DAY 19: GOBLIN VALLEY TO COLORADO

I slept with my contacts in. On purpose. It was all a part of a well devised plan to wake up at 5am before sunrise to see if the moon's changed position had made things any better for stargazing. My alarm went off, but my groggy slept-in-contact eyes asked for, "just a few more minutes." I obliged them and the next thing I knew it was actual sunrise. So much for stargazing.

I climbed out of the tent, and could see the bright, colorful glow of sunrise off in the distance between tall rock formations. The sun hadn't made its way above the lower hills and horizon just yet. I decided to start on breakfast, heating water on the camp stove and grabbing oatmeal, brown sugar, and my reusable container from the car. I took some pictures while waiting for the water to boil, and this place was: really. seriously. beautiful. Pretty much the dream campsite, but I realized I should have faced the tent door toward the V in the canyon behind me. That way I would have been able to wake up to that view from the tent.

I mixed up some oatmeal for breakfast and made instant coffee, stolen from the A Frame in Stanley, ID, but somehow really good for instant coffee. Maybe my standards have just dropped on this trip. I started to pack up the tent as I ate, and Portland held down his place in the tent until the last possible moment. Then, it was time to start making trips back and forth to the car. I had everything laid out across the picnic table and I estimated four trips to take it all. I was right. That's 280ish steps to pack the car and kick off the day. I think I managed to create a bit more order to the chaos of my car -- for now.

I walked over to the showers in the bathroom building, each with an individual entrance. The water took awhile to heat up, but it was warm enough, and kept things quick. We drove to the Valley of the Goblins parking area, just a few minutes from the campground. There were only two other cars in the lot when I got there just before 9am. We walked over to the Valley of the Goblins, taking the stairs down into the area filled with "goblins," a type of hoodoo formed by spherical type of erosion from water and wind. They look a bit like mushrooms, or more accurately, the discard pile from clay day in a children's art class. Different shapes stacked together to form odd little figurines, some with the resemblance of "goblins," with little holes that almost appear to be eyes.

There is no trail in Valley of the Goblins, it is a free form hike to meander through the maze-like field as you explore the strange world of the goblins. We wandered and took pictures. There were definitely some that looked like they were "made" more carefully or creatively than others. I don't know what Portland made of the goblins or the terrain. It was nice and sunny and the day was warming up fast, but I took him off his leash for a picture and figured he would stay close. We were the only people out there at the time. But he stayed very close, leaning against me, and when I asked him to sit for a picture he laid right down on the ground. "The world is too big out here! I want to stay tethered to you!"

I put him back on his leash and after about a half an hour of exploring, we walked back towards the big parking lot - and right into the frame of a camera guy's shot. Part of a two man film crew that had been talking in the parking lot when I arrived. I apologized, and then thought I should've asked what they were filming.

At the other end of the parking area, was the trail to the Goblin's Lair, also referred to on my All Trails app as the "Chamber of the Basilisk," which, when you get there, seems fitting. The hike was just a mile and a half each way, but when you can't stop taking pictures, it takes longer than you'd think. The bright sun felt good and I was glad I'd taken the chance and worn shorts and a tank top today.

Portland didn't seem to want to go on the hike at first. He had gotten stuck with a little jabby desert plant just a few minutes before, and I'd had to pull the thorn from his paw. As soon as w were on the trail, he fell into step and was good to go. The Trail led past some of the famous formations like Three Sisters, and down onto the desert floor with the features of the landscape rising up around us. The trail was easy to follow for the most part, following the shoe prints of others in the packed sand. It was nice to have my GPS and occasional trail signs in this wide open space.

Tall walls of spires and hoodoos towered up on our right, and at times the worn circular layer in the wall towards the bottom seemed to have faces in the rock that looked similar to skulls. Low bushes, different from the ones in Boise, dotted the landscape, some in vibrant chartreuse green color.

We wrapped around the towering wall of hoodoos and through the open space and it was impossible not to think of Dad, when my first trip to Utah was with him back in 2016. The landscape against the big blue sky was similar enough that I could imagine us taking pictures here, and I know he would've loved it. The kids clay idea felt like something he would have come up with.

There were short stretches of loose, deep sand that were more difficult to walk through, but soon we came to the area, hidden behind the rock wall, with signs for the Goblin's Lair (up hill) and the Goblette's Lair another quarter mile away. We went for the climb, of course. It was just a short way up the hill and through some rocks that were easy enough for Portland to climb. The day had seemed hot already, out in the sun, but when we reached the entrance to the cave, hidden in the rock, there was nice cool relief in the shade of the cave that we could feel even from the outside edge.

At first, we went to the left, behind a big rock, and the route down looked impossible with a dog. I found another path that led to the right and this way looked more accessible. We were able to climb down a little bit to get a better view of the large, dark cave, and the dusty grey floor down below. It did look like a place where you might find a basilisk. It would have been a fairly easy route down the rocks without a dog, and it was possible that Portland could make it. But I didn't want to push him. We had also only seen two other hikers on the trail, so I wasn't sure how many people made it out this far in a day. Not that I thought we'd get stuck down there.

As we started to backtrack up the short incline before making our descent, an older couple was climbing up. I stepped aside for a water break and let them know that the right side was the better approach. Trail beta. Portland and I climbed down, and in the end, I took him off leash so he could move more freely. I thought he would go all the way to the bottom, but again, the "little dog, big world" phenomenon, and he stopped part way down and waited for me to leash him up.

The walk back went much more quickly without a million stops for pictures, and back at the car, the temperature read as almost 70 degrees. We were on the road right around 11am, as I had planned and we'd had the chance to explore a lot of what I'd wanted to see in Goblin Valley. It is a very diverse and modern park, with many opportunities. An entire track of mountain bike trails, and I had also spotted a Frisbee golf basket, so there must be a course. More reasons to return.

On the way out of the park, it was nice to drive with the windows down, moon roof open, and Neil Young's version of "Forever Young" (fast version) came to mind, so I played that first. I wasn't sure which route it would take me to link up with I-70, but if it had taken us through Moab, I wouldn't have been able to resist a stop for lunch. It didn't, we linked up miles before the Moab exit, and so we were officially logging miles for the over 400 miles to the Colorado Springs area. ETA 5:45pm.

All was going well until the bright sun started to sharply irritate my left eye. Thankful for the lane assist feature in my Subaru, keeping the car centered, I tried to close my left eye, and to fix it before having to pull over (twice) and try to flush it out. Nothing would help. I don't think it was something in my eye, but some general irritation made worse by the bright bright sun. Eventually, I was able to get back on the road, planning to put in a new contact lens at my next stop, but I ended up driving for the rest of the way with one good eye.

I never really noticed a big difference (my eyes aren't that bad), until after sunset when I was driving in the dark. We took I-70 most of the way, and I was disappointed when a truck in the right lane blocked my ability to pull off for the Colorado welcome sign. They are the best, in brown painted wood with big white lettering, "Welcome to Colorful Colorado." I remember looping around this very spot with Dad to get the picture.

My favorite part of I-70 is through the Colorado mountains, as the landscape changes and the mountains grow into the Rockies, wrapping around the mountain passes and slowly going up and up. I stopped for gas and then found a quick spot for food at Vail Brewing Company in Eaglevail (before Vail), and the Rocky Mountain Taco Truck. I went inside and grabbed a low ABV Twigs and Berries blueberry mango sour, and ordered a carne asada torta (Mexican street food sandwich) at the food truck. I brought Portland out and gave him a rawhide to munch on, and we sat on the small patio area in the parking lot and I got a little social media work done while eating. The beer was very good, more on the tart side, which I prefer in a sour.

While stopped, I did get some great election news. The pit bull ban, BSL (breed specific legislation), has been overturned in Denver! Now, residents of the city can own a pit bull for the first time in 30 years. This is an important milestone for the breed that will save lives and improve the reputation of the breed. It was exciting news for us as we made our way closer to the city.

Back on the road, our ETA was now around 6:45pm, and I was glad I had stopped when I started to see back ups from construction along the road. The rest of the drive was on and off construction zones with some traffic and lower speeds. A frustrating end to a long drive that made the miles tick by painfully slowly.

Eventually, we arrived at my cousin (on my Dad's side) Nancy's house in Monument, Colorado. I had stayed with her years ago in Vancouver, BC, but have seen her maybe once since at a family reunion. I walked up to the front door and was greeted with a big hug, and she told me, “you look more and more like your grandmother!” It was so nice to see family. Nancy took me downstairs to see the apartment style guest space that Portland and I would have the run of for the next two nights.

I brought Portland in along with a few things, and we got all settled and Portland met Nancy, her husband Scott, daughter Allison and granddaughter, Piper. There was also another little pup, Poppy, a long haired dachshund, that we tried to introduce to Portland, but the little dog had a big bark! An ongoing process to socialize the two. Portland was very well behaved and I had a proud dog mom moment.

We got settled, and I had a glass of white wine as we got ready for dinner. Nancy, Allison, Piper and I enjoyed delicious homemade french dip sandwiches, fruit and french fries around the dining room table. I recounted some adventures from the trip so far, and we talked about plans for my time in Colorado and the rest of the journey home. After dinner, the group disbanded and I visited with Nancy, catching up for a little while before returning to my downstairs lair to blog and do yoga before bed. I admired the art collection at Nancy’s - mostly southwestern and Native American art - and one big piece I remembered from Vancouver. Portland disappeared, and at bedtime I found him in the downstairs home theater room, cuddled into blankets on the floor.

In bed, I started to blog the adventures of the day, and my still cordless Asus laptop finally ran out of battery power. I was able to borrow a spare laptop from Nancy and continue to write, but sleep quickly caught up to me.