road trip s-utah

We took a whirlwind road trip to Southern Utah this last month. My grandmother passed away and we spent three days driving down to St. George. First stop: Scenic Byway 12. Rocky planned us a hike at Spooky Gulch. He really had his heart set on it--mainly because of the name. It required a 25 mile drive on dirt roads, which took a solid hour in the low riding audi wagon that we had borrowed from my brother. Once we finally got to the trailhead at noon our kids were already toast. We had a quick lunch and packed our backpacks full of powerade and headed out. Within ten steps in the trail we met our first group of people who told us to turn around.

Before we made it the two miles to the slot canyon, all our kids had had major breakdowns (two were being carried by Rocky) and at least 3 groups and 1 ranger had told us it turn around, the slot canyon was apparently full of spiders and screaming kids. I repeatedly told Rocky we should switch hikes and do the much more pleasant sounding (and shorter) Peek-a-boo slot canyon but he held fast. As soon as we reached the Spooky Gulch, the kids who had previously been in a desperate downward spiral immediately perked up. They raced ahead while Rocky and I got repeatedly got stuck, wedged in the tiny canyon, trying to keep up.

They absolutely loved it. And when we finished, Violet requested we also do Peek-a-boo also. Everyone else wanted to head back to the car (it was a million degrees and we were down to only red powerade). We told Violet that if she walked the half mile to Peek-a-boo, we would do it also. Up to that point Violet had walked a total of about 15 steps. She proved us all wrong. She walked the whole way while crying loudly. We repeatedly tried to pick her up to get out of the hike but she was insistent she was going to walk. And we did Peek-a-boo and then Violet insisted we carry her all the way back to the car. 

The next day we limited our hike to a 100 foot paved sidewalk.

Road trip faces.

And then opted to drive through Bryce Canyon. We stopped at the lookouts, mainly so Rocky could get out. He made Eliot and I get out but we eventually mutinied and viewed the canyon from the window.

 At our last stop on our national park tour was Zions. We took next to no pictures but we did skip rocks and get some kind of water born illness from the Virgin River.

Road trip accomplished.