🚐 UTAH- 7th STOP 🚩

(get me two!)

July 9th- 11th, 2020

We can add Idaho to our list, thanks to the drive down 34-30-15 from Wyoming.  We passed lots of farms and cows. 

We took a lunch break stop at Lake Utah, right outside of Salt Lake City for a quick swim.  The water was pretty warm, and it was nice to run around before finishing the drive to Zion National Park.

 

Springdale, Utah

Our campground is right on the Virgin River.  The kids wasted no time running down there to fish, splash and run around.  We spent hours outside playing until it got dark- then the kids went to bed and Phil and I sat outside to stargaze.  We bought these blow up seats from Amazon before we left.  You have to run against the wind to fill them up, then quickly seal the two chambers to capture the air inside. No videos- but please imagine us running up and down the street trying to inflate them.  They were equally as ridiculous to sit on.  The material crinkles with evey move and we either suck at inflating them, or they were not made to hold our weight.  We sunk to the bottom- but captured some laughs in the process.  We saw satelites, more stars than I've ever seen in my life, and even some incredible shooting stars.  I can't wait to check out the park tomorrow.

Zion National Park

We took the public shuttle in Springdale to the base of Zion.  We were lucky enough to reserve 4 seats on the park shuttle (must reserve in advance to enter the park) the night before and the rangers allowed us all to enter.  The temperature was over 100 degrees and the park was filled wth warnings of heat stroke and dehydration.  We filled up our water bottles and headed to the Keyenta Trail.  The kids did a great job navigating the mountain and keeping a good pace.  We explored the first Emerald Pool before hiking to the second Emerald Pool above. There were water snakes, frogs, tadpoles- lots for the kids to chase after and have fun with.  We considered hiking The Narrows- it came highly recommended from friends we met along the way. In the end, the heat and the intensity of the hike kept us from hiking further.  We'll be back to tackle that one day!

 

A buterfly landed on Grace's hat and hung around for quite a while. 🙂🦋 This made her "favorite find" in her journal.

A shirtless Henry and a shortsless George. 😳

Henry backed into a cactus and got prickers on his back and butt.  We had to strip him to remove all of the prickers and we took George's shorts for him to wear. George got to wear his boxer briefs with Jurassic World on them.  It was a win- win for everyone!

We headed back to the Zion Canyon Campground after grabbing lunch and some ice cream. The kids enjoyed hours of rafting in The Virgin River.

 

 This campground was one of the best we've visited.  That river was the perfect entertainment for the kids and a great way to beat the Utah heat. Morning, noon and night it was like a party with people splashing, playing and drinking on the river.Unfortunately, hours after leaving Zion we read this 😱