We just spent the past few days in an awesome place! We seriously had so much fun! The kids had a very brief Spring Break from Thursday, March 28 - Monday, April 1. So on Wednesday we actually pulled them out of school about an hour early (about 2:00) and drove down to Orem, Utah and spent the night with Stacey. It was her birthday the day earlier so this was kind of her birthday celebration. We went out to dinner at Costa Vida (which was awesome because she gets half off for being an employee) and then we went and played at a park near her house. Then we back to her house and played with her new kitten, Wolfgang (yes, that's what she named him... lol "Wolfie" for short) and had cupcakes from Cravings.
The next morning, we left her house at about 9:30 and started our drive down to St. George. We had planned on stopping when we got almost there to do this really cool hike that I had read about online. it was called the Red Reef Trail and it was located just off the highway in Leeds. However, we accidentally missed our exit. So when we took the NEXT exit, we happened to see a gas station right off the highway and Josh was like, "I'm just gonna fill up while we are right here." And then we went in and used the bathroom, which actually turned out to be a good thing. But while we were sitting there in the parking lot of the gas station, I looked a little beyond it up into the hill and I was like, "That place up there looks a lot like the pictures of where we are staying tonight... hold on..." and I open up my phone and look at the address and sure enough! That was the place I had rented for us for our three nights! I had found it on Airbnb and it's this really nice condo that a guy rents out. I don't even think he lives there most the time. I think he primarily uses it as a vacation rental.
So we were like, "Well cool! We know where that is now!" But it was still only about 1:30 and we couldn't check in until 3:00, so Josh was like, "You still want to go back and do that hike?" And I said, "Yes! It looks awesome from the pictures online!" So we got back on the highway and started driving back north the way we came. The kids were like, "Wait, where are we going? What are we doing?" And Josh joked, "Well, that was fun! Time to head home!" (haha dad jokes...)
But it only took seriously less than 10 minutes and we were back to the correct exit. So we exited and drove about a mile or two over to where this little park entrance was. There was a $5 entrance fee for the vehicle (which we put in the little envelope) and then we found a parking spot as someone else was pulling out. We didn't really know what to expect, but we were just happy to be out of the car!
As we started the hike, right away the kids were like, "This looks so cool!" And then as we got father the hike just got cooler and cooler!The scenery was sooo beautiful! Red cliffs everywhere, big rocks that the kids were climbing on, a little stream that turned into a bigger stream and a waterfall! It was seriously my favorite hike of the whole weekend. I'm so glad I found it online on this obscure hiking website and made my family go find it! I feel like a lot of people don't even know about it because it wasn't even that crowded. Here are a few pictures of that hike! I'm trying to discipline myself not to post too many pictures on here (since I also print photo albums...) but it's so hard not too when there's so many good ones in. place like this!
In one of those pictures, you can kind of see Caleb from the back as he is going up these little "steps" and using a rope. I had seen this part of the hike in pictures and totally misunderstood the angle of that part. It just looked like easy steps upon a rock to me. But when you get there in person, you realize you kind of go up and AROUND the edge of this big rock/cliff and down below is a pool of water. Caleb was soooo scared! haha Josh helped Avery do it (I think he actually carried her as he maneuvered it) and Gabe did it with no problems. Then it was Caleb's turn. We heard a lot of "I'm going to die!! Mom! This is - this is not safe!!" Hahaha Oh Caleb. But he made it over and then we hiked around just a little bit farther. Then it kind of got to the point where we couldn't go any further and we turned back around and he had to go back down it! I think that part was actually scarier for him! But he did it! Here is another picture from a different angle that Josh took as Caleb (and then I) were going up.
It was kind of scary, but we just told him, "But Caleb, at least if you fell you would just get a few bumps and bruises and then land in water! You wouldn't die!" However, the next day we did a hike that if he would've fallen he would've definitely died. Yikes! More on that soon...
So that hike at Red Reef Trail was our first one and it only took about an hour and a half and was sooo beautiful. There was a trail and there were some people, but it wasn't like a paved trail and you didn't feel like cattle so much like you did at Zion National Park. So I liked that more "adventuring into unknown" aspect about it. It felt more like a "hike" and less like a tourist destination to me as compared to Zion.
At about 3:00, we were all done with the hike and easily got back to our car and then drove to our rental. We found the place easily (since we had just been there by the gas station an hour ago) and the guy we were renting it from had given me the key pad entry code for the door. As soon as we walked in we were like, "Whoa.... this is nice." It actually was even nicer than it looked from the pictures online. It had three bedrooms and two baths. The master had it's own HUGE attached bath with jetted tube, huge stone-walled shower, walk-in closet, etc. Then the second bedroom had a queen bed (Gabe took that one) and the third bedroom had two sets of queen bunkbeds (Caleb and Avery each took a top bunk.) There was a big, nice kitchen, living room with a fireplace, dining area, patio with barbecue grill... and so on. It was so great. When we were trying to get our kids moving on check-out day we tried to threaten, "Should we just leave you here forever?" and the kids were like, "Yeah, sure!" So that didn't work like usual. lol I didn't really take any pictures of the inside but here is a picture from the outside.
So from about 4-6pm on that first day we let the kids swim, which they were super happy about. They always just love to swim wherever we go. This place had a clubhouse where there was an indoor pool and hot tub, but also a nice outdoor pool and hot tub. Here is a picture of it.
After swimming, we went out to dinner at Red Robin (that was literally our only time of eating out on the whole trip!) and then we went to Walmart and got some groceries for the next few days. We got to bed by about 9:30 because we knew we were going to get up early the next day for Zion!
Friday morning we all got up at about 7:00. We ate some quick breakfast and got a backpack ready with some sandwiches, granola bars, oranges, and water bottles, and drove the 45 minutes to Zion National Park. The condo that we stayed in was located right off the 1-15 highway, so we basically just had to drive east through Hurricane and then Springdale. We wanted to get there early because I had read online that if you aren't there by like 8-9am, you won't be able to park in the Zion Visitor center lot because it will be full. Then you would have to park in Springdale which A) costs like $20 instead of being free and B) is more of an inconvenience because you have to take a shuttle bus (with lots of stops) just to get to Zion's visitor center and THEN you have to switch to a different shuttle bus that you ride within Zion to stop for the hikes! So we just really wanted to get there and get a good parking spot.
We arrived at Zion's Visitor Center right at 8:00 and were able to find a spot in the parking lot. We used the bathrooms and then boarded the shuttle bus. I had read online in advance and kind of tried to pick out the hikes that I thought were the most family friendly. There were a couple like Angel's Landing and The Narrows that I knew there was NO way we were going to do. In fact, The Narrows hike, you actually first have to hike this one called "Riverside Walk" which was the first one we did in the day and then where that hike ends is where The Narrows hike begins and it was sooo chilly I couldn't even imagine continuing on into the cold river water and hiking another 8 miles! There were some people who were doing it though! I think it had just barely opened for the season.
So anyways, there are 9 stops on the shuttle bus route. The first stop is the visitor's center at the very south end of the park. We decided to ride it all the way to stop 9 first, where we got out and did the Riverside Walk. It was pretty chilly, like I said, and we were in hoodies and we all had our hoods up! It was probably about 45 degrees. Avery was a little grumpy on that hike. She did well the rest of the trip, but that first hike was the hardest because she was cold. Josh ended up taking off his sweatshirt and putting it on her too over her other hooded sweatshirt. Then she was a little better. The hike itself was probably the longest one we did in the whole weekend and it was about 2 miles I would say. You basically walk in and walk out and the whole path is paved and goes alongside the Virgin River. It was pretty and there were huge mountain walls on each side with a couple waterfalls coming down in the distance. Here are some pictures of the Riverside Walk:
After that hike, we got back to the shuttle and rode it to stop 7. At the stop we did the "Weeping Rock" trail. This isn't even so much a "hike" as it is just a short walk up to the waterfall and there's a place where you basically can stand right underneath it. It's cool to get up there and look out and see down into the canyon. But the whole thing really only took about 30 minutes. You just walk up, take some pictures, and walk back down and again, it's all paved with some steps and handrails too.
Here are some pictures of the Weeping Rock:
Our third shuttle stop was stop 5, where we did the "Emerald Pools" trail. This is also where the Zion Lodge is located, which is the nice hotel inside the park. I had looked into staying there and it was pricey and all booked! But it was probably better we didn't stay there anyways because of all the other things we wanted to do that weren't right in Zion. If you were going to spend JUST a week in Zion, then yes it would be great to stay there. But we only really wanted to spend one day (not even a whole day) there. But we did get off the bus and walk into the gift shop for. minute and use the bathrooms. There are other bathrooms at some of the stops, but they are typically more like camp ground bathrooms. This stop at the visitor's center has nice bathrooms. :) So we did that and Avery found this stuffed fox that she convinced Josh to buy her. Caleb, of course, stood looking on making a mental note of how much it was so he could remind us later that we owed him a toy of about a $10 value to be fair.
Once we left the gift shop. we made our way across the parking lot and then across the street to start the Emerald Pools trail. The temperature had warmed up and it was turning into a bright, sunny spring day. It was about 11:30 by then and was 65 degrees probably. It seemed like the park had gotten busier too, so I was glad this was our last hike before we headed back to our car.
The trail itself was pretty easy and pretty flat. It took about 45 minutes to walk in and back out. We could only walk to the Lower Pools because the Upper part was still closed due to some water damage earlier in the year. This trail was probably my favorite of the three we did, maybe because I was warm! haha But it was really pretty and the Lower Pools trail ends with another spot where you stand under this waterfall that's coming down from a big rock wall that's hanging over the top. Here are some pictures from the Emerald Pools Trail:
Once we were done with Emerald Pools, we got back on the bus and rode it back to stop 1, the visitor's center, where we had parked our car. We ate some sandwiches and some snacks as we drove to our final stop in Zion's, the Canyon Overlook Trail. The drive from the visitor's center took maybe 15 minutes and was really pretty, but my mom would not have liked it. It basically winds up and down the mountains and you are right on the edge! Then you go through a long tunnel through the mountain and it is pitch black! The tunnel part takes about 5 minutes to get through and once you come out on the other side, the trail head it right there. We had to park on the side of the road (with lots of other cars) because the small parking lot was full. Then we walked about 2 minutes back toward the tunnel to where the trail starts.
Here is view from the beginning of the Canyon Overlook trail:
And then looking down at the tunnel we drove through (about 2 minutes into the hike):
This is a trail that everyone said was a "must-do" if it's your first time to Zion. And it WAS Really cool. But it also had said this was a "family-friendly" hike. I honestly don't know if I would have labeled it that. I mean... it was doable. And there WERE families there. But I don't think I personally would have ever done it with a toddler. There are a lot of spots where you are right on the edge of steep mountain cliffs and one wrong stumble could mean a fall to your death. Most of it does have metal guardrails, but there are some exposed spots that could definitely be dangerous. There are also some narrow spots where you have to basically go through one person at a time carefully, so if people are trying to come down while you are going up, you have to kind of wait and take turns for each group to pass through. Here is an example of a narrow part:
This is what that looks like from the opposite side of the canyon. If you look closely, you can see the little guardrail section where people are walking:
Caleb was pretty nervous the whole time. He kept saying, "I think I get this from grandma Sue!" haha Avery did fine and Josh was right behind her the whole way. Gabe was handling it all well and even being a typical older brother, teasing Caleb by saying things like, "Wow! This IS really high Caleb!!" to make him more scared. I was behind everyone else mostly taking pictures the whole time! The whole trail is only 0.9 miles there are back, but it does seem to take a little bit longer than the other ones we did partly because there were more people out and about in the park now at 1:00pm and so we had to kind of wait as people would pass and also because you have to step more carefully and go up and down rocks more than the other trails. This one definitely feels more like a "hike" and doesn't have the paved pathways that the other three did.
Once we got to the end though, there were large rock formations where other hikers were lounging around enjoying the view and the view was amazing! If I would've been cuter that day I could've taken some really Instagram worthy pictures of myself sitting on that cliff (that would've made my mom REALLY nervous) but my family didn't really want to put up with a whole photoshoot. Here is the best we got:
After that, we hiked back down and got in our car and left Zion's. It took about an hour to get back to our condo. The kids were all excited to get back and swim in the pool again so we did that from about 3-4:00. But during that time was sadly when Gabe's injury happened...
You know how they always have those signs that say "No Running" at the pool? Well... I should post a picture of Gabe's leg on that sign so kids can really see what can happen. Basically how it started was that Gabe was pushing Caleb into the pool. It was all in fun and Caleb was laughing. Then Gabe was kind of lingering near me and I gave him a little push and he fell in the pool. No big deal. We were all laughing. Josh and Avery were just inside the clubhouse in the indoor pool at that moment. And so I was kind of walking that way right after I pushed Gabe in. But he decided to try and get out of the pool and quickly chase me down to try and push me in. However, I was really close to the door to go into the clubhouse so I just started to quickly hurry over to that door to escape Gabe.
Gabe however, came flying around the corner on the wet concrete, which was very slippery, and he slipped JUST as he went around the corner and his knee slid right into the corner of the sharp, stucco building. He laid on the ground, clutching his leg. At first I was like, "Oh he's probably fine," but then I saw the blood and I was like, "Caleb, go get dad!" I don't do very well with blood and gore. Luckily, Josh was close and he came out and helped get Gabe into the clubhouse by the indoor pool. There was a first aid kit on the wall and it had a couple small gauze pads and some tape, but then Josh needed to go to Walmart later and get some more stuff. We debated taking him in to an urgent care place nearby but Josh texted pictures of it to his friend, who is a doctor, and the guy said it would be hard to stitch that. So, we didn't take him in. Josh cleaned it up back at the condo with some alcohol and put more bandages on it. Then Gabe laid on the couch and watched TV for the rest of the evening. Here is a gross picture that I am including even though I hate seeing these:
The only silver lining to the situation is that it had at least happened AFTER our big day of hiking at Zion. For the last day of our trip (Saturday) all we really had planned was to go into St. George and see the temple and some of the historic sites, and then go visit Snow Canyon possibly. But I told Gabe we didn't have to go to Snow Canyon if he wasn't feeling up to it.
So we woke up late on Saturday, which was nice to just sleep in and relax. Then once we were all up and ready and had eaten breakfast (about 10:00), we drove into the nearby town of St. George. It only took about fifteen minutes from where we were staying to get there.
First, we drove to the temple. This temple is really interesting because it's one of the oldest temples our church has. It's a "Pioneer temple", meaning it was built by the early Mormon Pioneers. The first one they build was in Kirtland, Ohio. That one today operates at more of a museum with daily tours and our church doesn't use it for worship/ordinances anymore.
Then a lot of the early pioneers moved to Nauvoo, Illinois to escape persecution and built a second temple in the 1830s, which then got burnt by anti-Mormon mobs. That was when they said, "Time to head far, far away," and made the trek out to Salt Lake City and built that famous temple! But when Brigham Young had just barely gotten everyone settled in the Salt Lake Valley, he asked about 300 families to move to Southern Utah and settle the area of St. George, where they then built the St. George temple, which was completed in 1877. So there's everything you ever wanted to know about the early Mormon pioneer temples!
It took all of about 15 minutes in the visitor's center talking with a sweet, elderly missionary man about church history for my kids' eyes to glaze over and for them to ask quietly to me, "How much more church sites do we need to go to?" (Nice.) So we snapped a few pictures outside the temple and then walked into town.
Next, we went to the town center where we came across an awesome carousel. Of course Avery needed to ride it. Luckily it was only a dollar and there wasn't a line, so she and Caleb both hopped on for a quick ride.
After that, we briefly walked around the tabernacle and then Brigham Young's "winter home". We didn't take the official tour that was being offered there because my kids were already bored just walking around the outside. (They aren't real history buffs apparently.)
After that, we went to eat lunch at Panda Express. Then we asked Gabe, "Would you rather see more historic sights or go to Snow Canyon and walk around some of the trails?" He was very enthusiastic about going to Snow Canyon...probably because he just didn't want to go to anymore historic sights. So we drove about 15-20 minutes to Snow Canyon. As we were driving, we had quite the highlight moment when we passed "Sharpay's country club", aka: the place where they filmed High School Musical Part 2. I wanted to pull over and dance around the golf course singing "Bet On It" like Troy Bolton, but my kids vetoed me. It would've made for a great Instagram story. You can just b Arely see it in the distance here:
Soon after the country club, we arrived at the entrance of Snow Canyon. There was a small entrance fee of $10 for the car (a little more than Red Reef park but still less than the $35 fee for Zion!) They also warned us that the park was pretty busy that day, probably due to the fact that it was Saturday. We had mentioned to the park ranger that we wanted to do the Jenny's Canyon trail and he was like, "Good luck finding a parking spot." (Very encouraging) So first we drove all almost all the way to the north end of the park and did the Lava Tubes trail. Luckily, someone was pulling out of the small parking lot as we drove in so we were able to get a parking spot.
The hike in was pretty easy and we were mostly on level ground. We passed some deep pits that had broken up lava rock in them, which Caleb had to go examine to find one to bring home. (Funny side note... he finally picked one that was "perfect" and put it in his pocket. On the drive back to the condo, he starts FREAKING OUT in the back seat. Apparently a tiny spider called that perfect rock home and jumped out at him and started running around the floor of the car! We had to pull over so I could get out and squash it.)
After about 15 minutes we got to the place where the "lava tubes" were. It basically looked like a big hole in the ground with rocks all around the sides. There were two different holes. One was much smaller than the other. It was about maybe 3-4 feet in diameter and Josh was like, "I don't think I could even fit in that one." Then the other one was maybe more like 8 feet in diameter. There were a couple people who had climbed down inside there and we had talked to a family at the pool the day before who said they had done it, so of course my boys had to do it. They carefully climbed down in there and then kind of had to jump down to where the ground at the very bottom was. I kept Avery up with me, where she picked some wildflowers (much safer.) It's very dark down there so they needed a flashlight to see once they got away from the opening. Here's a picture of Avery debating going down in there (she eventually decided not to.)
They looked around down there for about ten minutes and then climbed back up. I think getting back up was harder than getting down! But they eventually all made it back out and then we decided to head back. I think that trail did continue farther on, but we had seen the lava tubes which was their main goal. Here is a picture we snapped before we turned back. It really was pretty out there with a combination of red cliffs in the background, sage brush, sand, and lava rocks!
We got back in the car and then drove back towards the park entrance. If it would've been a less crowded day and if Gabe's leg hadn't been injured, I probably would've had us do some more hikes, like the Butterfly Trail and the Pioneer Names Trail. But my kids were running low on steam, so I said, "Let's just try to find a parking spot by the Jenny Canyon Trail and do that one real quick." Luckily we found a spot on the road right by where the trail started!
That trail isn't even really a "hike" it's more of a short, easy walk to this cool little narrow canyon. As you're walking on the trail, the ground basically turns into sand. I actually took my shoes off and walked barefoot and it was just as nice as walking on a beach! You cross this little area where it looks like a river used to be (maybe even earlier in the spring there was water) but now it just looked like a dried up river bed. Then you cross that and walk the sandy trail a little bit farther. At the very end (which, the whole thing takes maybe ten minutes to get there) you kind of walk up a tiny bit into the rocks and then you enter this little canyon between two rock walls. It's a fun place to take pictures. Unfortunately there were about 5 other big families in there trying to take pictures of their kids, so it felt a little congested. (My kids now use the phrase: "People ruin everything" when we vacation quote frequently. lol) But it was still really an interesting and unique place to see and for only ten minute's walk in and ten minutes out, it was definitely worth it. Here are some pictures of "Jenny's Canyon."
After that, we left Snow Canyon. So we were only there from about 1:00-3:00 maybe. The kids probably would've been content to just head back and swim, but as we were driving we saw this place called "Pioneer Park" that looked interesting so I said, "Let's make one more stop!"
We had some friends that had gone to St. George a couple weeks earlier and from the mom's posts on Instagram, I could tell this was the place they had gone. Pioneer Park is basically a bunch of big rock formations that you can climb around on. It's situated at the very top of the city, so you can look down from the top of these rock formations and get a great view of the city of St. George. I'm sure if you weren't careful, you could injure yourself pretty bad by falling off one of these rocks. I wonder how often that happens. But we followed our kids around closely and made sure they didn't do anything too stupid. We spent about 30 minutes there and then loaded back up in the car and headed to our condo. Here are some pictures from "Pioneer Park."
Once we got back, Josh took Avery and Caleb swimming while me and gimpy Gabe stayed at the condo. I went through all the pictures on my phone and he played some games on his phone! He was a little depressed that he couldn't swim, but he didn't want to have to pour more alcohol on it to sanitize it again, so he stayed away from the pool.
That night we grilled hamburgers for dinner again and then packed up our stuff and did laundry. The next morning we left by about 9am and started our drive back to Rexburg! We decided to drive all the way back in one day and not stop halfway overnight like we had on the way down. The drive back home was definitely everyone's least favorite part of the weekend! But it was worth it for all the fun we had. St. George/Zion is a little trip I've had on my bucket list with my family for quite some time and I am glad to report that it did NOT disappoint. It actually even exceeded my expectations I would say. A big part of that was probably from the Red Reef trail. That was my favorite hike of the whole weekend. My kids loved that one and also the Canyon Overlook Trail (even though Caleb was scared.) It was a great weekend!
