s there, got gas, and then headed the rest of the way home. We were BUSHED!
Sure was a fun little get-away (mostly) and we SO are looking forward to going again with the rest of the Harrison family soon. I’ve decided though that I am definitely more of a “Wedge” fan than Moab fan as 1) You never have to fight crowds and can easily find camp spots, 2) Its JUST as beautiful, and 3) its MUCH closer! Here’s to hoping for better weather and a healthy Papa next year!