Zion National Park Day 2!

We made it through one night of camping!  And I only had to get up twice during the night to go to the bathroom- a major achievement for me.  The first time there were a million stars out and the second time the moon was up and so bright that all the stars were gone and I could see my shadow.  The temperature sure dropped at night.  Everything here is a little weird since we are on the Western side of the time zone.  It doesn’t get dark until after 9pm.  This morning we slept in and lounged around a bit before heading out to do the Canyon Overlook Trail.  We actually drove to this hike (usually we take a free shuttle around).  We had to drive through a 1.1 mile tunnel in the mountain that was not wide enough to accommodate large vehicles with two way traffic.  Both times we were in traffic control going through the tunnel.  It was a very slow tunnel, which was little scary for me.  The whole drive had amazing views though.  I was nervous about doing the hike since it was rated ‘moderate’ and had some drop-offs.  It turned out to be an amazing hike.  After a difficult first part the trail was mostly shaded by mountains and ended with an epic view of Zion.

Driving on the Mt. Carmel Hwy to our hike

Katie was a great hiker

Holding up the Canyons

The view at the end

Dan decided to add a little more :/

Our camera can not do justice to how spectacular this view was

After the hike we came back to the campsite.  Katie was exhausted but our camping spot has no shade and is super-hot in the middle (or all) day until about 7 at night.  We had some BLTAs for lunch and headed down to the Virgin River to cool off for a little while.  The river was certainly cool as it was from nearby snow melts.  Katie and Dan both got all the way in but I only made it to my knees.  We river had a pretty swift current so we mostly played on the sandy beach in the shade.  

Then we decided to do the Weeping Rock Trail.  It has the highest ratings of the easy hikes on trip advisor.  It was a really short but steep hike that ended with a rock with water coming out of it.  Not too exciting.  They have a lot of weeping rocks at Zion so I am not sure why this one is special.  Katie slept the whole way up and was more interested in the snack we had at the top than the attraction.  We got back on the shuttle and continued to the Temple of Shinawawa and the Riverside Walk.  We were all pretty exhausted by this point so we walked down to the river, played in the sand a little and got back on the shuttle to head for our camp.  

silly faces at the Weeping Rock

A sleepy little girl

Waiting for the Shuttle

The Riverside Walk- Katie climbed up here all by herself

love the river

Dan and Katie went biking while I tried to find a little shade to rehydrate and rest.  I was hurting by this point so we may have over done it.  It is hard not to when you want to see everything.  Katie is also completely exhausted since it is too hot for her normal 3 hours naps.  Last night we told her she had to pretend to be asleep when the Ranger came by so he wouldn’t make us go home.  Hopefully it works again tonight.  Tomorrow we will go to the Court of Patriarchs for a short hike and some pictures and head back to our campsite to pack up and head to Salt Lake City.

Heading to Zion

We left Vegas this morning, stopping at a little dinner just off the strip called Mr. Mamas.  Katie and I split pancakes and hash browns seasoned with oregano.  I’ve never had them that way but they were quite tasty.  We were only in Nevada briefly before we popped into Arizona for a bit (we cut the corner).  We got stuck in traffic in the middle of nowhere making our easy short day about 40 minutes longer.   

We made it to Utah!

We arrived to Zion in the afternoon- later than I thought we would.  Apparently they change time in Utah. Our campsite is just inside the park.  We are surrounded by huge mountains and epic views, but lacking any shade in the heat of the day we knew we needed to get out of our camping area.  We did sneak into the campsite behind us since they had daytime shade and weren’t around yet.  

Katie wanted to live in the squirrel locker

 We chose to hop on the Zion Shuttle and venture over to the Lower Emerald Pools hike.  The shuttle felt great with the wind blowing through the windows and luckily when we started the hike the mountains were high enough to offer a nice amount of shade for us.  The hike was pretty short- like .6 miles, but Katie wanted to explore every rock and tree root so it took us quite a while to make it to the destination.  We had great views the whole way.  

 After the hike Katie fell asleep on the shuttle and we checked out the bookstore and decided it was time to make dinner and blow up the air mattress.  Sliced cantaloupe, grilled corn, pork and beans, and hamburgers filled us all up for the night.   

Katie and Dan went out to ride her bike around and hopefully find the area of river near our campsite that we can go swimming in tomorrow when the heat comes back.  

Amazing Animal Sightings: Turkeys, Vultures, Ostrich, and lots of Deer.  Katie’s favorite are the lizards.

Viva Las Vegas!

Okay, I admit, I must be the only person of age on the West Coast who has never been to Vegas before, but now that is remedied.  My family friendly, pregnant Vegas extravaganza will certainly make headlines!  Actually we did have a lot of fun here.  We started from San Deigo on our road trippin adventure.  Katie did really well in the car.  We headed straight for the Hoover Dam

Katie was super happy that she got to face forward.  She said she could see everything!

Yay! We made it to Nevada.  Cross it off the list for Katie and ME

Oops! We went over the Dam and ended up in Arizona.

 I thought Hoover Dam was a giant pile of concrete. Luckily we did not have to endure the random vehicle inspection to drive over it.  The other people we emptying their ice chests.  Our car is so packed full of junk.  Every time we open a door something falls out.

This is the other side of the Dam.  Katie said she wanted to get in the water since it was "too hot to walk in the shade."  Then she decided that was a bad idea since there were boats in the water.

Hoover Dam

The new bridge the built so people don't have to drive over Hoover Dam

I didn't want to drive over the bridge!  But from a distance it looks nice

 We checked into our kid friendly hotel in Vegas.  Hotels here are so cheap!  We went to an acrobat show, had some yummy dinner (also very cheap) and swam a lot in the pool.  After roasting all day, I was shocked at how cold I was getting out of the pool here.  

We found 22 liscense plates along the way, 3 Canadian provinces, and one Mexican State.  Our amazing animal sighting of the day was a pack of wild donkeys on the side of the road.

Tomorrow we are off to Zion.