Friday, April 27, 2018

Day Twelve: Zion National Park

A week into our cross country trip, we realized that we had an extra day.  We originally planned on spending a night in Seattle, but decided we would rather spend that somewhere along the way, instead, and man am I glad we did.  My parents went to Zion last year and LOVED it and everyone we know who has been raved about their time there, so we knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend the day hiking around.   Luckily, Finn was feeling 1000x better thanks to the antibiotics.  Plus, we figured some fresh air was better than spending the day in a dirty hotel room, so we set out to explore Zion.

Since we weren't staying near the park, we drove into the park and parked there.  I HIGHLY recommend doing this if you can (or at least doing that drive at some point) because the view as you drive in is awe inspiring.   Both Mike and I just kept saying "this is so cool!!"  The only drawback to driving into the park (as opposed to taking a shuttle in) is that parking is extremely limited.  We were able to find a parking spot and the shuttles within the park are easy to use, so we were on our way. 




Since we wanted to keep things simple at first and make sure Finny was feeling okay, we started out easy and did one of their paved trails. Finn was happy as a clam hanging out in the backpack, eating a granola bar, and waving to every single person that walked by (even if they weren't looking his way).  Clearly, the medicine had kicked in because he was living his best life. 















So you can't see them in this picture, but there were tiny little dots that were moving down the side.  Turns out, they were rapellers.  It was pretty fun to watch them move down the rock, but it confirmed my belief that I will never be doing that.  Hard no. 











 The trail ends at a river with a great backdrop, so we asked a guy to take our picture.  We saw a bunch of guys in wet suits walking and they were planning to walk through the river, which is a popular hike.  In the summer, the river gets pretty crowded with people, but the air was still cool and the water was chilly, so these guys were the only ones we saw.
Finn waving to the camera!







I just couldn't get over how beautiful it is!





We ventured off of the paved path and followed the river about halfway back (that ran along the paved path), but we couldn't resist taking a selfie!









Since Finn was in such a good mood, we decided to keep going and did one of the moderate hikes.  The moderate hikes aren't particularly difficult, but they aren't paved and I'm guessing little kids might have a hard time because it was a little steep at times.  That being said, the elevation allowed for some great views!






















We spent a total of four hours in the park hiking and I would venture to say that we both would have stayed another night if our schedule would have allowed.  We only did two trails and feel like we barely scratched the surface. The Grand Canyon was beautiful and I have no regrets about going, but we both agreed that this was completely unexpectedly awe inspiring.  I am so glad we added this last minute and I know it is somewhere we will be back when Finn is older. 

Waiting for the shuttle.  Finn discovered his dislike for grass.  "Mom, what is this scratchy stuff? I'm not touching it!"