Morning began on the heels of a pretty windy night in the desert. Not really unusual, but something we tend to forget about. However, for all of site 14’s grandeur it also holds a lot of potentially shifting sand. Not a big issue for the palace, whose sidewalls are tall and strong, but our new guest’s borrow tent has optimistically low side walls allowing it to gather and collect blowing sand. In spite of this, they woke cheery and enamored with their surroundings.

After a relaxed breakfast, we took an exploratory hike around the camp loop trail to see how we all felt about slick rock hiking and exposure. Turns out we all enjoyed it very much. Huzzah! We headed to the visitor center to allow Tim to square up for sneaking in to the park after hours and then headed off for the more adventurous Slick Rock Trail. It was gorgeous, varied, and wildly windy in spots. Like ridiculously “hold your hats tight” windy. Still enthused however, we hit the visitor center for some interpretive learning and then Brian and Theresa showed their friends how to score ice cream in the desert at the Needles Outpost.

Evening brought dinner and increasingly ominous weather. Wind, impending rain, and a forecast for cold and snow. Troopers all, we prepared the 4Runner for Tim and Anne to sleep in (longer than the GMC and harder sided than their tent) and played Uno into the evening. Eventually, in a cold rain, we all called it a blustery night and hit the proverbial hay.