Find Joy in the Journey

We were disappointed last year when we had to cut out Southern Utah from our National Parks list last year. We had hoped to use Jared's 4th grade park pass to the max but no luck. But then the pass got extended to 5th graders so we decided to take the trip out. We visited Arches, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zions and Snow Canyon.

Arches National Park (only one we took a picture by the sign at)

We made it to Moab and into the park just in time to catch the sunset near the Double Arch and The Windows. These were 2 of my favorite arches in the park. It was pretty dark by the time we finished The Windows so we couldn’t see Double Arch very well. Since it was getting later we decided to hang out in the park and do some star gazing. I didn’t know this at the time but some articles say that Moab is one of the top 5 places to see stars in the US as it has so little light pollution. It was incredible. I am so glad we were able to catch the sunset and star gaze there. As we drove out of the park Jared, Lydia and I rolled down our windows and stuck our heads out as Mark drove. The stars were incredible and it was a fun memory we did together as I do not generally stick my head out car windows.

The next day we started at Devil’s Garden to hike to Landscape Arch. The weather was perfect and it was not crowded at all. As we left Landscape Arch we saw a hot air balloon taking off and it was so picturesque. Devil’s Garden and Delicate Arch were 2 arches Mark really wanted to see. In hindsight we should have hiked to Delicate Arch first as when we got there later in the morning it was really hot! The hike was pretty miserable as you are hiking uphill, across rocks, totally exposed to the sun. So Devils Garden was perfect and Delicate Arch was just hard. We were very fortunate we could even do that hike though. The park was crowded, and parking was hard to come by at Delicate Arch. We just lucked out that as we pulled into the lot three girls walked to their car and we were able to take their spot with very little waiting. It was awesome. None of us enjoyed the hike but we were all impressed with Delicate Arch and enjoyed resting up near there for a good while. Lydia was not happy about this hike at all and said many times that she did not think she would recommend it to anyone but once she saw the arch she loved it.

Sunrise in Arches: I love that we saw the sunset the day before and the sunrise the next day.

Balanced Rock

Landscape Arch

Delicate Arch

Hiking up to it, it was tough!

Shortly after we got to the arch the rangers we chatted with on the way up during one of our breaks showed up.

Best part of the hike, heading back down on this ledge in the shade.

Sand Dunes Arch - Mark named this one Kissing Camels arch.
Naming different rock formations was a fun activity as we drove through the park.

Sand Dunes arch was a favorite of Jared and Lydia. We had a picnic lunch at Skyline Arch and finished the day at Double Arch which was my favorite arch. Jared and Mark climbed up to the arch and sat on the overlook while Lydia and I stayed at the bottom. I generally don’t mind hiking up things but I am always worried about how I will get down. It was the right choice for Lydia and I. We all really enjoyed Arches National Park. I really liked how we got to see the park with different lighting. We saw it Sunday night with softer evening light and then were back for sunrise and mid day. It was cool. We were able to do that with a few of the parks and I am really glad we did.

Skyline Arch

Court House Towers and Double Arch a second time

Mark and Jared are the 2 on the left

We ran into our friends, the Charles from Charlottesville and had a quick check in visit with them which was great. We had planned to eat dinner at the food truck courtyard in downtown Moab but all the trucks we wanted to eat at are closed on Mondays so that was a bummer. There was just one truck open. We decided to try out a Mexican restaurant on Main street and it was delicious. I ordered the M.O.A.B, the Mother Of All Burritos. It was huge and I didn't think I would be able to eat it all but I did with very little help. It was so delicious. We also stopped for ice cream. As we were hiking up to Delicate Arch we stopped to rest near some park rangers and enjoyed visiting with them. We asked them what the best ice cream place was in Moab and took them up on their suggestion. I got some delicious custard with Root Beer flavored Italian Ice, basically a root beer float without soda and it was so good. The others got frozen yogurt. Normally I am not the best at ordering when we eat out but this was a good night for me.

We took a break from the park in the afternoon to rest for a bit. While Mark napped I went to the pool with Lydia and Jared and then once we went back to our room I took a quick nap. They had an awesome time swimming and it was good to take a break while it was the hottest part of the day. The pool was pretty cool as it had an indoor and outdoor section.

The next day we hiked through Little Wild Horse Canyon and loved it. It was mine, Jared and Lydia’s favorite hike. The canyon is just down the road from Goblin Valley. We originally planned to check out Goblin Valley but loved the hike though the slot canyon so much we stayed there longer. It was so fun. It had beautiful colors with layered and swirled rocks. There were places to climb up the sides, easy obstacles you had to maneuver and times when the canyon was so narrow only one foot could be on the trail at a time. It was the best. After Little Wild Horse Canyon we drove to Capitol Reef to hike the Hickman Bridge Trail. It was hot and not super exciting but we had some fun along the way.

Hickman Bridge- This hike/area reminded me a lot of Colorado. Specifically the drive around Grand Junction which we made so frequently on trips out to Utah.

As we neared Loa, Utah on our way to Bryce Canyon we passed a small drive in diner. I happened to see on their marquee that they sold BYU ice cream so I made Mark turn around so we could get some. It turned into a fun pit stop. Their seating is an old English double decker bus and they have one of the iconic red telephone booths. It was a fun and delicious stop.

Bryce Canyon National Park
We arrived at Bryce Canyon about an hour and a half before sunset. Mark’s maternal grandparents were married there at Sunset Point. That evening we took the trail from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point and then met up with Sue at our hotel. We originally booked a cute little cabin to stay in but when Sue arrived there to check in they were overbooked. They offered us a free stay with 2 rooms at a hotel they owned 4 miles down the road and we took them up on it. It was a bad idea. Overall the place was fine. It was safe and clean but it was so outdated and when you walked in the room you asked yourself will I be safe here? I wish we would have kept our cabin. We originally planned to get up early and catch the sunrise at Sunrise Point but when we checked the weather it was 18 degrees and felt like 8 degrees. That was a bit much for us so we delayed our leaving until it was 30 degrees and felt like 28. Once the sun was up it warmed up nicely and we had the perfect hiking temperature. We hiked the Navajo Trail and the Queen’s Garden Trail. This hike was really nice. I really enjoyed it. It was about 3 miles and was the perfect level of difficulty. There were some tough spots but not so hard that you felt exhausted. You finished the hike and felt like you did more than take a walk but still felt good. It is a close tie with Little Wild Horse Canyon for me. Mark tried really hard to be patient and shorten his stride but he was struggling with Lydia for this one. He and Jared ended up hiking ahead of us and Lydia and I took our time doing it. We tried to stay together for most of our hikes but sometimes you just need some space.

The next morning. We were glad we still got there early as parking seemed pretty crazy by the time we finished hiking.

Really cool entry into the canyon. We were really glad we were going down not up for this section. You can start at Sunrise or Sunset and Mark picked wisely.

Jared added his own hoodoo to the collection.

Almost done. We had reached the uphill portion and were ready for a break.

Zion National Park

That afternoon we drove over to Zion National Park. Sue and Lydia went ahead to St. George where we were staying and had a nice afternoon together. This was a very good thing. There were a lot of trails closed at Zion the day and a half we were there but one trail led to an overlook Mark really wanted to experience so he, Jared and I did the East Rim Observation Point Trail and it was awful. This is likely the ugliest hike I have ever been on. Everything was so dead. We started hiking around 1:00 so even though the high was like 72 it felt so much hotter. There are 2 parking lots for this hike. The upper lot was for small sedans (like ours, we borrowed a Honda Civic from Mark’s brother Steve) and added a half mile on to the hike both ways on a hot dusty road. The hike was supposed to be 6.8 miles and we hiked just over 8. Jared was such a trooper. It was long, hot and boring. The view was beautiful but the effort required to get to the view was not worth the view in my opinion. We stayed at the viewpoint for a good while so we could mentally prepare ourselves for the long, hot, ugly hike back. Lydia would have completely rebelled if we tried this hike with her. Jared did not love the hike at all but we enjoyed the time with him. We had a family size bag of skittles that we had been snacking on throughout our trip and we let him take the bag and just eat what he wanted, he earned them. At the top we goofed off having Jared try to pose as “the face” of Smart Water. He accidentally left his water bottle at Sue’s so we bought him the largest water bottle we could find which happened to be Smart Water. He would make a pretty good face for Smart Water. Once we made it back to our car and recovered from the hike we headed through the park. It is a really pretty park but it did not wow me like it seems to for so many other people. Maybe I was just burnt out from seeing so many other amazing sites during the week but Zions was just not that cool to me. Once we got signal we checked in with Mark’s sister Laurie to see if she had been able to secure a shuttle pass for us. She got us seats on the 9:00 shuttle for the next day. We were shocked because we didn’t think we would be able to use the shuttle but it worked out. We met up with Sue and Lydia for dinner in St. George and then Jared and Lydia spent some time swimming in the pool at our hotel which made them very happy.

I am not exaggerating when I say most of the hike looked like this. Dead and ugly.

The view 4 miles later:

Angels Landing across from us.

How Jared felt about this hike and the idea of hiking back 4 miles in the sun.

Smart Water Ad

We missed this rock on the way up but were took its message to heart for our hike back.

Its a painted rock that says "You can do it"

The drive through Zion's was nice. It was the only park we had to wait in a line in to get in. Eventually they opened up a lane to let people with passes use which helped a ton. It was cool to go through the big tunnels and see the cut outs along the way.

The next day we got into Zion’s around 9:30 and took the shuttle to the last stop which is the entrance to The Narrows. I think The Narrows could be really cool to try out but not in freezing April water temperatures. We did the Riverside Hike and it was a good hike. Listening to Jared pine for a walking stick was not a good time. Everyone we passed who was doing The Narrows had a walking stick so he coveted one the whole hike. The only other hike we attempted was the Watchman Trail and it was much harder than we anticipated and again I did not think the view was worth the effort. It was really hot out and once we got to the top Jared and Lydia wandered off to find some shade without telling us where they were going so we had a small panic moment of not knowing where they were. Mark started forward on the trail which was a loop and I started backwards and we found them pretty quick but losing sight of your children atop an observation point is not fun.

Riverside Hike

Watchman Trail View

The park shuttle left a bad taste in my mouth. I know it makes it more accessible but it made going to a National Park feel like I was at Disneyland. Waiting in lines to ride a bus, having to wear and show wristbands through the park that had half the hikes closed just made Zion’s seem really overrated to me. Yes, it was beautiful but it is not my favorite national park at all. We weren’t planning on doing Angels Landing but it was closed both days we were there and the day after we left as well. I should maybe give Zions another chance because it was at the end of a long week of beautiful places and we were likely burnt out from hiking and seeing so many Parks but I was just not that impressed.

Saint George: This was our favorite hotel we stayed in, the pool was a huge hit. It was so pleasant to sit outside by the pool in the evening. Their breakfast was also really good. Friday morning Mark ran his personal St. George half marathon and then we checked out and headed to Snow Canyon, our last park for the week.

New city = run a half marathon

Snow Canyon State Park
Snow Canyon is great. I read somewhere that anywhere else it would be a National Park but because there are so many other great parks nearby it is just a state park. I don’t know if that is true but it’s a really cool park. We hiked to the Lava tubes and then played around on the Petrified Sand Dunes. The lava tubes reminded me of the ones near Rexburg that I visited many times while attending school there. They were called the Civil Defense Caves then. Jared loved exploring them. He found 2 cool holes to squeeze through and loved crawling and climbing around. Lydia got her second injury as we began exploring. She tripped right at the entrance and hurt her ankle and knee. She bounced back pretty quick but was not that impressed. I really liked the Petrified Sand Dunes and was glad we could explore them. We weren’t sure if we would stop at Snow Canyon and I am really glad we did.

We saw a lot of beautiful places and did a lot of hiking in 5.5 days. I think it ended up being about 32 miles. I am not sure if visiting that many sites in 5.5 days was smart but while we were down there we wanted to see as much as we could. Once we got back to Sue’s we got all our luggage organized and Mark took Jared and Lydia to swim at the hot springs pool which made them so happy. It was a busy trip. I had never been to any of these parks and am glad I have seen them now.

We flew out to Sue’s for the first part of Spring Break. We ended up having to leave Wednesday instead of Thursday but we all made it on the flights all together. The night before we left was spent packing up boxes of items we are storing at Sue’s house. We took 2 very large suitcases and 4 boxes with us. This trip was Christmas ornaments and family books like histories, scrapbooks, and yearbooks. We don’t own a scale so after packing up stuff we took it over to the airport to weight it. The first attempt was bad. Each of the suitcases was over 50 pounds, one was 70! So we took them back home and while Mark went to work at the airport I rearranged items. We ended up adding that fourth box and when we checked them in the next morning one suitcase weighed exactly 50 pounds and the other weighed 49. That was a relief. Even if it was a lot of work to organize being able to fly close to 200 pounds of our stuff for free was great. It also feels good to have taken some stuff out to Sue’s for safe keeping. We will likely take one more load in late June. These are funny items. You don’t really use them but do want to have them. A lot of the stuff I am keeping I brought out from my Mom’s house also with free checked luggage from Mark working at the airport. It’s just a funny way to think of moving belongings but if you aren’t driving somewhere it works great.

Everything was very low key in Saratoga Springs especially since it was conference weekend. We did some more Utah specific shopping and spent one evening playing in the hot spring’s creek. We also met up with Jenn (Clayton) and her kids at Neptune Park so Jared and Lydia got some time with some of their younger cousins. I was so impressed with how kind and patient Jared was with her kids. They are 6, 4 and 2 and sweet kids.

In December Sue finished writing her life history and mailed copies to all her kids and grandchildren. Lydia and Jared have really enjoyed reading it. This is Lydia reading it in Sue's living room.

We had dinner with Mark’s brother Steve in Orem one night and had a good time trying out their e-bikes. They are awesome. We watched all 4 sessions at Sue’s house and went on a lot of neighborhood walks. Jared and Mark watched the priesthood session with Steve and had a lot of snacks. Before the session we rode their e bikes again and Lydia had a scary crash. She landed really hard on her right wrist, in the middle of the road so we spent an anxious 24 hours waiting to see if we would need to take her to the ER. She was in a good amount of pain but by Sunday afternoon her grip had improved significantly, and her wrist had stopped throbbing as much. We were very happy for her and relived it seemed to be okay. While Mark and Jared watched the session Lydia and I got ice cream at the BYU Creamery on Ninth and took a walk around the gardens/BYU Duck Pond. To finish our evening we walked around the Provo City Center Temple. I was so happy the temple gates were open so we could walk around. It is a really cool temple and it was so nice to be that close to a temple. Mark’s sister Shannon came up from Manti and on Sunday and it was nice to visit with them. We had a nice Sunday dinner together and then we left right after the last session ended to begin part two of our Spring break: Southern Utah.

Sunset Easter Eve

Sunrise Easter Morning

Easter morning Mark and I drove down to the lake and watched the sun rise and read John 20. It was a really nice way to pause and take a moment to focus on what Easter means for us and the blessing it is in our lives.