Zion

Zion National Park is officially the second best National Park that I had ever been to (Glacier is the first)! It is amazing beyond words and deserves a lot of time on any itinerary. I can't wait to get back here and would jump at the chance for Nathan to work there. On the first day we arrived, we drove through the Southeast corner of the park, the only section in the South that you can drive (the main road is just for shuttle buses). We saw red, white, and orange scraped hills and drove through an extremely long tunnel that dumped us into a valley with amazing views.

5-27-15 - Typical hills on the Southeast drive

The amazing, sweeping valley at the end of the tunnel.

Nathan

Me

We stayed two nights in Springdale, UT, which is a super-cute tourist town filled with shops and restaurants (we ate at Oscar's twice - it's the best). It reminded me of Medora, ND. The shuttle has stops along the town's main road, which makes it very, very easy to get around.

That first afternoon we took the shuttle all the way to the end of the road, and stopped at about half of the stops to explore.

"Three Patriarchs"

Desert Plants

To break up the shuttle ride, we hiked the Emerald Pools trail, which is across the street from the Zion Park Lodge.

Pool #1

Pool #2

Pool #3

The frogs singing in pool #3 were beautiful.

Our goals for this trail were to see a lizard and not die. Mission accomplished!

One of my very favorite stops in the park is the Weeping Rock. Water trickles out of the rock in a slow waterfall and feeds a variety of beautiful flowers.

Weeping Rock

Then, after viewing the Weeping Rock, you happen to turn around and see this:

It's too much. It's one of the most amazing places I've seen ever. Here's a video:

Here's another mountain:

I loved the experience of staying in Springdale. There were a lot of great restaurants to choose from each night and plenty of fun shops to peruse while enjoying the perfect weather. Plus, you're never really NOT in the park because even Springdale is surrounded by these beautiful red mountains...

La Quinta Inn

...even at night.

Capitol Reef & Escalante

The next stop in our tour of Utah was Capitol Reef National Park. To get there, we drove through Grand Staircase Escalante on a twisty road at the top of a mountain. Much of the drive looked like this:

5-26-15 - Awesome Views in Escalante

There was a great cafe in Boulder, Utah where we had lunch (Hell's Backbone Grill) and finally we arrived in a land filled with huge red mountains:

Capitol Reef National Park

"Twin Rocks"

Chimney Rock

"The Castle"

Capitol Reef also has petroglyphs from the Fremonts and Ancestral Puebloans, easily accessible from the main road.

Petroglyphs

We only had time for a short trail, so we did the popular 2-mile Hickman Bridge trail, which takes you out to a big arch. The scenery along the way is not bad either. We saw this baby sheep right at the beginning and then Nathan and I got separated ("I was looking at a bird") and never found each other again until we met in the parking lot.

Hickman Bridge

We spent the night in Torrey, Utah and left bright and early the next morning for Zion National Park. I thought nothing could top the drive through Escalante, but there were some incredible vistas on this road too, including more red rocks and a lush, green valley that we drove in by ourselves for what seemed like hours.

First view of the green valley

There is no place like Utah!

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon's sandstone formations may be one of the most unique sites in the world. Orange, yellow, and white hoodoos rise up from the canyon floor, casting shadows and reflecting the sun in ways that make the canyon appear to be always changing. There's so much to see in one relatively small spot. Compared to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon is a very manageable canyon. The elevation change is about 1500 feet and the many hiking trails are fairly short and family-friendly.

5-26-15 - Hoodoos on the Queen's Garden Trail

Bryce Canyon

We stayed in the area only one night; long enough to see one sunset and one sunrise, but short enough that I can't wait to return. In the morning, we got to the park by 6am in order to see the sunrise and walk a combination of the Queen's Garden and Navajo Loop Trail. At only 3 miles round trip, we got a LOT of bang for our buck on this trail.

Sunrise over Bryce Canyon

It began with a slow decent into the canyon, so we got amazing views of the hoodoos up close. They are far more impressive from the bottom of the canyon.

Going Down

Trail Tunnel

Amazing Hoodoos

A tree growing in the most unlikely location.

I wouldn't go near this bench.

These pictures really speak for themselves. When the Queen's Garden Trail meets the Navajo Loop Trail, you have a choice between taking the Wall Street side or the Two Bridges side. I have absolutely no idea what we missed by taking the Wall Street side, but I am so happy we picked that one because this is where we ended up:

This was preceded by a sign like this, declaring that this was the most dangerous trail in the park:

And ended with these switchbacks to get back to the canyon rim. We finished all of this before 8am and before breakfast/coffee. It was incredible.

Bryce Canyon from the rim

So, my advice for everyone is: don't go anywhere near Bryce Canyon without stopping. It won't take you long to walk down into the canyon and fully appreciate one of the most incredible places on earth. We're pretty lucky to have this inside our country and protected for future generations.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, Nathan and I dropped the girls off at Grandma's house and took a weeklong trip to Utah. I was expecting the parks (Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Zion) to be neat, but what I wasn't expecting was how incredible every single piece of Utah really is. I got absolutely no reading done in the car because every inch of our drive was amazing and so different from the preceding mile. We flew into Las Vegas and drove through a desert sprinkled with Joshua Trees, then tree-covered mountains, snowy hills, and finally, all in the same day, ended up in Cedar Breaks National Monument, an orange, snow-covered canyon erupting from the side of a mountain range with dark storm clouds on the horizon. I'm glad we started with Cedar Breaks because it was impressive, but things just got better and better as our trip progressed. We only spent an hour or two in Cedar Breaks, but it was a good introduction to one of the most impressive states I've ever visited.

5-25-15 - This marmot greeted us as we parked our car.

Cedar Breaks Canyon

Me: Enjoying Day One

Many of the signs throughout the park warned about lightning strikes and with a storm rolling in (and the fact that the only jacket I'd brought was a thin fleece, which didn't hold up well at 10,000 feet), we decided to quickly head to Bryce Canyon National Park, our second stop of the day.