Thirtydaycation: Chapter 4 - Moccasin,

OK, two things... this series of blog posts is taking way too long to post. We could have taken three one-month-long vacations in the time it's taking me to document just this one. And, well, OK, maybe just one thing. But I guess this is better late than never. Although I have had many teachers from several years of school who would beg to disagree.

At any rate, this is gonna be late, despite all my attempts at inventing a time machine to take me back to the end of July so the documentation of our Thirtydaycation will be more timely.  Actually, now that I think of it, I haven't made any attempts to invent a time machine. Fail number two.

Looks like that did turn out to be two things after all. Hooray for me!

Well, our vacation at this point found us in the latter-half of the thirty days. In fact, we had just under a week left to inhale the dry Utah air. So we did only what was logical. We left Utah. It was the dry air. I just couldn't take it anymore. I kid, I kid.

We did leave the state though. We went to Arizona. It was a bit of a side trip on our way to Shayla's family reunion at the Dirt Farm, near Hatch, Utah. Kind of like ordering a Dirt Farm Salad with the Arizona on the side. If you know what I mean.

We took that side trip for two reasons (here we go again, back to the "two things" theme). First to shoot on over to Moccasin,  A quaint little cow town nestled in the middle of the Kaibab Indian Reservation on the northern end of the Arizona Strip, and second, to visit my grandparents in Kanab, on the other side of the UT-AZ border.

When we got to Moccasin, we explored my great-grandfather's old house for a bit, ate some breakfast, and then headed over to the now abandoned schoolhouse to play on the dilapidated playground equipment. The scene was much different from just a few years ago. It was a bit sad to see the playground in such a neglected state.

We moved on to Kanab, our kids were reacquainted with their great-grandparents, and we were even fortunate to bump in to my mom's brother and sister, who were also in town to visit.

Max thought the old wagon-bench in the upstairs bedroom was pretty cool.

Wyatt liked playing with the old iron.

Even though this swing set has seen better days, Max still gave it a go.

Isla picked an apple from the tree.

The old house.

I remember sliding down this same slide when I was a kid.

Poor, sad playground. I wanted to snatch that train. Now that I think about it, I probably should have.

Inside the house.

It was great to see my grandparents again and spend some time in their warm and inviting home. We spent a couple hours and enjoyed lunch before moving up the road toward Hatch.

A few miles north of Kanab, we pulled off onto the side of the road for a short hike up the hillside. As a child, I remembered hiking up to caves and caverns tunneled into the sandstone. I don't recall exactly why these tunnels were dug into the mountain, but I think, from what I remember, is that they served some mining purpose, and the memory I have is that it was for mining salt, although I don't think that's true. A quick Google search led me to a BLM website where they called them the Kanab Movie Caves. So maybe they featured in some major motion picture starring John Wayne a few decades ago.

Regardless, it was a fun short hike, the kids loved doing a bit of exploring, and Max even caught a lizard, so that made the whole thing worth it. 

The view from the cave.

Max's lizard.

It think, after this little hike, that the next time I'm in Kanab again, I'm going to spend a little more time checking this place out. It's great for kids (even though the hike up is quite steep and slippery) and there were several, much better caves a little further up the road that we didn't get a chance to explore.

After our hike, we packed back into the car and headed up the road to the Dirt Farm. You'll have to stay tuned for that post, it's coming up in a few days (who am I kidding, if recent trends hold true, I'll get to it in a few weeks).