We were on a 5 National Park, two-week (maybe a little longer) trailer trip. We came from the Seattle Area, went white water rafting in Idaho, hit Utah and visited Arches and Canyonlands, went to Durango and met up with some friends and visited Mesa Verde, went on from there to the Grand Canyon, and came back up through Utah and visited Zion and Bryce Canyon. Also on this trip, we had to replace the fuel pump on our tow vehicle and were stuck in a KOA in Kingman, Arizona for a couple days. We were on the last National Park, Bryce Canyon. We were camping in our 25- foot trailer with no side slide outs. It was a LOT of togetherness in a relatively small space.
My husband and I were geeking out on the different rock formations, not that we knew anything about them, but they all looked different. We think it’s amazing how you can travel in the United States and see such different landscapes in a relatively short amount of time. It’s awesome and part of the reason why we got into RVing in the first place. The kids, on the other hand, had seen their fill of orange rocks. They were done hiking and exploring. We weren’t…and that’s how our story begins…
It was the last hike of the trip. The Queen’s Garden hike down to the bottom of Bryce Canyon. Who wouldn’t want to see a hoodoo from the bottom up? Apparently, my kids! We were at the rim of the canyon when we decided we’d make a pit stop. We all went to our respective restrooms and when I came out, I only found my husband. We waited around for the kids at the trailhead and they never showed up. We tried texting and calling them, but the cell service was nil. Since they had done some pretty bitter complaining earlier that day, we figured they went on ahead on the hike and were going to beat us to the end. They were sick of us. Whatever! They’d be fine and we could enjoy our hike without any complaining. Win-Win!
We began our hike, oohing and ahhing over the incredible rock formations. Outside of the Calico Mine ride at Knott’s Berry Farm or the Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland, I’d never seen anything quite like Queen’s Garden. It was amazing! And, it was REAL! God made it out of real rocks! SO cool! I took about 785 pictures! My husband was even getting impatient telling me that the rock formation I was taking a picture of looked just like the last one I took a picture of. It was probably a good thing he stopped me, or I might have 1785 pictures of hoodoos! It was a fantastic hike!
We finished the hike expecting to see the kids at the end of the trail. They weren’t there. We tried the cell phones again. No dice. Dang! We lost the kids! We weren’t terribly worried considering it was early afternoon, it was light out, they were both smart and resourceful, they were 15 and 11 and together, and they probably had eleven dollars between them. They probably wouldn’t starve. They also knew where we parked the car and could take a shuttle back there and meet us.
We got on the shuttle and decided to get off at every stop thinking maybe they’d stopped to get a snack. We didn’t find them anywhere. We stopped and got off near the car. Not there. Suddenly, my phone rang (a miracle considering the lack of cell service!). I picked up and this is what I heard, “Mrs. Lewis, this is Ranger so and so (I can’t remember his name). I believe you’ve become separated from your children.” Yes, indeed! We had become separated from our children! He let us know we could meet up with them at the Visitor’s Center. As much as we enjoyed our complaint-free hike, we were pretty relieved to know where the kids were even though we knew they’d be alright. When we met up with them, the Ranger , mtold us what great kids they were and how they’d done all the right things by finding a Park Ranger to get help. We should be proud of them. I have to say, we were a little conflicted. We weren’t sure if we should be irritated with them for disappearing or proud of them for how they handled it once they figured out they were “lost.”
We look back on this day with amusement. Please don’t call Child Protective Services on us! Our kids are grown up and they turned out just fine! The 15-year-old in this story is now an EMT and can hold her own with the craziest, strung out druggies you’ll find on the street! She has great stories. Her wit and ability to think on her feet is serving her well. Our son is serving in the Unites States Marine Corps and making us proud. Perhaps this little adventure was good training. Who knows?
For the record, my daughter read this and informed me that she remembers it differently. She maintains that the kids were under the impression that we were going on the rim hike (a two mile-ish, relatively flat and paved hike). She also maintains that she and her brother were totally annoyed with their parents for being dorks and getting their hiking poles ready for that flat hike and that they went ahead because we were too slow. So, they hiked the wrong trail. We hiked the one to the bottom of the canyon, where trekking poles came in handy! I know we talked about which hike we were going on prior to getting separated. My husband remembers it like I do. It will go down in our family history as an unsolved debate and probably make for some more funny family conversations … maybe someday with grandkids!
There’s no real moral to this story other than when things turn out OK in the end, it’s much more fun to look back onto the story with amusement. Every now and then, we’ll quote that Park Ranger, “Mrs. Lewis…. I believe you’ve become separated from your children” and get a good chuckle out of it. I hope you got a good chuckle too.
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