High Maintenance Mom

We returned last weekend from a nine day driving and camping trip to Utah. It was much better than I expected and I have about 1000 pictures. It turns out that driving is much easier for us than flying. When we drive, we can stop every two or three hours to get out and do something. Plus we can carry all the kids' favorite items like blankets, books, pens, dinosaurs, etc. And there are generally interesting things to watch out the window. B just added, "and we can stop wherever we want. If we're in an airplane then we need a parachute to stop..." It also helped that we went to an bunch of amazing places where the kids could run around...

Our trip was broken into three segments, driving to Utah, staying in a hotel in Salt Lake, and then camping and driving home. The first night of our trip was our first time camping as a family and we didn't get to the campsite until 10:30 at night (it's a long story but my shortcut added several hours to the drive and we wanted to make up for lost time). Once we found the site, we drove our car onto the beach not realizing that we would then need to spend the next 30 minutes trying to get it out of the sand. Having the car stuck in sand is one of those nightmare situations for me. It happens to me in countless anxiety dreams so I was determined to move the car before going to bed.

The kids eventually fell asleep in the tent and we woke to an amazing view of the water in the morning. The view was the good part, me getting up to use the bathroom six times because of the running water sound was a little less appealing. We then drove to eastern Nevada, stopping at numerous historic markers along the way. I realized the important part is not the historic marker, it's the ability to run, climb, and jump on something. Almost all of our stops offered these types of opportunities. We managed to get to our campsite at Great Basin National Park by 8:30 but we still needed headlamps to set up the tent. Both kids had put bowls of wet fruit on their heads in the car so we were very excited to hear there were no bears in the park. Once we got the tent up, the kids did great at our 7800' elevation camp site and we saw mule deer in the morning.

We stayed at a Marriott Residence Inn in Salt Lake, which I had reserved for three nights before we left. Having the refrigerator and stove in the room is necessary because N can't sit still in a restaurant. It's also nice to be able to refreeze the ice packs and bottled water for the cooler, charge all the electrical equipment, and access email. We also had lots of baths and our laundry done, which I recommend for anyone traveling for more than a few days.

The museums in and around Salt Lake were wonderful, in particular Thanksgiving Point, which is designed for kids of all ages. B and N got to meet a good friend of mine in Salt Lake and her kids. Everyone got along really well and B has been planning sleepovers ever since.

The kids did not want to leave Salt Lake but eventually warmed up to our campsite in the Canyonlands after going on their first hike. We followed the cairns up Whale Rock (about 0.5 miles), which was fine going up but too steep to let the kids be independent at the top. Our next hike was to Mesa Arch, which was also very worthwhile. The drop on the other side of the arch was significant but there was plenty of room to explore the path safely.

B became a Junior Ranger at the Canyonlands and we also did the Sand Dune Arch hike as a family at Arches. It's a great hike for kids and the only place in the park to play in the red sand. The best part is that the hike is only 0.2 miles so it's very rewarding. We saw animal tracks and the kids did a lot of climbing, jumping, running, and exploring.

On our way home from the Canyonlands we stopped to collect rocks and fossils, see the Dewey suspension bridge, and camp at Great Basin again. This time we were there in time to attend a campfire program - Tracks and Scat - a theme I assumed the kids would enjoy. The ranger did a great job setting up a mystery of who killed the mule deer. B played the cougar and it turned out that he was the one who did it. He still talks about it. Afterwards B helped pick up garbage at the campsite for his Canyonlands Junior Ranger badge.

Overall it was an amazing trip although I am still digging myself out of the dirt. If you have any interest in camping with your kids, it's a great way to start teaching them about nature. Below is a list of the items that were most helpful.

• A tent that everyone can fit into. We have a four person backcountry tent from ten years ago when I used to go camping more often. Actually I last used it nine years ago but it's still great.
• Pads for everyone to sleep on. S and I have Thermarests and the kids used mats a daycare center was going to throw away.
• Sleeping bags or blankets. If it's not going to rain and it's not too cold, blankets are fine. The kids preferred their big fuzzy blankets to the sleeping bags.
• Head lamps and lights. Head lamp technology has changed in the last nine years so we bought a new LED one at REI and it worked great. We also bought the kids their own flashlights at Target.
• Pillowcase, hat, jacket/fuzzy, socks. We dressed the kids in socks for bed since they often came out of their blankets. I stuffed their pillowcases with their clothes for the next day and they kind of slept on them.
• Water bottles. Everyone had their own water bottle and we had to make sure the kids closed theirs every time they drank in the tent (and in the car).
• Facial wipes. We bought wipes at Costco for cleaning faces and they worked really well on the kids. I was surprised by how dirty their faces got as they wiped their noses with dirty hands.
• Antibacterial wipes. We used these before eating and in the car.
• Easy breakfast food if you don't want to cook. Some mornings we had croissants or bagels with jam instead of cereal or oatmeal.
• Stuff sacks to organize all the stuff. We had one duffel for all camping stuff, one for the kids clothes, one for our camping clothes, and one for all the stuff we would only use in a hotel. Then we had a stuff sack of all the sleeping clothes so we could quickly take out the camping duffel, the compression sacks with the sleeping bags/blankets, and the sleep clothes every time we pulled into a campsite. I also had a crate in the trunk with the stove fuel and our toothpaste/wipes/toothbrushes/sunscreen/shoes, etc.
• Sandals or other easy shoes to put on for getting up in the middle of the night.