Moab (Part 2)

Hey everyone, thanks for reading Part 1 of my Moab series! There was just way too much good stuff to squeeze it into one post. On our second day down there we were lucky enough to finally meet up with the amazing Melissa from Adventure Tykes and her son J for some family fun, Moab style! I was not disappointed, she is just as awesome as I thought she'd be and is quite the guru for family friendly activities and places in Moab. After throwing around a few different kiddo friendly locations, we decided on Faux Falls. 

The hike into the falls was super short. Although if you don't have a high clearance vehicle I suggest parking farther away and hiking the extra 1/2 mile in. Luckily, Melissa let us all pile into her truck to get to the trail head, my car was extremely happy not to be put through that. The initial sight of the cascading water against the red rock backdrop was just stunning. After checking out the waterfall, we hiked up to the top of the falls, with plenty of stops along the way for chasing lizards and finding sticks of course. The one part of the falls that scared me with the kids was how easy it would be for them to slip into the water at the top and from there it would be a gruesome slip and slide all the way to the bottom. So if you ever check this place out with your kids, keep them within arms reach near the water.

After checking out the source of the falls, we hiked back down and crossed the little stream to the other side. Here there was a shallow pool of water that was perfect for the kids to wade in and cool off. They quickly figured out that sand + water = mud and they were in heaven. (They ended up hiking out carrying about 5 extra lbs of sand and mud (per kid) by the end of the day.) The water was pretty chilly so they didn't play too long here and unfortunately it was getting late enough where we needed to start thinking about the drive back home. So we cleaned as much sand and mud as we could off the kids and headed back to the truck, said our good byes and were on our way back home before we knew it.

Moab will always have a special place in my heart because it is an amazing climbing locale. Between the desert towers and Indian Creek, a climber is in Sandstone Heaven there. But besides all that it is an amazing destination for mountain bikers and hikers of all ability levels. I love that this is a place that my kids love just as much as I do. For anyone looking to make a family trip there (or anywhere really), I highly suggest following Adventure Tykes blog. It is chock full of great advice for family friendly camping, hiking, and any other outdoor fun you could have while there.

Thanks for reading the trip reports!

This is a summer of adventure, hopefully we'll have many more to share :)