Our second day in St. George was devoted to Bryce Canyon. Another hot day of 92 (yeah, Colorado Springs has my temperature tolerance changed from what it was in Kansas). Bryce Canyon absolutely blew me away, though. If I had come here first and then done Zion NP, I'd have been disappointed. I'm so glad I went in the order I did so that I could fully enjoy the beauty of both. It's funny, because 10 years ago when I worked at King Soopers, I had taken a weekend off to go to Utah for training before going to teach in China. I had stayed with friends and we spent a night camping in Price Canyon. I mentioned that in conversation with my assistant bakery manager and he got all excited and asked how it was because he'd heard it was the most beautiful place and really wanted to go. I shrugged and said it was just like any other canyon around and I didn't see why anyone would think it exceptionally beautiful. I don't know when I realized that there was a Bryce Canyon that he was talking about and that we weren't on the same page. Makes me laugh now, though.
{Five, me, Two, One, Four, Three}
Similar to the day before when I picked our hikes to be close to water, for Bryce, I picked our trails to have names that would be exciting to the kids. The Navajo Loop Trail took us by Thor's Hammer.
And Four was very excited about that!
{Two, Four, One, Five, Three}
{Two, Four, One, Five, Three}
Switchbacks down into the canyon
It's packed dirt, but does get a little slippery with some loose dirt and rock on top. The kids did great, very few slips, and Four only got upset on her last one when she came down really hard.
So we took a snack break. This is where we met Dean and Dee Sangrey, who are retired and full-time RVers. They gave me a business card for their blog and contact info! I told them I'd email them to connect them to my blog. We chatted for a while about traveling, nomadic life, the bear poop at the end of the bench, then they took our picture for us.
It was after this point that Three begin skipping along the trail, riding an imaginary horse. She got ahead of us at times, but I always knew where she was because of the commentary of passing hikers: "There's a blonde horse rider up ahead." "Boy, that girl is sure happy to be out here." "I wish I had her energy." And sometimes just laughter. We were pretty much the only group of kids out there, so everyone knew she was mine.
We left the Navajo Loop at the halfway point where it connected to the Queen's Garden Trail. I nailed it when I chose this because I thought my girls would be eager and willing to do this hike to a Queen's Garden. Queen Victoria, no less. Three loves her!
{One, Two, Three}
Sometimes Four says, "I can't smile," or "My smile power is gone." And I tell her I don't care if she smiles, I'll just take the picture anyway. Releasing that pressure usually is a relief to her and she ends up smiling for me anyway.
{Five, Four, One, Three, Two}
My goal in planning our trails was to make it a 3 mile hike so we could do the Hike the Hoodoos challenge and get a badge (which turned out to just be a sticker). You either have to hike 3+ miles, or find three of these benchmarks and make a pencil rubbing. We met the 3 mile requirement.
There's Queen Victoria, the white rock outcropping on the left.
Three with Queen Victoria
Nothing says hypocritical like, "Hey, let's create an incentive program for kids to get outside and be active, fit, and healthy...sponsored by Coca-Cola."
This was one of those "I can't smile" moments.
{Four, Three, One, Two}
{Three, One, Five, me, Four, Two}
Just amazing.
Pictures in the doorway!
{Five}
{One}
{Two}
{Three}
{Four}
The Momma
And it was at this point that we were back up out of the depths of the canyon, though still not fully, that suddenly my phone went wild with missed calls, voicemails, texts, and facebook messages.
{Three, One, Five, Four, Two}
Chipmunk
360 degrees
{Two, Four, Three, Five, One}
After finishing the hike and encouraging Five to finish it out by saying that we would go crank pennies and get on the shuttle, we made it back to the van just to drive back in for a picture with the sign and business at the visitors' center. We pulled up to the sign, I took a picture of the kids, then they said, "Oh, Mom, we can ask those people who just pulled up if they'll take a picture of all of us." So I did and they recognized us! They told me that as they pulled up to the sign, they said, "Oh, hey! There's that lady with 5 kids from Zion yesterday!" Guess we stand out a bit.
{Three, Two, Four, Five, me, One}
We went to the visitor's center to get our badges that we earned (and make Coca-Cola pay for it), and were a little disappointed that it was just a sticker, not a pin for a backpack or anything. Still, we earned it!
We also got our National Park Passport cancellations (I bought our passports at Effigy Mounds in Iowa). Forgot to mention that, but the kids have been really excited to use their passports. And a two hour drive back to Irene's house meant good naps for tired kids. And you know what's super amazing to me? I forgot our sunscreen this day and no one got burned. WIN!!
