Jeeping in Canyonlands

May 27-31, 2013

Warning!  There are waaaayyyy tooooo many photos on here!  But it was just so much fun!!!

Chris has had super heavy duty, lifted jeeping Jeeps ever since I've known him.  That's more than ten years.  And we've only been jeeping once, down in Las Cruces, New Mexico, several years ago.  So a little more kid-friendly than our previous mountain biking trips to Moab, we decided to do some jeeping and exploring there.  I was a little worried, but I have to say.. it was sooo much fun!

We got in a bit late and spent the first night at Sand Flats.  The following day we drove down to Canyonlands.  Neither of us had been down there.  We kind of followed a jeeping trip my good friends did with their family and we thought it was awesome!!!  It started with a fairly tough but fun climb up Elephant Hill.  I was quite impressed with what Chris' jeep could do.  And even more impressed that my friends did it in just a stock (non-lifted, not suped up) Jeep.  We arrived and camped at Devil's kitchen which was just amazing!  There were all kinds of tunnels and caves and places to hike and explore.  We also went on a couple of miles hike.  We thought we had the best campsite in the area with an awesome view of the pinnacle rocks (I think they're called)... until we went exploring the next morning in other campsites.  There were several that were just amazing.  We did have the best view, but it wasn't as secluded as some.  We left the following morning and did some more jeeping and went on a nice hike.  I can't remember what it was called.  But we got to go through some awesome cracks and had some great views.  We were supposed to go home that night but had so much fun exploring we decided to stay another night so we wouldn't get home so late.  We camped again in the Sand Flats area.  The girls did wonderful and we all just had soooo much fun!  Here are the gazillions of pictures.  For some reason they're not in the order I put them in.

Our Devil's Kitchen campsite, preparing for the hike.

Again, the Devil's Kitchen campsite.  The table is in an open cave type thing.  So fun!  And great to get out of the wind and sun.  It was a little windy. And very sandy.  Not the best combination.

First day hike.

View from our campsite of Devil's Kitchen,

The girls did great in the car going over all of the bumps.

A bit narrow.

Sooo much fun!!!!

We did a little tunnel exploring of our campsite before it got too dark.

This was at another awesome campsite the following morning.

It's harder than it looks.  Although I got out to take pics during many of the more difficult sections, they really didn't do the ride justice.

Keira did a great job on the hikes.

This was the big crack during our hike the second day.

Another great view from that hike.

Lunch break!

Beautiful sunset during last night at Sand Flats.

We had so much fun!  This trip almost makes me only want to have three kids, for the first time.  With four kids, you can't really go jeeping.  You have to use some fancy big Jeep.  You can't just rent a normal car if you're on a trip, you either need an expensive van or SUV... ya know?  ALMOST.  Only time will tell.