When the Wind Blew

We rolled into Moab mid April with nowhere in particular to camp. Maybe along the Colorado River like the last time we visited. When the riverfront did not pan out due to small, unsheltered sites, we headed up 191 to Ken's Lake, a spot I had briefly looked at on the internet, but it looked desolate and not promising. As we pulled into the campground area we quickly realized that the dried up reservoir is not the centerpiece for this site. We rounded the campground loop and came upon one of the most picturesque sites we had ever camped. Roaring creek behind with a trail up to a waterfall. The Moab rim and the La Sal mountain range in the background. This was our camping Eden. The only downfall was that it was a bit "breezy." At the time we said "windy," but in hindsight, "breezy" was a better term. As usual when Zack and I travel without plans, we had let our blood sugars drop too far and bickered as we set up the tent in the correct orientation with the current wind. All was good for the first two days of bliss and I could be quoted saying at least 4 times "I am so glad we found this place."

Then, day 3, disaster! The morning of day 3 started better than most. Peyton has slept much better than the previous night and we woke to a pretty strong breeze hitting us broadside (and with our 6 man, family camping tent, it is a broad side). I had my handy dandy Droid in the tent with me and I knew this was the only questionable weather day, so I looked up the forecast. It was due to be cloudy with passing rain throughout the afternoon. This was the day we planned to go to Arches National Park and our one mission was to hike to Delicate Arch (one of our previous favorite viewpoints) so we decided to head out and do that first before the weather moved in. Zack decided that we needed to put up some guy lines due to the stronger winds (which we discovered, in Moab, change directions by the minute). When we arrived at Arches, it was the first we had heard of the possibility of high winds as the ranger warned us at the gate. Still, we live in Roxborough, Colorado, one of the windiest places I've ever been, so how bad could it be? We hiked to Delicate Arch, bracing ourselves against the ever increasing gusts. We attempted another hike, only to have it rain on us several times and Peyton was getting tired and cold. We would head back to camp, wait and see if the weather passed, and head back to Arches later in the day to continue...um, no.

A feeling of dread came over us as we got closer to camp and the winds got worse. The car was blowing all over the road and the sand and tumbleweeds were flying, literally. As soon as we saw our tent we knew that it had been blowing for quite some time and that things weren't quite right. Upon closer inspection a pole was severely bent and the tent was collapsing on one side. We were starving and I attempted to make lunch, in the tent, while Zack attempted to fortify the guy lines. Minutes later we heard a snap, and the tent collapsed on my head. The chaos that ensued consisted of trying to disconnect the fly in hurricane force winds, remove the broken poles, cover the collapsed tent with the damaged rain fly and anchor it down with rocks, as it has now started raining and we still had lots of stuff in the tent, and pull everything out and throw it in the car while Peyton cries in his car seat (where he had been napping prior to the collapse). All the while, I am crying (PMS), the sand is blowing in the car and had already penetrated the tent to cover all of our stuff, Peyton is crying, Zack is yelling, sand is getting in our eyes, ears, and everywhere else you can imagine, and we have no idea where we are going to go, but know it has to be out of here. Sigh.

I had no idea how much wind can make you lose your mind. All I could think was that I just wanted to be out of it and there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. As we got gas and headed out of town we began to smile again, realized our $400 tent wasn't completely ruined and could be repaired, and most importantly, we were in the car out of the wind. We are now home and the prospect of cleaning our gear and my car is my daunting task for tomorrow, but I know we survived and we have a story to tell. And really, with us, that's what we love in a camping trip.