Devil’s Garden was one of the best places for climbing on rocks. The sandstone looked like sunset–orange at the bottom and yellow up top. The photos don’t do justice to the brilliance of the colors as the sun reflected off the glowing rock formations.
I didn’t know we would meet a giant penguin in Utah!
And Alvin’s Chipmunks!
“Nibbles, you daredevil!”
I refuse to be outdone by a goat!
We forgot the camera for our hike up Escalante River, but we went to Willis Creek the next day and explored a bunch of slot canyons. I think this was my favorite day of the trip. It’s hard to call one hike “prettier” than another, but there was something so enchanting about the narrow cracks of sculpted sandstone. Cuzco carried our lunch and water that day. The few other hikers we encountered were supremely jealous!
“Whatcha lookin’ at, Nibbles?”
Nibbles and I were brave and hiked up to this arch.
The next stop on our goat vacation was Goblin Valley, UT. This is one of Phil and my favorite little spots in Utah and is always worth a stop. The best bit is that even though it’s a state park, there are no fences, no “Keep Off” signs, no long lists of rules about not touching or climbing on the formations or damaging the cryptocraptic crust. We were also pleased to discover that there aren’t any rules about keeping pets on leashes, so we were able to let the goats explore!
It was a close call. The halter was way too big, and as Nibbles front end lifted off the ground, the halter slid up over her shoulders and she very nearly fell out of it. But Nibbles is a smart goat even if she is naughty. She bent her front legs around the halter and clung to it while using her hind legs to scramble up the rock.
First step accomplished.
Another good effort. I think she could have made it on her own after the first haul, but n-o-o-o-o. The silly goat kept trying to go back down instead of up. It probably didn’t help that I was at the bottom and she couldn’t see Phil over the top of the cliff. She would rather face jumping off a cliff than face my brother Tim, I guess. Can I blame her? 😛
Finally!
This series of photos makes it look like a simple 15-minute job, but in reality I think between having to go fetch the truck and ladder, and figuring out what to do with the goat, the whole operation took 2-3 hours.
We’re very glad this story had a happy ending. It was a lesson to us, though. We decided to keep Nibbles under a careful watch for the rest of the trip since we were on our way to Escalante, UT, where we might not be able to rescue a wandering goat so easily! 
We thought about trying to carry Nibbles down, but she’s pretty hefty these days and has a lot of kick in her. She would probably try to jump if we picked her up at that height, and she might take her rescuer with her. And that ladder was not exactly a bastion of support. The thing has to be at least thirty years old and kept threatening to collapse in the middle if we did more than tiptoe.
Coaxing, bribing, and threatening had gotten us nowhere. It was time to force the issue. I had a spare horse halter in my trailer. It was too big, but it was the best I had.
Tim and Phil (not pictured) climbed to the top and lowered a rope.
“Ready, Nibbles?”
“Engage goat levitation device!”
“We have liftoff!”
Phil and I and my brother Tim took a walk. Just a simple walk. We stopped to talk and rest at the top of an unused driveway overlooking the valley and the little-used dirt road below. Nibbles decided to explore. And here’s where she ended up:
She climbed down and couldn’t get back up the way she came because the ledges were too narrow to get a good jump. She couldn’t go down any further because it was a very long drop. She was stuck!
So Tim and Phil walked home and came back with our truck and my dad’s extension ladder.
We attached a rope to her collar and tried to coax her onto the ladder to climb down to us. I’ve seen goats trained to use ladders, but I knew this was a long shot.
Next I moved the ladder and tried to convince Nibbles to climb over towards me along some narrow ledges. She wasn’t convinced.
“Poor Nibbles! It’s ok, we’ll get you down somehow.”
Phil and I needed a vacation. But what is a vacation without goats? We decided to take a goat vacation!
We loaded Cuzco and Nibbles into the horse trailer and headed for Utah. We stayed in Escalante, which is located between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks. We had four days of gorgeous hikes through fantastic scenery. The goats got to climb to their heart’s content.
It started out with a bang though. We stopped for a couple of nights in my old hometown of Lake City, CO to stay with my parents. That’s where Nibbles turned a simple walk into a not-so-simple several-hour goat rescue project.
Yesterday was our Homecoming Parade, and Phil showed up as a Roman charioteer!
I wish I could have gotten a better photo, but I was on a horse and Cuzco was on the warpath. He wanted to run around and meet every horse in the lineup, but the horses didn’t particularly want to meet Cuzco, especially with that cart trundling along behind him. So Phil had to keep him under a very tight rein the whole time.
At first I was glad Phil brought Cuzco down, but as the parade progressed I became a bit jealous. I was riding with my local saddle club and my horse was stealing the show. He’s the most amazing color right now–dark stormcloud gray and silver with black mane and legs and wild dapples all over. He was getting all the “ooh’s” and “aah’s” from the crowd until they saw the goat cart. Too bad the photo is all lousy and washed out–it doesn’t nearly do Jet justice.
