Poisonous Popcorn

This last week we went to southern Utah in order to attend the nature group fall camp out. The leader has a relative who has 800 acers and a cabin on the Utah-Arizona border, and they let us camp there for free every October during fall break. It's a lot of fun, although we always end up getting a hotel instead of camping because Mike needs to work at night. That was a good thing this year, because they had an unbelievable cold snap down there! At one point, they were predicting lows of 25 for those nights! I think it was a little warmer, but most of the families ended up finding somewhere indoors to sleep. Some of the teenage boys tented the first night and woke up to frost on their sleeping bags - they slept in their cars for the other nights. We were glad to be in a hotel.

We drove down Wednesday afternoon and checked into the hotel. Thursday morning we went to Coral Pink Sand Dunes, which is one of our favorite places down there. The dunes are pretty, playing in the sand is fun, and we found moqui marbles! Rea and Sara were brave enough this year to sled down the dunes. (We rent a sled as a group and then everyone who wants to sled forms a line up the dune and passes the sled hand to hand; the top person slides down, everyone moves up the dune a step, and repeat.) As we hunted for moqui marbles, we found some odd seeds; they looked almost like popcorn, but without the pointy end. Alison remembered seeing some seed pods, so we hunted around till we found them and opened them, and sure enough, they were the same. Then we had to find the plant they came from. Mike collected a whole bunch, wondering if they could be popped like popcorn, and we took them home along with a branch so we could see if they were poisonous. Turns out, they were. Also, they did not pop like popcorn when we tried. :( The plant is called silvery sophora, and it's in the pea family.

Thursday afternoon we went to Moqui Cave, which no one had been to before but we saw on a map. It turned out to be a tiny museum that was overpriced, but we got in free as a field trip, so that was nice. But just down the road were some natural sand caves that we could hike up to. They were very cool: a really long cave with a bunch of arched openings overlooking the canyon, and then a section without any openings that got quite dark and fun for the kids. The floor of the cave was deep sand and the walls were sandstone. It was really neat and we had fun there, although unfortunately it set off Alison's fear of heights somewhat. When the kids got scared climbing across the rock face to get up or down, or wanted to look out the arches, Mike had to help them.

Every evening, we made a group dinner at the campsite while the kids played on the rocks, and then lit a campfire and told stories and made s'mores. Some of the older kids are really good storytellers and they had fun. We did our own lunches, and when the forecast was that it would be so cold, Alison planned us hot soups every day. (We make the soup in the Instant Pot in the morning, heat it to sealing, and carry it in an insulated bag until lunchtime - it stays very hot until we open the lid, and it can really make a nasty day to be outside bearable.) It turned out to not be that cold, but the soups were fine.

Friday we hiked on Gooseberry Mesa in the morning and found chips from making arrowheads and other tools. That was very exciting and all the kids brought some home. Then in the afternoon we went to Water Canyon, which is probably our favorite spot in the area. It's a small corner of the Canaan Wilderness Area with a stream running down a canyon, rocks, sand, small trees and bushes... basically everything you need for a good place for kids to play. It was great to just stay there for the afternoon. Rea and other kids her age caught lizards and made a lizard habitat and showed them off to younger kids. Mike and Alison carved knitting needles out of roots and smoothed them with chunks of sandstone. The kids climbed on rocks and made sand castles and such. It was nice.

On Thursday we got a text saying that Grandma Sheila and Grandpa Mike wanted to have a party to celebrate their moving to Utah, so we left right after breakfast Saturday morning so we were sure to get home in time. We even had time to unpack before heading to their house to build Legos, eat pizza, and have a fire in their outside fire pit. It was a lot of fun. We are excited that they are here for good.