Zion National Park Vacation (Part 2)

I kept getting shut down putting all the pictures I wanted on the last post, so I just made it into two.

For me, the highlight of the trip was a 15-mile hike that Dad talked Marcus and I into taking with him.  At first, the night that we were all talking about it, it sounded like great fun and I was all for it.  But the next day I found out that the 15.5 miles also included 3,600 feet of elevation change.  The longest hike Marcus and I had ever been on was 14.5 miles, and we  had split that into two days!  Dad told us that he did this one in Zion in 7 hours.  I started getting worried that my 66-year-old father was going to leave me in the dust, but I couldn't see a way out of it, so I arranged a babysitter for the kids, packed our Camelbaks, and we headed out early the next morning.

I am so glad I didn't back out, because that hike was absolutely gorgeous.  I have no pictures because Dad brought his camera for all of us, but so many of those views are seared into my memory.  In some ways, it was very like that other long hike we took 10 years ago in Southern China (Tiger Leaping Gorge), in that more than half the trail was edged into the side of a mountain and there was a several-thousand-foot drop just to our left much of the time.  But the first few miles of the hike made it even better than the other: it was on a ridge overlooking miles and miles of Zion National Park, often with 360-degree views.  Marcus had some fun with his iPhone 5 camera taking panoramic photos.  I just couldn't stop soaking it all in.  We were beat at the end of the day, and Marcus's knee was pretty sore for more than 24-hours, but we were both extremely glad that we had that time with nature and with our companions.

The most fun we had with the boys was taking them exploring (with Papa) off the beaten path.  The first couple of days, we went on hikes spelled out on the park map.  But on our day trip to the Grand Canyon, we drove through a beautiful part of the park that was just begging to be explored.  So the next day, we drove back there, parked on the side of the road, and started walking.  Walking up the rock formations afforded beautiful views, and walking down almost always led us to a little hidden canyon with a sandy floor.  The boys rock-climbed to their hearts content, and even learned how to pull cactus spurs out of their hands without crying.  Most of these pictures are from our two days of exploring.

 

 

Though it was a little later in the fall, we still discovered a few trees still sporting their brilliant autumn red.  Can you see Caleb hidden in this foliage?
 

 

 

It fascinates me how trees grow right out of sandstone rock here!
 

 

Marcus carving "Marcus & Rachel" into a heart-shaped rock he found.  So sweet :)
 

Look!  A space ship landed on that rock!
 

One of several small canyons we stumbled across.
 

The last morning we were in Zion, my parents kept our kids so Marcus and I could go on a trail ride.   My favorite part was crossing the river on horseback.  I felt like a frontier settler!
 

 

Here are all the cousins on the Campbell side: Bennett & Jasper Campbell, Lydia, Ethan & Caleb Wagner. They are dressed in Christmas pajamas because the kids won't all be together at Christmas and I knew my Mom would love to have this picture :)