Today we woke everyone up early to experience Zion, before all of the parking lots filled up, that is;) They only allow shuttle buses in most of the park, so we wanted to be sure to get a parking spot for the day. Our first stop was the Angels Landing hike. We were all very excited about this one and quickly realized that, like the Grand Canyon, this was much different "hiking" than at home. There were no tree roots, stumps, or rocks to trip over, but rather concrete paths to walk up. That really only equated to me not tripping and falling. It was still a challenging hike in elevation with all of the switch backs, but most of it was like an uphill walk. Then we got to the first landing... This was where everyone was determined to make it to the top. There was only a half a mile left, we had watched all of the videos, given the kids many warnings about safety, read all of the signs... we scaled the cliff side, held onto the chains, slithered around people and made it safely to the second landing... When we looked ahead to see what was left Gabe and I had to make an appropriate parenting choice... we bagged it and called ourselves proud for making it that far. This decision, as you can imagine, was not well received by the rest of our group... there was a lot of dissent actually. We tried rationalizing with them that we had no doubt that they could have made it physically, but that we would never be able to forgive ourselves if one of them went over the side and plummeted to their death... Despite the signs warning them of that exact fate, there was lots of winning, but eventually we coaxed them back down the trail with snacks and the promise to come back when they were all teenagers to finish it. As a frame of reference for some, this particular "last part" of the trail was no unlike Knife's Edge on Katahdin, except with hundreds of people trying to go up and come down at the same time... We have, admittedly, pushed our kids to do some risky and crazy things over the years, but we still feel good about this decision;)
Immediately after our Angel's Landing hike, we didn't even leave the parking area, we continued on to hike Upper, middle, and lower Emerald pools. They were all beautiful in their own unique way. We finally let the kids eat something and had lunch at Upper Emerald Pool. After making our was back down from that trail we took the shuttle back to the visitor center to pick up their Junior Ranger booklets. We decided to take a break at the museum and were treated to a really interesting talk about the geology of the park (yay for counting another day of school!).
Everyone was tired, but we convinced them to take a mini hike to the weeping rock which was totally worth the extra mile they had to hike. They claim that the water dripping out of the rock is over 10,000 years old. The water is absorbed by the porous sandstone and when it hits the harder, more compact rock underneath it "weeps" out. So, theoretically, the water coming out now actually was absorbed over 10,000 years ago!
We wanted to be sure to do everything we could in the park because the next day looked like poor weather. Naturally we somehow convinced the kids to stick it out for one more hike... I think we may have had to promise no hiking the following day this time. This hike was another two miles out to the narrows. This trail, after the "normal trail" we walked in on, follows the riverbed. And when I say follows, what I mean is that you actually ford the river most of the way. Needless to say we didn't get in the water... Gabe wouldn't let us despite all of begging to just go a little way down the path. I have to admit that it was (probably) the right choice, but it was still disappointing. When we were researching the trip we had read about this trail and thought we would never do it with the kids at this point, but as it turns out the kids totally could have done it... bummer. We considered coming back to Zion the next day to do this trail (it was that cool), but the next day's forecast called for rain with a chance of flash floods, so that was out. The kids added this trail to the list of things they want to come back to Zion to do... I guess we should count ourselves lucky that we are raising kids who love nature and our National Parks and are already planning another trip back!
The road into/out of the park was really interesting as it took you through a tunnel through the mountains that was built long ago before anyone had large vehicles, cared about safety, ventilation, light, etc. This in itself was a really cool experience!
When the day was done we had logged 13 mile, 26,400 steps, and climbed the equivalent of 135 flights of stairs... tomorrow should be a riding day;)
PB&J Count: 28 (the kids are tiring of PB&J sandwiches... they are also pushing back about the all natural peanut butter I mistakingly bought from Whole Foods...)
Immediately after our Angel's Landing hike, we didn't even leave the parking area, we continued on to hike Upper, middle, and lower Emerald pools. They were all beautiful in their own unique way. We finally let the kids eat something and had lunch at Upper Emerald Pool. After making our was back down from that trail we took the shuttle back to the visitor center to pick up their Junior Ranger booklets. We decided to take a break at the museum and were treated to a really interesting talk about the geology of the park (yay for counting another day of school!).
Everyone was tired, but we convinced them to take a mini hike to the weeping rock which was totally worth the extra mile they had to hike. They claim that the water dripping out of the rock is over 10,000 years old. The water is absorbed by the porous sandstone and when it hits the harder, more compact rock underneath it "weeps" out. So, theoretically, the water coming out now actually was absorbed over 10,000 years ago!
We wanted to be sure to do everything we could in the park because the next day looked like poor weather. Naturally we somehow convinced the kids to stick it out for one more hike... I think we may have had to promise no hiking the following day this time. This hike was another two miles out to the narrows. This trail, after the "normal trail" we walked in on, follows the riverbed. And when I say follows, what I mean is that you actually ford the river most of the way. Needless to say we didn't get in the water... Gabe wouldn't let us despite all of begging to just go a little way down the path. I have to admit that it was (probably) the right choice, but it was still disappointing. When we were researching the trip we had read about this trail and thought we would never do it with the kids at this point, but as it turns out the kids totally could have done it... bummer. We considered coming back to Zion the next day to do this trail (it was that cool), but the next day's forecast called for rain with a chance of flash floods, so that was out. The kids added this trail to the list of things they want to come back to Zion to do... I guess we should count ourselves lucky that we are raising kids who love nature and our National Parks and are already planning another trip back!
The road into/out of the park was really interesting as it took you through a tunnel through the mountains that was built long ago before anyone had large vehicles, cared about safety, ventilation, light, etc. This in itself was a really cool experience!
When the day was done we had logged 13 mile, 26,400 steps, and climbed the equivalent of 135 flights of stairs... tomorrow should be a riding day;)
PB&J Count: 28 (the kids are tiring of PB&J sandwiches... they are also pushing back about the all natural peanut butter I mistakingly bought from Whole Foods...)
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