Slot Canyon

M read about a slot canyon hike that was pretty accessible and we decided to all go up and try it. Little Horse Canyon is just outside the Goblin Valley State Park. From one parking area, there was a loop hike of about 6 miles. M planned to set out from one direction and we would go from the other, and turn around whenever we ran into him. It was 90 degrees and extremely windy, which also means extremely dusty. However, we thought that if we went into the canyon it would be less windy and also that if we went later in the day, there would be shade. On the way up there, we discovered that perhaps our air conditioning in the car wasn't working well. It felt very hot and perhaps a little dumb to head out into the back country in separate groups, with some hikers being rather reluctant at the beginning. We could only get them out of the car by bribing them with post-hike milkshakes and burgers. I wet some bandanas and tied them over the kids' faces to block the dust. M set out on his run. 

It took the kids and I almost an hour to go the first mile. Max was so not into hiking. He looked at every lizard track and stopped in every shadow to "rest." But once we hit the slot part of the canyon, he changed his mind and was running, leaping, scampering over rocks. It was suddenly fun and fast! We soon ran into M coming the other way and all of us ran back down the slot canyon and down the sandy river bed back to the parking area. 

We enjoyed our hamburgers very much.