Chores, reading, YouTube, Netflix, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. Now that you are caught up on our summer so far…ugh… This summer has been a strange one so far for us. The kids usually have hockey scheduled and camps all summer and we always find a way to do a 5 to 9 day road trip somewhere. This year, not so much. This year Mike and I have been working and Mike is coaching 3 different hockey programs and teaching private lessons, so he is committed (or should be) all summer. After a particularly boring weekend and watching my 6-year old actually melt into the couch while watching YouTube, I had enough and decided we were going to do something this weekend. Greyson has been begging to see a ghost town and the boys love a National Park, so after a little research, I decided we would take the weekend and getaway. A search of ghost towns near us resulted in Grafton, UT which just happened to be right outside of Zion National Park. About 10 minutes later and we were booked. I think in a prior post I said we don’t normally do things in the spur of the moment… I may have to rethink that statement.
Mike had hockey all day on Saturday, so I convinced Granny to ride along with us on our adventure. My kids think staying in hotels and taking “adventures” is about the best thing ever. After being fed up with YouTube, I warned the boys that they would not be using the electronics for anything but taking pictures. Surprisingly, there were no arguments, well, at least about that, we are talking about a 10-year old and a 6-year old, so there are always a few brotherly tiffs.
We drove over Friday night and arrived at the La Quinta in La Verkin, UT about 20 minutes from the park gate. This is a newer location with significantly lower room rates than the hotels just a few minutes closer, and it was perfect for a quick trip where we had no plans of hanging out in the hotel. The employee at check in was so helpful and even told the boys that they could swim later than the hotel pool hours if they were quiet, so of course, they took full advantage.
The hotel offered a free breakfast that started at 6:30am which was great for us because all of the sites recommended getting to the park early if you wanted to park inside. Not being one to want to pay to park it was worth it. We arrived around 8:30am and got what I think was the last parking spot in the park.
We went straight to the Visitor’s Center so we could get the stamps on the boy’s National Park Passports, hit the bathrooms, and get the adventure started. Zion has put in to place incredible traffic control systems. They don’t let you just drive around, instead they have a shuttle system that takes you to the beginning of all the major trails. The shuttle is free, runs about every 3 minutes during the busy season, and offers unlimited on/off at all stops. When we saw the first line, we thought we would be there forever, but it only took about 20 minutes and we were on our way.
We rode to the very last stop and decided to start our day with the Riverwalk Trail. This is a very easy trail about 2.2 miles round trip. I recommend taking some swim gear with you and some shoes you don’t mind getting wet. Kellen would have been thrilled to stay in that water all day long, instead, he stomped and splashed around and spent the entire day muddy. This trail offered many areas for the kids to run and climb and play which is such a departure from many of the National Parks we have been to that require you to never leave the trail.
It took us quite a bit longer than expected to finish this trail, but the memories were so worth it. The boys enjoyed our snack break where the squirrels tried desperately to steal our orange peels from our backpacks and the boys learned to skip rocks. Don’t judge, they don’t get around rivers and lakes very often, we are desert and rink rats. The Lodge is the only place to get food inside the park, so make sure you bring snacks if you go. By the time we were done with the first hike it was almost lunchtime, so we took the shuttle down for some lunch.
The Lodge was incredibly busy being the only place for food, so getting our food took some time, but the food was decent and the view while we were waiting was breathtaking. While we ate, we decided to take the Lower Emerald Pool Trail next. There are a few trails closed due to rockfalls and weather issues this past winter, so make sure you check the website before you go, especially since you won’t be able to check while you are there, we pretty much had no internet access or cell service the entire day which played nicely into the no electronics rule for the weekend.
The Lower Emerald Trail was shorter and slightly more difficult, it took you up on the side of a wooded mountain and down into a small area with ponds. Usually these are filled with green algae giving them the emerald color they are famous for, but what appeared to be a rockslide that had closed the Upper Emerald Pool trail seems to have muddied the waters for lack of a better term. This was one of the boy’s favorites though because at the end of the trail, you get to walk under a little waterfall and get splashed. I think they would have let us stay there forever they had so much fun running around in the mud and water, but you know what always happens when you are a parent? At the absolute WORST time, your kid will have to go to the bathroom. Oh, did I not tell you that there are only bathrooms at the shuttle stops and not on the trails? Yup, I basically had to run over a half of a mile back to the bathrooms. I am not built for running. I am barely built for walking. I came off the hill so fast my ears plugged up and I was huffing and puffing like I had run a marathon. I am happy to say that we made it back in time, but my hips sure did hurt when I got up the next day.
By the time we got back to the Lodge, it had started to rain, so we hopped back on the shuttle to go take a tour of the museum. We watched an incredible movie about the park and how the amazing canyon is shaped and how it continues to change. It was the perfect spot to cool off, escape the rain and unwind after I nearly died trying to get my kid to the potty. It was 4:30 and we decided to run back to the car and take a drive through the tunnel we had just learned about in the movie. All I can say is the drive to that tunnel and through that tunnel was insane! We drove through twice and if it had not been for the wait both directions, I might have done it two more times just to see what I had missed.
This was the perfect place to get away from the boring summer we had going so far and now I can’t wait till I get stir crazy again!
