October 31 – November 5, 2021
At Arches National Park, we were lucky to get a campsite at Devil’s Garden Campground at the far end of the park, maybe half an hour from the entrance, within walking distance of the popular Devil’s Garden trailhead — not only that, but we unknowingly booked one of the few sites (22) situated at the top of the hill near the amphitheater where there is cell signal and solid (with a booster) internet. All this means good access to both hiking and remote work!
The otherworldly sandstone formations around our campsite and the views of the snow-capped La Sal mountains in the distance made for a pretty sweet backyard for the week. This was probably the first moment we felt truly settled — like we’d arrived somewhere, got a break from long-distance drives, and could just focus on living while we stayed in one place. We needed some time to recuperate after the long cross-country drive and the ongoing process of learning our rig as new Airstreamers.
In the first hours of our arrival at Devil’s Garden — after the kids had had some time to climb and run and leap across the irresistible sandstone fins — we began prepping for Halloween. It was October 31st, and we’d been brainstorming ideas for costumes for the last couple of days. We settled on an idea that included the Airstream and honored one of the kids’ favorite camping breakfast foods. The kids were pop-tarts and the Airstream was a toaster. We grabbed a box of cereal at the grocery store in Moab and cut a large panel off for each kid. Graham made his cardboard into a blueberry pop-tart; Emma was strawberry. We taped the pop-tart cardboards onto each child, opened the bags of candy they’d been waiting on (thanks Judy!) and built a fire in our fire pit. There were only a few other campsites with kids in residence, so the trick-or-treating was light, but the atmosphere in the small campground was festive and warm. We noticed some pumpkin decorations and admired a handful of costumes, and retired to our campsite early to eat candy by the fire.
We spent our week at Arches in a lovely routine of morning yoga and schoolwork, afternoons exploring Moab or hiking, and evenings cooking and sitting by the fire.
The Peace of Wild Things 