Wednesday, April 08, 2009

3rd Stop - Goblin Valley


3/31/09

Such an ominous name - Goblin Valley. Brings up fairy tales of lost little girls in the wilderness besieged by monsters in the shadows. But no frightening creatures were there awaiting me and Olympia. What did great us were prairies, bluffs, sandstone cliffs . . . and wind.

This time I was ready. I staked down the tent to hold it still while I set up and grew quite envious of the campers tucked away behind sandstone outcrops - the wind didn't seem to buffet them around as much. I am sure the grit in their tents was considerably less.

Olympia and I scouted out the campground and wandered to the entrance station admiring the late afternoon light on the prairie. we snuggled into our tent when we returned. The winds coming across the prairie brought with them sand and grit that found their way under my rainfly and through the bug mesh on my tent. There is just something nasty about eating grit in the middle of the night. I began to understand just a little of what Helen Thayer went through in the Gobi.

The next day we would explore the goblins.




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