Spring Break Road Trip

The girls had Spring Break two weeks ago and we had an amazing family trip that I have been wanting to share but due to computer issues I had to wait until I was finally sent a new one that actually worked.  Today was that day and now I can finally catch you all up on our family trip to Zion, Utah!

We left at 5 am Saturday morning because it was going to be a very long drive....nine hours long.   I am not much of a morning person so I wasn't looking forward to getting up and going that early but we stopped and picked up Starbucks and then the sun began to come up and I was all good.

It was perfect that the sunrise happened just as we were driving through the desert making for the perfect view out my passenger side window.

A bathroom break meant a few pictures of course

Our ride there did in fact take a whole nine hours, mostly because we were towing our trailer but it honestly did not feel like that long.   The girls were so good, they watched movies, did the activity books I packed for them and pretty much kept busy on their own.  We were very proud of them but of course once we finally saw our home for the next four nights we were very happy.

 It was about 4 o'clock by the time we got everything set up at the campsite and I was exhausted so we basically just ate dinner and lounged around.  We all went to bed pretty early because we knew we would be walking a lot for the next few days.

Monday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, got dressed and hopped back in the truck to head to Zion National Park.   Since we had a fourth grader we got to get in free to the National Parks.  Kayla saved us $60 for just being a fourth grader so that was pretty nice.  So if you have a fourth grader you can print a pass and they get your whole family in free to just about all National Parks for that school year! 

Driving through the National Park was mesmerizing from the start.  We couldn't believe how beautiful it was.  My pictures truly do not capture how amazing this place actually is.   We drove all the way to the front of the park and got out to board a tram that would take us to different spots that you can walk or hike around for a better experience.   There are several trails all rated from easy, moderate to strenuous.  Here are the girls before we boarded the tram ready for a fun day.  What they didn't know was that they would be hiking their butts off all day and I'm pretty sure I didn't know this either!

I had made a mental note which sites I wanted to see and what we would hike.  I had an absolute no on a few that I had read were dangerous and extremely difficult.  The plan was to stay with the relaxing hikes that were easy and enjoyable. 

Let's just say that was the plan but as we all know plans don't always go the way you had planned.  Our first hike was perfect though.  We started out with a short walk up to Weeping Rock.  

It was a rather quick walk up and ranked as a very easy hike ~ perfect!

To the left of the picture below you can see the drops of water that are dripping from the rock.  Each drop that falls from the rocks has traveled through the rock for the last 1,000 years before making it's way out!  I thought that was amazing and we spent some time there just enjoying the feeling of what felt like raindrops falling on us.

Well that's pretty much where our relaxing hikes stopped for the day because after that I somehow lost all control of what I had mentally noted in my head and somehow ended up hiking up one of the strenuous hikes labeled on the map.  I blame hunger and excitement mostly but I will say that I would do it all again because it was worth every grueling minute climbing up the mountain even if we didn't make it the final spot.

I'll be back soon to finish that story!