We took a 5 day trip down to Southern Utah. We saw National Parks, a National monument, a state park, and a state forest. It was great to get outdoors and see some awe inspiring geology.
Our first stop was Zion National Park. It was crazy to see how many people were there. It felt a little like an amusement park. There were people there from all over the US and quite a lot of people from Europe too. We did the emerald pool hike at Zions. It was a great difficulty for us and had amazing views and fun features. Tessa was actually able to hike the bulk of the way up on her own. The trail had some rocky terrain and she enjoyed climbing up the terrain. She just held onto my hands to help keep her steady and she did great.
It was fun to see her enjoy hiking and especially see her like the challenge. I thought that bode well for being able to take the kids out hiking more as they get older. The trail had some beautiful waterfalls.
Next to the waterfalls, the rock was erroding and Tessa had a ball scraping dust off the rock face.
The hike also had 3 small pools.
The girls loved loved loved playing in the sand and water at the last pool where we stopped for lunch.
Then on the way back down there was a really cool view of the Virgin River.
Tessa's favorite park was Zion's in part because she liked the "beach" at the end of the hike. At the next National Park we went to, she asked us where the beach was. The other thing Tessa liked about Zion's was getting to ride the "school bus". The park is so busy, that they have a shuttle, which Tessa thought was amazing. Then we also did some of the shorter walks including the river walk
as well as weeping rock.
Next we drove to Bryce Canyon. In between the parks we drove on Highway 12, which is a scenic byway, and boy, it was scenic! I think a drive that was supposed to take about 3 hours ended up taking us about 6.
On the drive, we got to see more of Zion's National Park, which was beautiful, the Dixie National Forest and Grand Escalate State Park. Grand Escalante State Park was just incredible. I felt like out the car window I was looking at the surface of the moon. The petrified forest made these smooth boulder-like hills all around.
At Bryce, it was fun to see the amphitheater again. The incredible expanse of hoodoos is amazing to see.
We did a hike there down into the amphitheater so we got to see the hoodoos up close.
It was one of the harder hikes we did as there was quite a lot of uphill and downhill with downhill that was steep and a little slick; we took it slow though and made it.
After Bryce we went to Capitol Reef. We did a hike through the Grand Wash slot Canyon after confirming with a park ranger that no rain was expected. I was seriously paranoid about flash floods in the narrow canyons. On our way out, it started looking the tiniest bit overcast and I felt like 3 rain drops and I started high-tailing it out if the canyon.
On the next day at Capitol Reef we hiked another hike that had us drive our car on this narrow dirt road through a slot canyon to the trail head. It was super weird to drive through the slot canyon and have these huge rock walls on either side of you. The hike itself led us to some neat petroglyphs as well as a pioneer register with the names of the original pioneers to the canyon carved into the stone. David and I actually walked past the pioneer register initially and it was Tessa who first spotted it, which was cool.
There was a lot of stopping to play in the dirt at Capital Reef which was fun for the kids.
Plus we briefly visited the orchards, an original home, and an original school house at historic Fruita, the town originally settled by the Mormon pioneers who settled at the mouth of the canyon. It would be fun to go back this Summer when the original orchards are growing fruit as you're allowed to pick fruit there. It is also supposed to have a very dark night sky which is excellent for seeing stars. We were so tired we didn't take advantage of the dark night sky for stargazing - maybe next time. We had a lot of fun on our trip and saw a lot of awe inspiring views and it's great exposing your kids to the beauty of nature. Plus with going to all the parks we went to on our trip, it was cheaper to buy a year long pass than admission to each individual park so now we have more incentive to see more parks. Plus we get to feel cool considering ourselves "park people" now. So I guess we'll have to go to more parks over the course of this year. We've got our eye set on Yellowstone for sure and the Grand Canyon and maybe Yosemite. It was a pretty tiring trip with all the hiking particularly with the kids on our backs but it was great to get out to see everything and I'm really glad we did it.
Next to the waterfalls, the rock was erroding and Tessa had a ball scraping dust off the rock face.
The hike also had 3 small pools.
The girls loved loved loved playing in the sand and water at the last pool where we stopped for lunch.
Then on the way back down there was a really cool view of the Virgin River.
Tessa's favorite park was Zion's in part because she liked the "beach" at the end of the hike. At the next National Park we went to, she asked us where the beach was. The other thing Tessa liked about Zion's was getting to ride the "school bus". The park is so busy, that they have a shuttle, which Tessa thought was amazing. Then we also did some of the shorter walks including the river walk
as well as weeping rock.
At Bryce, it was fun to see the amphitheater again. The incredible expanse of hoodoos is amazing to see.
It was one of the harder hikes we did as there was quite a lot of uphill and downhill with downhill that was steep and a little slick; we took it slow though and made it.
After Bryce we went to Capitol Reef. We did a hike through the Grand Wash slot Canyon after confirming with a park ranger that no rain was expected. I was seriously paranoid about flash floods in the narrow canyons. On our way out, it started looking the tiniest bit overcast and I felt like 3 rain drops and I started high-tailing it out if the canyon.
On the next day at Capitol Reef we hiked another hike that had us drive our car on this narrow dirt road through a slot canyon to the trail head. It was super weird to drive through the slot canyon and have these huge rock walls on either side of you. The hike itself led us to some neat petroglyphs as well as a pioneer register with the names of the original pioneers to the canyon carved into the stone. David and I actually walked past the pioneer register initially and it was Tessa who first spotted it, which was cool.
There was a lot of stopping to play in the dirt at Capital Reef which was fun for the kids.
Plus we briefly visited the orchards, an original home, and an original school house at historic Fruita, the town originally settled by the Mormon pioneers who settled at the mouth of the canyon. It would be fun to go back this Summer when the original orchards are growing fruit as you're allowed to pick fruit there. It is also supposed to have a very dark night sky which is excellent for seeing stars. We were so tired we didn't take advantage of the dark night sky for stargazing - maybe next time. We had a lot of fun on our trip and saw a lot of awe inspiring views and it's great exposing your kids to the beauty of nature. Plus with going to all the parks we went to on our trip, it was cheaper to buy a year long pass than admission to each individual park so now we have more incentive to see more parks. Plus we get to feel cool considering ourselves "park people" now. So I guess we'll have to go to more parks over the course of this year. We've got our eye set on Yellowstone for sure and the Grand Canyon and maybe Yosemite. It was a pretty tiring trip with all the hiking particularly with the kids on our backs but it was great to get out to see everything and I'm really glad we did it.
