So we did it. We went camping in Zion National Park for 5 days. It was crazy hot.
We left here on Sunday afternoon and got to St. George UT about 7 hours later.
Courtesy of The Lonely Planet we stayed at a funky little motel for $40/night. It was sufficient, clean etc. They actually had a little kitchen at the back of the room so we were able to eat there while Bug slept and open up some of our own food for breakfast the next day. They were the typical sole proprietors, cute, friendly, a bit goofy. They had been there for a few years, bought the hotel as a semi-retirement thing. They were thinking of selling and leaving. I don't know if they were loving St. George.We stayed in St. George because it was less than an hour from Zion. On the way we stopped in a town called Hurricane. We wanted to pick up some things at the pharmacy, one was a prescription we had my doctor phone in for an asthma spray. Due to insurance issues that took waaaaay longer than expected. We finally were able to leave and arrived at our campsite at about 1:30. Everyone was excited to get out of the car.
Our first hurtle was the campsite. It was super hot and not a lot of shade. The people at the park entrance told us we could look at a different campsite that was first come first serve. We drove around it, but couldn't decide. the kids were screaming to get out and hungry so we went back to our site, unloaded the food and I left them with Dan to reevaluate whether or not we should move. I was tired and couldn't decide. The site we had was beautiful and near the visitor center. Which was good because that is where you picked up the shuttle to the trail heads. The other site was farther away. In the end I couldn't make a decision so we just stayed out campsite. In retrospect the pros' to moving would have been a shadier campsite and we would have been nearer to the river. The cons would have been it would be a bit of a hike to the visitor center which was a launching place for everything. So it didn't matter where we were, there were pro's and cons to both.
It took us some time to set up the camp site. The tent was a bit of a bear since we hadn't set it up before. I had my doubts about it because it didnt have very good reviews. It was nice and large with a lot windows but pretty unstable. We did attach some extra ropes to keep it standing and thank god we did. It was so windy at night we are sure the tent would have collapse if we hadn't tied it to the ground.
I don't remember why but Dan had something to do so left us to go into Springdale, so the b
oys and I decided to take a shuttle bus and see a bit of the park we went up to the lodge and ran around there for a while. It was fun. there was a big grassy area the boys could play on and a wild turkey running around which they thought was hysterical. We eventually went back to the campsite to meet Dan. After an exciting dinner of hot dogs Kellen and I decided to go on a small hike. The shuttle took us to the top of the Pa' rus trail, a 1.3 mile hike back to the camp site. It started out great. We detoured down a steep trail to wade in the river and cool off. We then continued on the trail. It was an easy paved trail, mostly flat. I unfortunatley time it well. It got darker a lot faster than I thought. That in itself wasn't scary, it's just that I wanted to get back. I knew Dan would be worried and realized and hadnt given him any indication of where we were going, just that we were going for a hike and would be back in an hour. Along the way Papageno had to look at every beetle and ant that came near the path. I felt bad hurrying him along, I mean half the fun is checking out the bugs. But we did need to move along. We eventually got back to the campsite and to a pissed off Dan. He didn't know where we were, what trail or where to even begin looking for us had something gone wrong. I understood. It wasn't the best laid plan.
The next day Papageno did the Jr. Ranger Program. He loved it. He went everyday. It was nice because we would wake up, get a quick breakfast, drop him a the ranger program and then relax with Bug for a few hours. We then would pick him up, eat and relax by a river or something. It was so hot, the only thing we could do was sit in a river in the shade. Needless to say the kids had no problem with that plan. The water was icy cold, so getting in was half the fun/challenge.
It did take a while to fall into a pattern. By Tuesday night I was so upset and the trip was so hard I was almost ready to pack it in and try to get a hotel. I figured I would give it one more day. Low and behold the next day we figured it out! Once we stopped trying to stay on the schedule we had at home and adjusted the way we did things it was fun. We did late afternoon hikes and had dinner when the sun was going down. That way we werent trying to cook in the heat of the day, or get the kids to sleep in full light. Also, it was much more fun to light the campfire and roast marshmallows after the sun went down.
We left on Friday to head for the Grand Canyon. It took us 3 hours to pack up the campsight. Fun in 105 degrees. We then went into town for supplies and a little apple picking and lunch. By the time we hit the road it was after 3. We got to our proposed destination, Jacob Lake, and started to look for a place to stay. The book we had, "the lonely planet", which has never let me down, said there were a few hotels there. They were wrong! There is one hotel and one gas station and that makes up the town of Jacob Lake. The next closest town was 80 miles back from where we came. Luckily there was one other option, a small lodge I had called earlier but rejected because it was more money than we were hoping to spend. Fortunatly the had a cabin available and we sucked it up and spent the money. The cabin was small and dingy but clean. It had a set up bunk beds and two full size beds. There was also a small restaurant. Now, I am sure under any other cirmcumstances this hotel would have been awful, but after camping for 5 days your perspective changes. The shower had hot running water, the beds were comfortable and the food ... not prepared by us, hence awesome! The kids loved it and it was in a beautiful location.
The rest of the Grand Canyon trip was anti-climactic. The scenery was beautiful but the kids were hiked out. So we did a half hour hike and headed for home. Stopped in Vegas to break up the trip and were home on Sunday.
In the end it was so much fun, I planned next years trip for Yosemit. There we are staying in a permanent tent :)
Posts
