First time for the boys camping under the stars (no tent)

We’re about to head off on a week-long roadtrip to Utah—this will be the longest trip so far with all three boys, and the first time I will get them up to the Utah desert that I love so much. My trips to southern Utah over the past two decades have all been adult trips, technical adventurous trips for slot canyons, mountain biking, or climbing. Most of my favorite trips and craziest adventures have been somewhere south of 70, east of 15, west of Moab, and north of the AZ line. I want my boys to share my love of the region.

One of my favorite things about camping in the desert is the opportunity to throw down a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag under the open sky and pass out. I like the simplicity of not needing a tent, the efficiency of stopping the car and being in my sleeping bag in minutes. I love camping on a patch of slickrock, totally sandless and flat and open and peaceful. I love feeling the breeze on my face in the middle of the night. Even when the wind blows hard, I love it. When I built the roof rack atop my car, I designed it so that Karen and I could sleep up there side-by-side. When I think of going north to the Utah desert, I think of the opportunity to camp under the open sky.

This sentiment may seem strange to those unfamiliar with the southwest. After all, I live in New Mexico–don’t I have enough desert of my own? Well, yes. Yes, I do. The desert of New Mexico is varied and wonderful. And just as hot and dry as Utah. But there is nothing like the desert rock of southern Utah. The desert of southern Utah is filled with slickrock, and sinuous slot canyons, and terrain so convoluted that it is simply impassable by vehicles. There are entire areas that entirely lack dirt and sand. Imagine hiking all day without touching ground, not touching sand or dirt, every step is on rock, for hours and hours. There are parts of Utah like that. Those are the parts of Utah I like to frequent. Those are the parts that have incredible deep and narrow canyons that require swimming, cold enough for wetsuits in the middle of summer, ropes and rappels and hardcore skills just to get through. And the places where camping at night is a matter of laying down your pad and bag and climbing in.

Anyway, to get the boys ready for camping under the stars, tent-less, last night I took them on a local outing, on a local 4WD road up to Guaje Ridge. It was one of my quick overnights, after dinner, before breakfast, hot-chocolate in the morning only. The road is somewhat technical; low-range 4WD and high clearance required, maybe even locking hubs depending on conditions, so caveat emptor. I included the GPS info at the bottom of this post. It is a great road to tool around on to test out your new SUV, if you want to actually use it on a real road…

The boys exceeded my expectations. Perhaps my expectations were too low, though, as they really only acted as boys should–they played in the sand and dust and covered themselves and everything else with layers of dirt, and they continued unabated until twilight, whence I called them to bed and they passed out immediately after I finished reading to them. I couldn’t have asked for a better first tent-less night. Cloudless, nearly still, quite chilly but not frigid, all went well. In the morning Jasper said he didn’t want to camp with a tent again, which warmed my heart.

It turns out they sleep just as well outside without a tent, as with. They seemed not even to notice the difference. Which is fantastic, I had expected it to be harder. Though they are still young enough that they have not established what the standard is, what “normal” is. I managed to slip in the notion that camping outside without a tent is perfectly normal, which is as it should be.