Kaya's First Trip to the Desert!

A few weeks back, Rachel had a family reunion of sorts up in the mountains around Fish Lake. We decided to make a weekend vacation of it, and break away early that Saturday night to drop down a few thousand feet in elevation, and get to Torrey / Capitol Reef by sundown so we could adventure the rest of the weekend away - just the 3 of us.

Kaya was very jazzed on the idea of seeing the desert, but fell asleep in the car just after arriving in Torrey. Rach & I set up camp in a beautiful spot just outside the park, and laid Kaya to bed - zipping up the tent to watch the stars hang from the black night sky.

The next morning, I was being gently patted on the face by a very excited little daughter o' mine. "Daddy!," she said, with light beaming from behind her eyes, as she pointed excitedly out the mosquito net window of our little tent - "the Desert!"

We let Rachel sleep in and went out to perch on a large sandstone ledge overlooking a small canyon stretching for miles, the sun still coming up, the stones just warming up again. A lizard crawled up a rock wall next to us - at which Kaya squealed with excitement - "My first lizard I ever saw in real life!"

The radness continued throughout the day, with a great breakfast, a tour around a Kiva, spotting rock art panels - and the highlight of the day - swimming in the Fremont River to cool things down.

I've got to say, from the Dad perspective - this family vacation was one of our first real attempts - and so rewarding. I don't know that the 3 of us have ever had so much fun. Videos & photo documentation below :

xoxo

Matt

1) After waking, Kaya sees me change out of my pyjamas, and into my pants. "Daddy - what if somebody sees you out here?" she asks. I tell her we are miles away from anyone, and that we can just relax and be as silly as we want. With that said, she promptly removed her jammy bottoms and went running around our campsite free as a redrock lizard, as Rachel and I laughed. Pretty great.

2) Kaya cautiously enjoys a lollipop with a real scorpion in it! Gross!

3) Daddy & Kaya on top of the Kiva (traditionally, the real entrance)

4) Rach & Kaya say heyyyyyyy!!!

5) Swimming in the Fremont River

6) Kaya explores an ancient Fremont granary site.

7) And enjoys a little time playing in the biggest sandbox she's ever seen!