Welcome to week two of Nomad Summer which we spent in Moab, Utah. This week was spent in Moab for a few reasons. For one, we love Moab. It’s one of my favorite places on the planet, so it takes very little convincing to get me back there. Secondly, Matt had to work for one of the weeks of Nomad Summer, so we decided to go to a place that I felt comfortable having both of the kids on my own and still have some adventures. Lastly, Matt was feeling a little jealous that he didn’t have a trip to Moab on the books for 2025 and I did. So, all of these reasons aligned, happily, to make Moab our second destination.
This was our first week camping while Matt worked…
We got a Starlink satellite in 2024 for this very reason. We knew we were wanting to have the opportunity to travel while Matt was working and this was our first time doing it. I think it went beautifully! Matt did say he felt a little claustrophobic because he was in our bedroom if the kids and I were in the camper, and being in Moab meant that the aircon was constantly running and camper units are pretty notoriously loud. So, I think we would want to plan that out a bit more, but as far as ability to work, it worked beautifully. Our Starlink didn’t give us any trouble, which is huge. I hate giving Elon Musk money, but this is a necessary evil for the ability to work remote. If anyone knows an option that works just as well, just as consistently and also feels more ethical, definitely let me know.
You know you’re in Moab when your dash is a sunhat rack.
One thing Matt very comically added to this section is that just because you go to a notoriously treeless destination, like Moab, Utah, it doesn’t mean your campsite will be treeless. This was part of the reason we chose Moab because you can’t have things blocking your signal for Starlink, but, our course, our easy, breezy pull through site had a tree right where our Starlink mount is. So, we had to awkwardly back into our pull through site and run our tubes and cords under the camper. But we made it work! That’s one thing about camper life, we’re good at getting creative.
But we also went to Moab in June, so it was really hot…
We did think of this, it wasn’t completely out of our minds, but we’d had a really mild year back home so far, so the heat hit us even differently. Plus, with the kids, it felt harder to have them outside. Our thought was that Matt would be off after the peak heat and we’d all explore together then. And that is what we did and it did get much cooler, but it also put me doing activities with them during the peak heat. But, we made do.
In addition to the activities harder during the day, it did some work on our camper too. Our exterior cargo doors started to weirdly crack and separate – as Matt always says when something else breaks on the camper, campers are the most expensive pieces of shit you’ll ever own. So, we have had to get those fixed since getting home. But also, having the a/c blasting 24/7 was so weird. It was auditory overload to hear it just going and going and going. It was so intense, that when we got home, I was convinced our air conditioner at home was broken because I literally could not hear it. Haha I know, this is such a first world problem, that my aircon is “too loud” but hey, these are my camper diaries and it’s how I felt.
What activities are there to do when it’s 100 degrees out and you have two small children?
We did still manage to find a fair amount of activities to do together. We went into Canyonlands one day. We stopped to get Junior Ranger books and did the Mesa Arch Trail and then we did the Junior Ranger activities together and got the kids sworn in at the visitor center. Also, most national park visitor centers have little nature centers and those are wonderful for occupying little ones. Just be mindful of the other visitors and don’t hog the displays. If your kids will sit through them, they often have films too.
We also look for kid-friendly activities. We went to Moab Giants just outside of Moab, which was amazing because the kids are really into dinosaurs. This was all the things I love in a kids’ destination: fun, educational, hands on and active. They had an epic playground where you could do anything from play paleontologist and dig up dino bones to swing to crawl inside a T-rex head. It was a blast – although it opens late morning which is unfortunate for the heat, but we packed a ton of water. Plus that had an indoor dinosaur museum that we went into to cool off before walking their dinosaur footprints trail. It covered all kinds of dinosaurs with large statues the kids could pose with and touch and each had signs. Some we read, some we didn’t. Then, they had a little cafe and the kids and I shared some gelato to cool off before heading home to the camper.
My favorite thing we did, though, was take on some 4WD roads together. I was probably the least confident driver a decade ago. I was scared to drive Matt’s 4Runner when we met because it was so big. I have slowly gotten more and more comfortable with larger vehicles. I still hate parking our Chevy 2500 and it takes an embarrassingly long time sometimes, but I’ve gotten more comfortable driving it. When we did some off roading a bit earlier in the week, I took the wheel at different points for 5-10 minutes or so and even those little bits made me much more confident. So, I decided to tackle a road we’d never been on before, which had some intense drops, tight squeezes and was a narrow road all by myself. I felt so badass and I said so – so much that Charleigh is now a self-proclaimed badass following in her mama’s footsteps. It was an amazing activity that felt adventurous, empowering and the kids loved. Liam is a fiend for the bumps and dips. Every single time we hit them, he would manically laugh and Charleigh loved spotting for rock formations and trying to spy bighorn sheep, which we only saw in the Gunnison area this trip.
We also did other more typical indoor activities of shopping, visiting the library and even spending time in the camper. Our campground also had a pool, which was a great option for killing time and keeping cool. But I have to say, Charleigh kept wanting to be in the hot tub instead of the pool. We also only did this after Matt was off because keeping two kids under 5 afloat and safe in a crowded pool was a little daunting for me, but it would be a good option in a couple of years or if your campground had a kiddie pool.
Saying goodbye to Moab… For now…
Saying goodbye Moab is always incredibly hard for me. It’s a place I feel like my soul is at home. I was born to be a desert-dweller I think. I love the rock formations, the colors of the desert, the sunsets, the landscapes, the dry heat, the flora and fauna. It’s just simply a place that I feel most confident – partially because it challenges me, I think, in really surprising ways each and every visit there, and I wake up and fall asleep inspired every single day I’m there. So, even though it was hard to leave, I was excited to more deeply explore the Rockies and it was easier to put Moab in my rearview mirror knowing I’d be coming back in three months.
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