Family Backpack in the Southwest Desert

Fall Break! So I talked the family into going backpacking for a night with me as long as it was warm and dry. We delayed one day to go on Friday to let the wet weather clear. It turned out to be a good plan as we had perfect weather with highs in the mid 70s. The Southwest Desert with its sweeping views and petrified forest was our choice. We stopped by the Wilderness Permit desk where I got to catch up with Derrick a bit before securing campsite #2. We decided to leave from the Chinle Trailhead. I dropped Jacqueline and the kids off at the bridge and I ran back to the actual trailhead and took off from there. It actually took a good chunk of time before I caught up with Jacqueline and the kids as they were moving pretty well.

As soon as I caught up to them, they wanted a snack, of course, and thus began the back and forth on the snack attacks. We got them going, though, and Conrad had to lead the group the whole way. He did a pretty good job of keeping a good pace for the rest of us.
October is so great in the desert because the flowers and cacti are coming back alive. We were both surprised at home many flowers that we saw blooming. It didn't feel as empty and vacant as the Southwest Desert can feel.
The kids were doing fairly well, but there were always goals put in place and questions about how far away we were. The first goal was to make it to campsite #1. It took a couple of snack and water breaks to make it there, but eventually we did make it. That is where everyone seemed to hit a wall. Conrad had a couple of trips to the woods to dig some holes. Zyla's belly hurt and Jacqueline thought the trail was too steep. I kept everyone on an even keel by taking care of Conrad, pleading with Zyla to drink more than a sip of water, and to let Jacqueline know how hard a child would have to work to fall off the trail. We continued past campsite 1 and into Scoggins Wash before we were climbing up to campsite 2. Everyone was happy to see it as it took us a good 4 hours to make it to the campsite. When we got to it, Jacqueline was immediately freaked out because campsite 2 has this incredible view because there is a large drop off down into Scoggins Wash right after it.

We set up some ground rules for the kids and it was definitely enjoyable to get this huge sweeping view of the backside of the Towers and Temples of the Virgin. I guess here they would be the Towers and Temples of Scoggins Wash. Does not quite have the same ring to it. The other awesome thing about this site is the amount of agates and petrified would around. It seemed that every rock was this pretty colorful agate or a large piece of a very, very old tree. The kids got right to work on creating little play areas for the ants and they seemed to really enjoy their time in camp. We still had to plead with Zyla to drink some water and eat some food, but eventually the energy and joy returned.

We really enjoyed the pretty sunset as this may be the best spot in the entire park to appreciate the sunset. It is the same view that we get to see of the park from our house in Washington, Utah, but so very much more in your face. We stayed outside until the sun finally set about 7:30 pm and then it was time to read books in the tent. Everyone had a different book to enjoy. We were all asleep before 9 and it was a very quiet night. It was almost like sleeping in a cave it was so quiet. At about 6:30 AM, I began stirring to get everyone going when the sun was up. It was still pretty cold out, but not too bad. I quickly got some breakfast going and by the time the water boiled and the meal was made, all were up and shivering away.

It wasn't actually that cold out being somewhere in the low 50s, but it was moister than usual. The tent when I packed it up was just covered with moisture so that it necessitated a drying process once we made it home. Strangely enough, though, the water hole that we had used the previous night to get 3 quarts of water, had dried up overnight so that I was glad I had acted on the filtering of water early. It took Jacqueline some time to get going, but by 9 AM, we were hitting the trail. I decided that walking back to the Chinle Trailhead was just too uninteresting, so instead we continued on to Scoggins Wash. This was going to be better on the kids as it was mostly downhill and fairly easy going. Zyla seemed the least motivated to move quickly of all of us as Conrad was leading the way again and moving good. We left the plateau above Scoggins and started to lose elevation until we finally got to drop into the Wash. Jacqueline was not a fan of the trail down into Scoggins from the Chinle, but everyone made it fine. We continued down Scoggins appreciating just how lush this usually dry canyon appeared.

Eventually we hit Coalpits Wash where we had our last of many snack breaks. I walked with the family for about half a mile after that and then took off ahead. This change in our itinerary was putting us out on a trailhead quite a ways away from where our car was parked. I hustled to the Coalpits Wash trailhead, dropped my pack and started my run up the road. Luckily, I had been running a lot lately so I was able to move rather well. I stopped once along the way when I found a wallet by the side of the road and once again when I saw a police officer in Rockville who I handed the wallet off to. All in all, it was a 4 mile run back to the other trailhead where I grabbed the car and picked up the rest of the family. I was proud of everyone on our second family backpack. Mileage was only about 8 miles total, but it was through some rough terrain carrying some heavy packs. It was a great way to spend a couple of days of fall break.