Adrenaline, Glamping, & National Parks in Moab

I had a few friends recommend Moab and although I’d heard the name, the only thing I knew is that they had great mountain biking there. The more I kept reading/hearing about it, the more interested I was in checking it out.

Could Moab be the place that we remember the most?

Moab is super quirky and all the locals really embrace it. It’s in the middle of a hot desert that has lots of red rocks and the La Sal mountains just 30 mins away. The views are gorgeous, there are 2 National Parks, a huge river, and a ton of outdoor fun activities. Moab isn’t anywhere near any cities or airports, and there is so much vast land, the locals and visitors are real adventurers and don’t take life too seriously. We wanted to experience exactly that.

So this is the 1st thing you drive by:

An amazing designer Casey had mentioned this place to stay while in Moab called Under Canvas.

Casey runs https://www.limbic.studio/. Check out her sight for a little taste of the amazing work that she does. Important fact: she’s helping me create a brand for www.revitalize.coffee a new coffee company that I’m starting with a mission to revitalize the world. (Her designs aren’t on this site just yet!)

Add your email on the site to be the first in line to try our amazing coffee and contribute the cause!

Thanks to Casey’s recommendation… Under Canvas was a huge hit. They have a bunch of glamping spots that mostly are at or near National Parks. We scored a tent with 3 single beds. Each of us had a side table with batteries to charge a fan and a lamp. Each tent has a wood stove and a deck with some chairs to chill and watch the stars. Some tents had bathrooms with them, ours didn’t but the bathrooms were close and very clean. At every other campground I’ve been to in my life the bathrooms are not something that I’ve been too excited about using. These bathrooms… had as many towels as you wanted, sparkling clean, smelled great, had nice soaps, and more.

The real thing that made Under Canvas great though was the service and attention to detail.
The girls ran to the hammocks when we pulled in (there were a lot of them).
In the “reception tent” they had leather couches, tables, dozens of board games, snacks (some free, some to buy), a gift shop, 24 hour coffee/water, and most important … a concierge that doubled as a kids activities coordinator. They have a big picnic area with lot of little nooks set up with a dozen or so grills outdoor games, and a big deck. There was daily programming that included morning yoga on the deck (we did this 2x), live music every night, and kids contests. It felt as though “they thought of everything”. This was out first time glamping and I would definitely recommend it. The girls quickly made friends with some other kids, entered into every kids contest they had (writing contest, coloring, different projects, etc), made smores, and just loved it.

The writing contest!

Our first day in Moab I spent the first half of the day working. I usually try to finish up around when the girls would wake up but this time I worked till lunch since I knew we were there a few days. The girls were happy working on projects, reading, and enjoying the activities. I didn’t realize that the morning is the best time to do stuff as it gets super hot in the afternoon! So as the temps rose to around 100 degrees that afternoon we headed to Canyonlands instead of mountain biking.

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands is a National Park I’d never heard of. It’s not a huge one in terms of what there is to do. There are incredible lookouts into an enormous and vast land of… canyons! It really is hard to believe as you look out. Almost as if your looking into a crazy almost psychedelic painting.

Canyoneering

Our last full day in Moab we started by going Canyoneering. This was something that we were really looking forward to doing and it was something I don’t think I will ever forget!
It included repelling down 2 red rock cliffs. The first one was 120 feet, and the second was 100 ft. They normally don’t take anyone under 10 years old because many kids get scared. When it was time for that first 120 ft rappel. Shannon announced that she was going first. Then she hooked up to the line, leaned back over the edge and went down like she’d done it 100 times.
In a way she had. We go up to the the rock gym Central Rock Gym in Buffalo that’s run by a grade school and high school friend Justin Koestler. It’s an outstanding place if you’re in or around Buffalo, check it out! These girls love to rock climb there and are used to ‘falling’ back down after climbing up.
Our group also had a handful of people from Hawaii who were part of a 14 year old baseball team on the mainland making their way to play in their World Series. (I hear they are doing really well!) We had two fantastic guides and they kept saying how much better the girls were than everyone else. (For whatever reason, the girls were fearless when the baseball boys were were definitely scared … as they should be! )
The 2nd repel was a little shorter at 100 ft but included a pretty big free fall. It made it much more spectacular. Lauren wanted to go first on that one. I actually did so I could catch them on video. I will say that this was spectacular. The view coming down and the trill was just incredible.

Check them out:

We finished with an amazing 2 mile hike out through streams and earned our lunch that day.

Arches National Park

Arches is a very popular park. We had our timed entry pass and waited about an hour to get in at that time. They are regulating the flow of visitors to make the experience work best.
To be honest, we were beat from canyoneering that morning so we weren’t up for any big hikes. The sun was out and it was in the 90s. A ranger had mentioned an arch called sand arch that the kids like climbing around. It was all in the shade and it turned out to be a favorite and brought back our energy. The arch was beautiful but the climbing on the boulders turned out to be the main draw for us. Shannon with all her repelling confidence basically took off up the rocks.

Staying safe

We’ve been spending time on this trip talking about how to stay safe and climb things in a way that is safe. Mostly: With each step have a plan for where you will slip or fall to and have a plan for how you’re going to get down safely. These rocks surely gave us a chance to practice that. We went really high and found the spot where we wouldn’t be able to get back down safely. That was as far as we went. It was a ton of fun and capped a solid day of outdoor adventuring.

That night, the girls spent doing crafts with the crew at Under Canvas. I was hanging out on the couches and the activities coordinator XXX came over with a note for me. She said that the girls are amazing and should look on these sites for jobs. The note had a few websites for summer jobs in amazing places around the country/world. I think for a minute she forgot that they are 7 & 9 years old. On this day, they certainly acted above their age.