Wildflower

In Zion we had one of our most unique lodging experiences ever!  We stayed at glamping resort called Wildflower.  Here the room choices are luxury tent, mini house, yurt...or covered wagon!  We decided to go for it and take the most adventurous option!  

The inside of our wagon was so cute!  There was easily enough space for us and all our stuff.  And there was no modern convenience we were lacking-- from a/c to phone chargers to a coffee maker!  We loved getting the Oregon Trail vibes without any of the roughing it.  Or dysentery. ;)

The one thing we found pretty alarming was the warning from our resort that it was tarantula mating season, so to be on the lookout for them migrating!  YIKES.  With a little bit of a walk to the outdoor bathrooms, this put no one at ease.  Delia will say that outdoor bathroom was a trip lowlight for her!  Rest assured, all tarantulas stayed in their holes for the 2 days we were here!

The ambience of this family-fun place was unmatched, though!  At night there was a s'mores campfire, music, and families mixing up to play yard games!  Dave played 2 rounds of cornhole with strangers. The pool was super fun too.

But, then a huge storm rolled in.  This looked amazing from outside of our wagon (complete with rainbow!), but it did blow all the wet swimsuits and towels we had hanging on the railing into the nearby tarantula-infested cactus fields, making us have to retrieve and de-thorn them.  And when it was time to sleep we learned that a room on wheels, made of canvas walls during a loud wind/thunderstorm does not yield the rest we were craving!  It was an adventure and a funny family memory now.  Thank goodness we're not actually pioneers!  One night of this was enough for us wimps!  

Zion National Park

After Arizona, our next stop was Zion National Park, where the girls colored in a new state for them-- Utah!  You know we love our national parks.  Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Crater Lake, Mt. Rainier, and Rocky Mountain are some of the most awesome places on earth.  Zion is right up there with them in the breathtaking views and awe-inspiring landscapes department!  On our first day in Zion, we got acclimated and tried to figure the park out a bit, taking just 2 hikes, one easy and one moderate.  

First hike was the Zion Canyon Overlook Trail.  It was short, but it was a climb!  "That was just a mile?!" became a bit of a theme as we navigated lots of hikes with elevation gain IN high elevation.  

But the path sure was pretty with cliffs, caves, and swinging bridges.

When it opened up into our first view of the whole canyon, we squealed with delight!

After the hike, you get to drive through the rock walls in a dark, 1.5 mile long tunnel, coming out with a view of the overlook you were just standing on top of!

There is limited parking in Zion, so it uses a shuttle bus system.  Everything I read said you need to be in the park by 6 am to get a precious parking spot in the crowded summer months.  On this first day, we were definitely not there that early, yet miraculously pulled right up to an empty spot!  Then we braced for the hour long shuttle bus line I'd been warned about, but found we could walk right onto it!  We saw God's hand in the mighty works of creation we basked in all week, but also in the little ways He just smiled on us and gave us such ease in enjoying it!  Even the 40 minute shuttle bus loop was fun to ride!  It was incredibly scenic and narrated by a Native American, a biologist, a park ranger, a photographer, and a rock climber!

(The 3 Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.)

We hopped off the bus to take another hike up to Weeping Rock.  This was waaaaay cooler (literally!) than any of us expected.  This cave/wall of rock absorbs and collects water and then cries a steady sprinkle of it onto all who walk through!  It was like getting rained on!  By rock tears!!  And it felt so good on the hot day.  Everything around Weeping Rock was green and lush too, such a beautiful contrast to the red rocks.

(Checkerboard Mesa)

In Zion we had more cool wildlife encounters-- with bighorn sheep!  This was the critter Dave was most excited to find!  They were munching greenery in herds, or watching cars go by from the red cliffs, or even leaping right across the road in front of our car!

Horseshoe Bend

Our Arizona day ended with another thing I was really looking forward to-- a hike to the Horseshoe Bend!  We decided to see it in the most epic way possible, at sunset.  It was just as gorgeous as we were all hoping.  So, an image of this famous sight is actually the cover of Ella's Earth Science text book.  When I was proposing the trip to the family, seeing the cover of her text in person was actually a big selling point!  Haha!  We had to laugh when we saw this picture EVERYWHERE.  I learned that it's not a hard one to take.  The scenery does all the work for you (and a little filter ;).  Now I have my own!

You wouldn't know it from my camera angles, but this place was PACKED with people!  They were all friendly, though, and mostly from other countries!  (Actually, that was our experience on most of this trip.  We were in the minority being "local" and grew to love meeting new international people in hotel elevators, in line for shuttle busses, and while trading family pictures!)  A couple from Austria took this family picture and I took a bunch for a family from Japan who didn't speak English, but communicated what poses they wanted with gestures!  So fun!

This may be one of my favorite pictures of the trip.  See Delia's little silhouette in the top right corner?!

Glen Canyon Dam

Our hotel in Page was actually within walking distance of the marvel of engineering that is the Glen Canyon Dam!  Similar in many ways to the Hoover Dam, we felt seeing this could cross the Hoover Dam off our list later in the week.  We could even see the dam from our hotel window.  When we pulled into town the first night, we found a fantastic BBQ joint serving us ribs, nachos and burgers with fun live music, then we ran around exploring this scenic overlook as the sun set.  Memorable here was the dozen bats, emerging energic and hungry at dusk and zooming all around us!  (Bats were the first of many exciting wildlife encounters on this trip!)

We learned a lot exploring the dam during the daylight.  There were paths to hike, overlooks, and a huge and thorough visitor center where we even took in the movie about this Lake Powell/Glen Canyon Dam area.  

We walked a little way across the bridge, but it was actually kinda nerve-wracking!

Getting to know the Glen Canyon Dam took a few hours of our Arizona day and it was a surprising highlight!  Fascinating to learn about the formation of Lake Powell from the Colorado River and how hydropower works!  I just love Ella busting out this conversation starter: "So, what's everyone's favorite source of energy?"

Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell

It started with a cancelled service trip.  Our family was slated to serve at a camp in Oregon for students with special needs and their families.  We cleared the week, and made the arrangements to be away.  Then the trip fell through.  Not wanting to waste precious time off, or an opportunity for quality time with Ella before she flies from the nest, but also wanting to stay on budget and not fly, I came up with, what ended up being, a pretty spectacular Plan B!  We spent a week touring the Southwest on a grand road trip.  We drove 30 hours, hiked 23.5 miles on 10 hikes, crossed into 3 states, explored 2 national parks, slept in 4 different beds, took 350 pictures, and made countless new family memories.  This week I'll start the record of all this on the blog.  Brace yourself, this was a visual trip!  We saw so many breathtaking sights, my picture sharing will be generous! ;)

Our first stop on this road trip was Page, Arizona.  And one of the first things we did here was tour the iconic Antelope Canyon.  The rock walls in this area are made of impressionable sand.  When the flash floods that are so common to this desert area during monsoon season roar through these cracks in the earth, the water carves the most magnificent twists and turns in the walls.  To walk through is to be in awe of the rock formations, the light beams streaming in, the cooler temperatures, and the vibrant warm color pallet.  It was one of the things we were most looking forward to and it did not disappoint!  Our guide knew the 10 of us in our group were there to take pictures, so he patiently waited as we got all the aesthetic shots we wanted (the girls were super into posing in here! ;) and even showed us some cool tricks!

Can you see?  It's a spotlight!  And of course Delia is in it!

Though every stop on our trip gave us Extreme Heat Advisories, our day in Arizona was one of our hottest.  Nothing was better than the after-canyon-hike smoothies and 2 hour swim we took in the perfectly refreshing and gorgeous Lake Powell!