Zion's Canyon

I will never do this vacation justice. It was totally amazing. I haven't been to Zion's in about 20 years, and none of my family had been before, so it was such a treat! I was worried that Memorial Day weekend would be too crowded (and it kinda was) but the beauty out weighed the crowds.

The whole crew in Grafton, UT

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to compartmentalize this trip so that I can get it all down!

Camp Site
I had searched the internet for free camping outside Zion's, and I found a lot of ideas, but not being familiar with the area we were moving pretty blindly. We ended up taking a random back road across an awesome bridge and up a scary steep hill. We drove around the area awhile, but couldn't find legal camping. One road we tried ended up being a dead end, which meant Mckay had to back down the hill on the dirt road, with a ravine on the driver's side, and a trailer on the back of the van. He has many talents, but backing a trailer is one he's still developing. He ended up backing the trailer and the van over the edge of the ravine on the driver's side. I'm so glad it wasn't me because we would have gone all the way off!

Hiking up Angel's Landing

My parents caught up to us at about that time and my family went to work helping Mckay get the van and trailer out of the ravine. They finally got it out, but drove over the car jack in the process and punctured a hole in the tire of the van. Awesome. There was a quick tire change and then we were hunting again.

At this point everyone was tired and grouchy, so my dad selected a site which had plenty of room for us, but already had to hippies in close proximity. We were so tired that we didn't bother with tents. We just threw out bags on the ground and crawled in and listened to the hippies chew us out. We're pretty sure that we were spoiling their planned recreation for the night, but we were beyond caring.

Hiking down Angel's Landing

The left at 5:00 the next morning (letting us know as they blasted their horn until they were out of ear shot) and we had the spot to ourselves. We realized in the morning that it was actually a trailhead, but we opted to stay anyway. The weather was too dry for fires so we piled out wood to the side and cooked from our stoves. A lovely woman who lived in the area ended up calling the cops because she thought we were going to light a fire. The cops came while we were out hiking on our last day and told us we had an hour to leave. It was once again the middle of the night and there was no way we were packing up, so we dropped into bed hoping we wouldn't be ticketed come morning.

In the end, the site was great, we had no tickets and weren't forcibly removed and just wend home when we were ready. But it was sure exciting! And every other aspect of the trip was much better.

Angel's Landing

The victors!

In the end, my young family wasn't quite ready for Angel's landing, but we made it Scout Overlook, which was gorgeous. A select few individuals made it to the end and we were super proud of them!

I was mostly impressed with Carter and Sammy who hiked all the way to the overlook on their own two feet. They are some of the best hikers I've ever seen.

By the time we made it to the bottom we were all exhausted and hot, but fortunately the Virgin River runs along the base of the trail, and she beckoned to us.

Within about 15 minutes we had all gone for a swim and felt so much better! We found a rock to jump off and everyone took a turn. It was so refreshing! SO we decided to do another "hike." The Emerald Pools are much easier, but were beautiful.

Weeping Rock 

 We loved the water running off the rock, and it made for a great family picture. 

Tunnel Arch

There is another hike that starts at the same place as Weeping Rock, called Tunnel Arch, but most people were too tired to try it. Madelyn, Vovo, Daniel and I wanted to give it a shot so we took off and left everyone else to play in the river some more. I think it was my favorite hike (maybe because I didn't have to do much encouraging). we hiked along a cliff face and had to do some fun scrambling. Then we walked through beautiful sand until we reached the arch.

The view was spectacular, and Madelyn was so strong. I want to take Mckay and Gabe back to that arch now and Carter and Sam in a few years. 

The Narrows

Our last day we hiked the Narrows. We just hike in until we ran out of time and then headed back, but it was so much fun! My kids loved that they could play and swim the whole way and they were such good sports. 

Sam insisted on walking unless the water was too deep and he did such a great job! he hiked the vast majority of the way. I carried him on my back when the water was too deep or fast. The footing is a little unsure since the rocks are all wet, and I was worried that we'd both go under, but we never fall and he has only pleasant memories. 

All of our shuttling was done via the park buses. Most people got on in groups of 2-3, with some of 5-6. A group of 11 with 4 children was a bit unusual, but we were mostly able to find space together. On one of our rides a couple was speaking Portuguese, so Lucas started to talking to them. Then the people be hind us joined in and someone across the way piped up. I think over half that bus must have been Portuguese speakers and Lucas loved it. It blew hi away that so many people would know the language. That's Utah for you! With that many returned missionaries you're bound to find any language you want in just a few minutes.

Odds and Ends

Outside Zion is a ghost town named Grafton. We stopped by on Sunday afternoon and explored the area. It really is amazing how many buildings are still standing and it was fun to visit the cemetery. I'm a bit of a history nerd, but since Mckay and my Dad were there too I didn't have much to be embarrassed about. They make me look tame! 

We also drove through the tunnels and found some petroglyphs on the other side (someone told us where to go, but I doubt I could find them again).  And Gabe got a bloody nose. Of course, we had about 5 bloody noses on our trip, so it wasn't too bag a deal. Everywhere we went looked like a murder scene.