Arches and Canyonland

After three days of tent camping in freezing temperatures, I was more than eager for a shower and a soft bed to sleep in. We drove several hours from Zion up to Moab, Utah where we spent the night in a hotel. I don't remember ever enjoying a shower, a warm bed, and takeout Thai as much as I did that night! The next day, we drove a few miles over to Arches National Park. This park is famous for having over 2000 sandstone arches and many other neat geological features. 

There were some stunning views at Arches. The weather was cold and there was a light rain. However, that didn't stop someone from holding a wedding beneath one of the arches. I felt sorry for everyone. It looked quite miserable, though it is certainly a beautiful place to get married.

There are bumpy, rocky unpaved roads out of Arches. We took one of them and bumped along for miles to get out of the park. 

After Arches, we drove through several miles of open cattle range to Canyonlands National Park. The clouds were so heavy and it began to snow on the drive in so we decided to take the dirt road into the canyon rather than go to the overlooks since we would not be able to see anything. Did I say we decided? I mean Alvin decided to take the dirt road down into the canyon. Did I mention I have had problems with heights ever since I had children? Well the minute we came around the bend and I saw the narrow dirt road (with patches of snow here and there to make it more exciting) winding down into the canyon with a sheer 1000+ foot drop-off and no guard rails, I almost had a full blown panic attack. 

Alvin's assurances of "it's fine! I'll go slow." were of little comfort to me. I know we were probably just fine, but needless to say I hated every moment of the twisting, winding decent into the canyon and probably didn't breathe until we at last reached the bottom. 

I mean, look at that drop off! Tell me I'm not being paranoid. 

And look at that hairpin curve in the road! 

The perspective of the picture doesn't accurately portray the vastness of the canyon we just descended into. We survived and all off roaders who zip up and down canyons every day would probably laugh at me. But, if given the choice, I will gladly never drive on a snowy dirt road with no guard rails into a canyon ever again

We drove along miles and miles of rocky dirt road sometimes with canyons rising above us and other times we were above the canyons below. We drove by the massive potash evaporation ponds outside of the park which was interesting to see, though I didn't get any good pictures of them. 

If I thought the harrowing driving experiences were over for the day, I was wrong. Upon leaving Canyonlands, we began the long journey back to southern Arizona. It had been snowing lightly most of the day but as we drove, the snow only got worse. We soon found ourselves in blizzard conditions with snow coming down thick and fast and the roads covered up completely.

We eventually drove out of the snowstorms in Utah and drove through Navajo Nation territory in the desert of north Arizona. However, as it began to get dark and we neared the higher elevations of Flagstaff, we drove right into another blizzard. We soon found ourselves sitting in miles upon miles of backed up traffic while the roads turned to ice. I couldn't shake the thought of a repeat of the dreadful pileup that happened in Texas recently. However, after many hours, whatever wreck had stopped traffic got cleared and eventually traffic began to slowly move forward. We finally made it back to Yuma around 2 AM. The next morning we awoke to 75 degree weather and bright sunshine. I've got to admit, I'll take winter weather in Yuma any day over all that!  

A Day in St. George and a Visit to Short Creek

Alvin and his buddy, Wayne, wanted to hike the famous Angel's Landing hike at Zion. After reading about Angel's Landing and how it is one of the most dangerous hikes in the nation and a number of people have plummeted off the trail to their deaths, including a man just days before, I determined I did NOT want to take my babies anywhere close to that trail! So instead, I borrowed Wayne's car and drove the boys into the nearby town of St. George, Utah. St. George is a quant little town with a large Mormon population. I drove by the massive white Mormon temple in St. George out of curiosity. Then we went to the St. George Children's Museum. This little place was wonderful and the boys absolutely loved it. It was made up of a number of rooms, all with a different theme and many things that children could play and interact with. 

This train track was the boys' favorite display and I could barely drag them away to see other rooms

My little mechanic was amazed to find a Liam sized car in need of fixing

The mini grocery store looked to be in full pandemic panic buying mode with all carts full and barely any items on the shelf. It was a mad house in there! Unlike in the adult world, children happily traded items and carts at will

The submarine room had ALL the buttons

Luca figured out how to milk the cow. His Amish Grandpa would be proud. 

After spending a couple hours at the children's museum, we headed over to the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site. This place had real fossilized dinosaur bones and dinosaur tracks that had been found in St. George. 

 

The boys got to observe real life paleontologists working in their lab 

The park in St. George had a carousel for $1 a ride. Liam has experienced these before but this was Luca's first time. He was absolutely delighted by it and did not want to leave. I ended up having to scrounge change from Wayne's cupholder so they could have another go around. 

Liam was fascinated by this huge guitar made from scrap metal

While Utah and Arizona have enormous Mormon (LDS) populations, there is a fringe group known as the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints) who still hold to the old Mormon beliefs in polygamy. This group has seen enormous media scrutiny due to huge abuse scandals and corruption in leadership in recent years in addition to media fascination with their lifestyle of plural marriage and separation from the world. I have always been fascinated by various people groups and cultures and so have read extensively about the FLDS and their community in Short Creek on the Utah/Arizona border. Since we were so close, I decided to drive through the town. Due to the corruption of their most recent leader, Warren Jeffs (since imprisoned), the town and community has been devastated. It almost seemed eerie driving through and seeing the enormous houses built by heads of households for their many wives and children. Most now stand empty and falling apart. 

This is the compound of Warren Jeffs. He reportedly had over 80 wives. Since his imprisonment, one of his wives who left the FLDS took over the compound and turned it into a community refuge center for people in need. 

We saw a number of current FLDS members still in Short Creek, including women who ran this store. Judging from this sign, they are wary of cameras and do not want to be preached to. 

It was so fascinating to see a place I have read so much about and to talk to some of the people there.

Three Nights in Zion

This past week we drove to Utah where we spent three days camping at Zion National Park. Zion has some stunning views and some incredible hikes and we were excited to have the opportunity to see it while we were still out West. We met up with a friend who had reserved a campsite at the park. Weather in Utah was quite different from what we have gotten used to in Yuma! Driving in we saw early signs of spring including budding trees and daffodils blooming. However, as evening approached the temperatures dropped pretty drastically and ended up below freezing throughout the night. 

We enjoyed good food cooked over a campfire and the fire felt so nice as temperatures dropped. We had a small tent and an air mattress for the night. While it wasn't the most comfortable sleeping arrangement, we managed to stay relatively warm but Luca was restless all night which meant I didn't get the best sleep. Liam slept like a rock all night every night. 

Our first morning in Zion we went for a hike on the Riverside Walk. The sun was up, but hadn't risen above the tall canyon wall beside the trail so the hike was a chilly one. We hiked to the end of the trial. Some people had waders on and continued the hike through the river but I was happy to turn around where the trail ended on that frozen morning. The Virgin River is beautiful though signs everywhere warned it contains toxic algae and drinking the clear water could be deadly.

A breakfast of bacon and eggs by the campfire on a chilly morning. 

We hiked up the Emerald Pools trails. The sun had risen over the canyon walls and we were soon warm at last. There are three pools, a lower, middle, and upper pool that cascade down the canyon. 

The views were stunning. The hike to the upper Emerald pool was somewhat strenuous with many rocks to clamber over but Liam took it like a trooper.

We had quite a few encounters with the scrawny but tame deer of Zion. Our first night in the park we were awakened by a ruckus just outside out tent. We unzipped the tent and peered out into the darkness to see several pairs of eyes staring back at us. We had left some grapes and rice Krispy treats unsecured and the deer were feasting upon them. They seem unconcerned by our presence and didn't budge, even when Alvin hollered at them. The next morning, all that was left of the rice Krispies were the mini M&Ms. Deer apparently aren't fans of chocolate. We continued to encounter fearless deer throughout our stay at Zion. 

Our second morning we awoke to a skiff of snow on the tent. Our third morning, we awoke to snow covering everything! It was so cold and I did not want to get out of the tent until the fire was blazing. Even then, the snow was still falling so thick and fast it was impossible not to get covered in it. We bundled the boys up in blankets and quickly ate breakfast before packing everything up and beginning our drive out of the park.

The roads were dreadful and the drive out of Zion has an intense one. However, we managed to escape the park unscathed and saw some beautiful snow while we were at it.