I was a little nervous about this hiking day. We were in St. George, high of 97 degrees, and it was definitely intimidating. Not to mention, my first attempt at a big hike with 5 kids by myself. But we did this and it rocked!
Zion National Park
Oh, hey! By the way, did you know that the National Park Service gives free passes to 4th graders ages 9-11 (or homeschool equivalent!!) because they want kids to be out in parks exploring the country? Yeah, so that's pretty freaking awesome. One definitely reads at a 4th grade level.
Shad and I have been working on training the kids in hiking (capability and willingness) since we moved to Colorado because it's not like they were raised with it in Kansas. I still wasn't quite sure how this would go and with 5 kids on my own, crazy heat (which Irene said was cooled off but was still 10 degrees hotter than our home), and let's be honest, Four and her emotions are real beasts sometimes. So my strategy going into this was keep things easy, keep things simple, let's just do what we can. I got a map at the visitors' center and picked 3 hikes, totaling 3.5 miles, all near water. If we got too hot, we could cool off. Bathrooms and water stations around, great. We got this. Shuttle rides from hike to hike, excellent. Five won't stop talking about it. We can do this. Kids get tired and start to fuss, taffy. Lots and lots of taffy.
From the shuttle
On our way to Emerald Pools. People passing by laughed at Five's antics. This is just a day in the life for us!
{Five, One, Two, Three, Four}
Beautiful scenery. I was pleasantly surprised at how cool it was in the canyon. Lots of shade and breeze. Normally, wearing a backpack would have me sweating, but I didn't break a sweat the whole day and it did get up to 97.
Lower Emerald Pool. We couldn't go up to Upper Emerald Pool because the trail was out. Several trails were out due to rock slides, flash floods, etc.
Water seeping out of the rock.
{Five, Four, One, Two, Three}
Three made friends with a guy on the shuttle, Justin, who was there from Michigan with his dad. Probably late 20s. She was so happy chatting with him the whole time and excited beyond anything when we saw him on the trail. She told me he's her first boyfriend. You know, a friend that's a boy and they're BFFs.
When Four whines, we play Rock, Paper, Scissors to assign her a buddy. Just kidding, usually there's a volunteer.
{Four & Three on the way to Weeping Rock}
{Two, Three, One, Five, Three}
{One, Five, Four, Three, Two}
So the way this Weeping Rock and the one at Emerald Pools works is that rainfall and snowfall soak into the ground and then begin to seep out the cliffside, making the rock 'weep.'
The view from Weeping Rock
{Two, Five, Three, Four, One}
We stopped to play in the river.
{Three}
{Five}
{Three}
{Five & Four}
{One, Five, me, Four, Three, Two}
Then we took the shuttle to the Riverside Walk. This trail leads to narrows, which would've been cool to do, but I didn't quite feel like helping Four and Five through and back by myself. Otherwise we'd have started with and only done this trail. At this point, my battery life was getting really low, so I didn't take many pictures.
It's always so difficult having people take a picture for me...but it's also nice to be in the pictures with my kids.
{Me, Five, One, Three, Four, Two}
Interesting marks on the rock.
{Two, Three, Four, One, Five}
Happy kids!
Beautiful area, but only a few scenic shots before my phone was out for the count.
My brother-in-law has since told me that the best parts of Zion are up on the rims looking over everything. I can absolutely believe that and intend to come back for it another day. And of course, this day ended with everyone sleeping on the drive back to our host Irene's house. Everyone except me.
No comments:
Post a Comment