From Capitol Reef to Canyonlands, it is less than a two and half hour drive. And the signs of a potential Alva meltdown due to fatigue noted earlier in the day began to simmer somewhere along that drive. The bickering between Alva and Oskar began halfway through the drive and Alva really started to crack at the visitor center when we wouldn’t buy her the Junior Ranger vest (the vest was $30 and she had only $12 left from her original budget. Normally giving them control of their own budget is enough to prevent any issues, but clearly not this time). She waited until we were back in the van and then fully broke into tears. With little room to escape or have any privacy, she tucked herself under the back bed and spent a good fifteen minutes completing her Junior Ranger Activity book in silence to collect herself.
During this time, I started to get frustrated. While I normally have a bit more patience, time was not on our side. Canyonlands was a forty minute drive completely out of the way, I wanted to do at least one hike in the park and it was nearing five pm which meant things were going to get dark soon. If we were going to see any of the park we had to get moving. Thankfully Martin was a bit more level headed and used his strong negotiation and parenting skills to get Alva out from under the bed. He leveraged a video of Rasmus on his phone and offered her a can of Pringles to get her out of the funk and into her seat so we could drive to hike the Mesa Arch loop.
It might be due to the meltdown, or stress of trying to fit it all in (that laid back attitude I was trying to embrace was long gone), but that one hike was enough for me and I didn’t feel the need to explore anymore. We will save our canyons for the Grand Canyon.
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