Easter on the Sandstone, Comb Ridge Utah

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Not for the first time our kids found themselves, in the name of Easter, searching for plastic eggs in the high Utah desert. This time of year Utah is a siren song promising a stingy but appreciated additional 5-10 degrees, so close to home and yet just enough lower in elevation. Those few plants that do turn green are way ahead of their Colorado counterparts and the hardy little plants that will produce a spring flower are starting to do so. We chase Spring in Utah - at the end of a long winter, why not?

So the annual pilgrimmage west continued this weekend, this time to Comb Ridge, a geologic anomaly that extends 120 miles from the southern end of the Abajo mountains all the way into Kayenta and Skeleton Mesa in Arizona. The dramatic monocline is bisected by countless canyons that are filled with ruins from the Anasazi; old structures and petroglyps abound and make for interesting hikes. The geology itself is interesting enough to hold my attention and there is never a disappointing moment to reach the top and look over the sheer dropoff into Comb Wash. Easier to do and enjoy without trying to keep track of children by the way.

We were joined by friends who also have two children making it a kid-fest extraordinaire. They start off so clean and well-fed. By the end of the weekend, after the wet wipes have long run-out, they're covered in sticky junk food, rolled in a layer of aeolian dust and are exhausted. That none of them had to have prickly pear spines removed from any part of their bodies is truly amazing. We won't mention the moment when all four kids lined up their meltdowns in perfect succession so that there was wailing for an hour straight. We also won't mention the fact that the only other campers we could see, parked about a quarter mile away, became known as the 'yuppy campers' due to the fact that their camp didn't look like they'd been living in it for a month, they had no dirty, screaming kids running around, and that they had to endure our white-man's fire and tequila drinkin' raised voice usin' politics discussing selves till the moon was high in the sky. Oh my god, we've become the crazy rednecks that we used to be so afraid of!

No we won't mention any of that - it was a great weekend and I'm sad not to be back out there again this weekend! Alas, the house and deck need staining, the fence needs mendin', the garden needs to be planted and yes, we need to go look at a *gasp* pop up tent trailer. What is the world coming to?!

😊

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Comments

[Chuck]

Comb Ridge
Spent a lovely day out there today investigating sites, wondering about the red rocks and among the nearly-full tanks, and gazing over the drop-off from the top of the Ridge. No people, no bugs, no wind. Life is good out yonder in the desert. (oh, I forgot to mention, no kids...)

[elJardineros]

boy i'm glad someone wasa over there today - what a day! beautiful beautiful. feel free to come help us stain the house tomorrow now that you've gotten all that pesky fun out of your system.

[wew]

desert outing
we enjoyed every minutes of it .you, kids, have guts !