4/24/15 – 4/26/15
Moab, UT

I’ve seen lots of blog posts on hiking with kids or dogs, but what about parents?  My parents and 2 of their friends recently took a week-long vacation to the Moab area, and I joined them for the weekend.  It was a good opportunity to visit family and get a little Utah desert fix.  However, at this point, I don’t really know what to do for vacation and activities other thank hiking…relatively strenuous hiking.  What do I do with my parents?

Day 1 – A nice tourist day in Arches National Park.  We drove around and did some short hikes to see the various arches.  I felt the “must-do” for everyone was hike to the upper viewpoint of iconic Delicate Arch.  But I didn’t plan things well – we hit this at the end of the day, and only my mom had the energy to take this on.  The others went to the lower viewpoint while Mom and I went the upper viewpoint. Lesson learned: Pace appropriately.

 

Day 2 – After seeing photos from my funemployment pre-CDT road trip to Utah in 2013, Mom wanted to visit Horseshoe canyon to see the famous rock art.  This is in a remote unit of Canyonlands National Park, requiring a long drive with an hour on dirt roads, followed by a 7 mile round trip hike with a steep 700′ canyon to descend/ascend at the beginning/end of the hike.  We planned to do this hike the 2nd day of my visit, but the energy levels at the end of the day of tourist-ing in Arches National Park the day before, combined with some recent and forecast rain led me to waffle on the choice.

When we were about to turn onto the dirt road to the trailhead, I discovered my parents had 1 nalgene of water between the 2 of them, and their friends had brought a similar quantity of water for themselves. Anticipating they wouldn’t have brought enough and to lessen their loads, I had about 7 liters on me, but clearly I’d underestimated just how little they’d bring.  I mean, who shows up to hike in the desert with a half liter of water? People who’ve never hiked in the desert before.  Oops.

I figured a good 3 liters/person was the responsible quantity, and we didn’t have that.  When my parents’ friends told me they didn’t think they’d drink much because the day before they’d drank less than 20oz  each, I was alarmed.  Surely they were already well on their way to dehydration.  This hike on this day with this level of preparation was not a good idea.

We regrouped and visited Goblin Valley State Park, took a little jaunt up nearby Bell Canyon, and ended the day with a visit to Dead Horse Point State Park.  All were good sites and enjoyed by everyone. Lesson learned: Provide thorough details and set expectations ahead of time. Also, backup plans are good.

 

 

Day 3 – Having taken it pretty easy the second day, I decided I still needed to drag them out on a good hike.  I picked Corona Arch.  It’s pretty short, there’s not much gain, and the payoff is spectacular.  It is also largely a cairned slickrock route – something my parents would probably not be comfortable attempting on their own, but not difficult when they aren’t busy worrying about getting lost or injured.  I think I finally hit the right balance on this last day – everyone enjoyed it, including me!