zion national park: day 2

Day 2 started with a drive across Zion National Park.  We took the road through the mountain, literally, and wound up on the other side to do what ended up being the favorite hike of the trip, The Canyon Overlook trail.  This one is a bit precarious at parts because of the ridiculous drop offs in a couple places so I might have reminded everyone ten or a hundred times to be careful and watch where they were going and to not die.  

At the end of this hike is a view of almost all of Zion Park, or at least the parts people can visit.  You can see each of the parks famous peaks from the spot and there are lots of boulders to climb on as well but you have to be super careful and know where you are because there is only one little itty bitty fence and then the rest of the edge is imminent death...death...death...death (Trolls anyone!?)

We spent a long time at the top exploring and picture taking before heading back down.

After driving back through the mountain we went to the park museum and were going to walk one of my favorites, the Parus' Trail.  It is a really easy stroll at the lowest level of the canyon but I love the feeling of being so low and seeing so much height all around.  It holds such comfort and beauty.  However, Logan was melting and Zach ended up taking him back to the car and driving to come pick the other three of us up at the end.

After a little lunch and rest time at the hotel, we walked back into the park to buy souvenirs and hit as many small trails as we could before sunset.  We did Weeping Rock (an ever dripping spot on the mountain), Court of the Patriarchs, and Sinawava, which is a mile long trail along the river that leads to where The Narrows begin.  Then took the shuttle all the way back to the visitors center to get a picture with the sign and then a sunset picture of the canyon before the day was done.

One of my favorite things was Connor asking me to run the mile on the trail back with him at the end of the day.  You don't often get special one on one time on a family vacation but carving out that fun activity with him was sweet.  We were rewarded for our efforts with seeing five mule deer munching their dinner along the trial.  WILDLIFE!!

Zion National Park: Day 1

Day 1 started with an early breakfast at the Wagon Wheel Diner before driving the extra 30 minutes to Zion.  On the way there Zach thought it would be funny to play the song Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker.  It stopped being funny by the end of the trip when that became Connor's new favorite song and he asked for it every five minutes!

The views driving up to the park were gorgeous.  When Zach and I had gone the previous year it was rainy and overcast the whole time.  This year it was beautifully blue and sunny!  All three boys were captivated by the scenery and kept imagining what it would be like to live there all the time and just walk out the door and stare at the mountains.

Our first hike was up the Kayenta Trail to the Emerald Pools.  It's one of my favorites because there are gorgeous views of the canyon and river without it being a super dangerous, mama heart stressing out, trail.   

At the end of the hike at the Upper Emerald Pool you are treated with a waterfall from the mountain and fun places to wade and jump across.  Logan might have ended up getting really wet.  I probably should have anticipated that.

After playing, snacking, and listening to a extremely loud woman talk to all of her kids as if she was the only one within miles, we headed back down the trail the same was we came but stopped to let the boys scamper up a few of the large boulders to the side.

After lunch at the Lodge we took an easy hike following the river and stopped a lot for the boys to throw rocks, skip rocks, pocket rocks, and climb trees.  

We knew we weren't going to get a ton of hikes in during the trip because we wanted to take our time and let them explore and also not want to risk cranky overtiredness to set in.  

We headed back to the hotel in midafternoon and chilled in the heated pool and hot tub and celebrated a great first day of fun and no falling off mountains!

Then we all crashed...HARD!