Month: May 2017

We have been trying to get to Bryce Canyon National Park for awhile now. We finally made it, and I’m happy to say, it didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, our visit was limited to one day.  

Bear, our hiking manager, selected a nice 3 mile loop through the area known as the Amphitheater. The hike starts at the highly visited Sunrise Point, descends into the Queens Garden, and exits through the Navajo Loop to Sunset Point. 

 We had planned to exit through the loop that goes to a feature called Wall Street. That area, sadly, was closed due to rockslide.  

Despite that tiny hitch, the hike was amazing. The starting view is spectacular, both Sunrise and Sunset points overlook the amphitheater, an expanse of multicolored hoodoos and thin rock walls called “fins.” The hoodoos are formed from the fins and the landscape is constantly changing. 

As you descend through the layers of limestone, you end up on a sparsely vegetated valley with smooth rolling hills. It was a pretty wild view. After a nice meandering walk, which includes a few tunnels, it’s back up through the hoodoos.  

On the way up, Bear and Bunny dusted Goose and me. We ended up hiking next to a mother daughter team. The daughter sounded American, and probably in her 20s, and her mother spoke a different language. As she climbed I could her her talking to her daughter. Goose, though a strong hiker moaned the whole way, “I’m tired… my legs hurt… I’m exhausted… I can’t do this”. The daughter laughs, gestures to her mother and says, “She’s saying the same exact thing!” We got through it, and it was worth every step!

Although, I’m happy we finally made it here, I wish we had more time to enjoy this amazing place. I could have easily spent a week here.? Ah well, always good to leave wanting more.

This past week brought us to Las Vegas.  Neither Bear or I  are into gambling, and we didn’t want to spend too much money, so we spent only one day on the Strip.  Bear had to fly back to California for a weekend of work so the girls and I took the opportunity to do chores. 

For our day on the Strip, we wanted to give the girls a slice of Vegas, so we did a 5 miles walking tour.  (Not an official one or anything. ) We knew the girls, especially Goose, would be amazed by all the glitz and glam of the casinos and shopping malls.  We took them through The Venetian, and they loved the ceilings. “It looks just like Hogwarts!” 

We tried to get to the Bellagio for their fountains, but they were in maintenance mode.  I wish we had known that before we trekked all the way out there, especially in my plastic sandals!  Ouch!  

We finished the day at Circus Circus which has a great indoor amusement park.  Goose and I went on the Canyon Blaster, which included a double loop and double corkscrew along with a tunnel.  After the loops, I took a look at Goose, who, poor thing, was on her first big kid roller coaster.  I shouted at her that she was going to live through it and it was almost over, I don’t think it helped as after the loops came the corkscrews! At the end she was in good spirits, but informed me she was never doing that again.  Thank goodness for good sports!  

While we were enjoying (?) that ride, Bunny was planning out the next rides for us.  Her first choice was The Road Runner, which is a standard cart goes around a circle ride.  Forward, backwards, and forwards.  I was regretting my lunch at this point.  The girls were having a screaming good time and Bunny was making me laugh by excitedly screaming, “I planned this, I planned this!” We did a few other rides and it was time to head back to Jolly.

The next day was pretty boring, but important.  Both girls needed new jeans and Goose has had a growth spurt.  Also, we were out of food.  Shopping day!  

Bear left the next morning, and I decided to surprise the girls with a trip to the Seaquest Aquarium. This neat spot is located in The Boulevard Mall and has a ton of interactive stations.  We got to feed fish, stingrays, and sharks.  (Little ones). We also got to pet iguanas.  There was a bird feeding station, but I was the only one who took advantage of that.  It was a bit overwhelming.

After that, it was time to get to work.  The girls helped me make space on their upper bunk with a decent toy reorganization.  I cleaned and polished the interior and got it as about as clean as she can be, without emptying her.  So here’s a quick tour while she’s clean.

The Master Bedroom:

The Bunk Room:
And finally the Kitchen, Dinette and Living Area:

It was back to normal in a day.  Now, fully stocked and cleaned, we’re headed back into Utah for a visit to Bryce and Capitol Reef!  Happy trails!

If you appreciate high rises of canyon walls, amazing views and seeing a variety of ecosystems in one package, Zion National Park should be added to your “must visit” list. The park is great for casual tourists, hikers, back packers, canyoneers, and advanced rock climbers.  
This was actually our second trip to the park. Technically, we were all here before, but Bunny was still cooking! Goose was about two years old and I was five months pregnant. This time around, both kids walked, and I didn’t have to hike in my maternity office clothes! 

We stayed at the Watchman Campground, which is located right by the Visitor Center. It’s a pretty campground, with a good amount of trees and passing wildlife. The crown jewel of the wildlife sightings was a California King-snake that wiggled by! 

 

The sites have electric hook ups and there is water and a dump station available on site. My only complaint was their ground cover for the sites. It was very pretty and matched the landscape well, but holy orange. Everything was orange. The kids were orange, the adults were orange, Jolly was orange, and of course the dogs were orange. We took them to a groomer after this trip and they wanted to know if we lived on a baseball field.  

The park has a few distinct sections, the most visited being the Valley. During the high season, and shoulder seasons, driving into the park is limited to guests of the lodge. The remaining guests can park at the visitor center and take the shuttle bus in. The shuttle bus has nine stops, including the visitor center, and each stop has something worthwhile to see. We limited ourselves to The Emerald Pools, The Human History Museum, and the Riverside Walk. The Riverside Walk is the gateway to the Narrows, a canyoneering hike which is mostly walking through the Virgin River. We have not yet been able to do this, first we’ve never been there at the right time of year, and second it’s not terribly safe with smaller kids.

 

Throughout the Valley, you can find a variety of treasures. In addition to the rock formations and geological features, there are weeping rocks, hanging gardens, and a variety of plant and animal life. Occasionally, it’s possible to spot climbers scaling the steep canyon walls!  

On the Riverside walk, the animal life consisted of the most aggressive squirrels I’ve ever seen. This is what happens when people feed the squirrels. They were completely fearless of people and even chased Bunny for food. It was not a pleasant experience. A fellow hiker lent me his hiking pole to try and dissuade a particularly annoying squirrel away from my pack. I tried slapping the ground near it to no affect. After that spectacular failure, I tried to gently push it away with the pole… it just rolled over! Lesson here, don’t feed the wildlife.

Another great hike in the valley is The Watchman Trail. The trailhead is walking distance from the campground and visitor center, and if you don’t mind a bit of a climb, it’s totally worth it. We were treated to the flowering desert plants, which were just amazing. I slowed us down by taking a picture of pretty much every flower I came across. The viewpoint gives sweeping views of the valley below.  

 

An under-visited part of the park is the Kolob Canyon/Terrace. We did two hikes in this region, Taylor Creek Trail and Northgate Peaks. Taylor Creek is a more popular trail which winds through a canyon, passes a couple of log cabins, and ends at the Double Arch Alcove. The Alcove is a really neat spot and the kids loved discovering their echoes. If undertaking this hike, bring warm layers, the deeper into the Canyon you go, the colder it gets. Sturdy foot wear that can stand up to water is a must as the trail crosses the creek about seven hundred times.

Northgate Peaks trail is an easy four mile (ish) trail which meanders through high plateau meadows and forest. It ends with a great view of Zion Valley, Northgate Peaks, and the Pine Valley Mountains. We stopped right at the first big viewpoint, but we saw a lot of hikers go further to more adventurous spots.

The Eastern Section of Zion is worth a visit as well. We skipped it this time for a few reasons. First, we had a bit of hiking/sight seeing fatigue and just never got around to it. The other is that to get to the Eastern section, you must drive through the Zion-Mt Carmel tunnel, which is an attraction in it’s own right. For regular sized vehicles, it’s a free tunnel trip, but for oversized vehicles, including our dually, it’s a $15 fee. The tunnel has to be shut down to one way traffic when larger vehicles need to go through, so it’s a fair price. This section has beautiful sandstone formations and not too many trails(if any). There are still a good amount of unofficial walking areas and we’ll have to visit it next time.  

Our timing in this trip was great. The weather was cool, albeit windy, the wild flowers were in bloom, and best of all, we were there at the same time as another family with kid about Goose’s age. They hit it off immediately and the kids spent their time playing at our site or theirs. It’s always a treat when we find some kids for ours to play with, and even more so when we like the parents too! Now we have some new friends to visit when we pass through their stomping grounds.

 

Zion is a real treasure, and it’s no wonder it’s our third most visited park. We look forward to coming back and we’ve left ourselves a few jewels to discover. I look forward to returning and climbing Angel’s Landing, exploring the Eastern Section, and hiking through the Narrows!
Now, here are some of the flowers!