Zions

This weekend our little family jumped at the chance to take advantage of free national park week. We loaded up the camping gear and headed down to Zions. With 80 degree days down there we knew at the very least some warmth and sunshine would do us good. It was a fun and uneventful trip, a very uneventful trip. 2 parents, 2 kids, and 2 dogs.
This is a male pheasant we saw near our camp ground. We also saw LOTS of deer. I'd say close to 1,000 white bums were all over the hills at dusk.

To change things up a bit, we decided to enter the park from the east entrance. It is a lovely drive on the east side and doesn't take any longer to go that way.

View coming into the park from the east.
There are also really neat tunnels to drive through on the east side.

We just got done with breakfast and sleeping out the night before. I forgot to bring a hairbrush :)

This is where our trip could have taken a horrible turn... we had decided we wanted to hike to the lower emerald ponds. It's about an hour hike and supposed to be fairly easy so the kids could walk it too. ZIONS HAS CHANGED! You no longer drive to where you want to hike. In fact the only real driving to see anything we had already done by coming in through the east. Now you park at the visitors center and take a shuttle to places you might want to hike. The visitors center is packed with people, the shuttles are packed with people, and overall the whole thing has been commercialized. GUESS WHAT?! No dogs! Now that you can't just go to the hiking spots, no dogs allowed. No dogs in the visitors center (which is mostly outside), no dogs on the shuttle (which is the only way up to the trails), no dogs on the trails. I checked the dog situation before we left and it doesn't say any of this anywhere online. BUMMER!! So no hiking for us. We conceded to this fact and decided to go find the one spot dogs were allowed and see what was there. "Mommy, I have to go potty." Winter had been holding it for awhile so since we were at the visitors center Cory pulled up front and let us out to run for the potty before she couldn't hold it anymore. Well, let me tell you, the visitor center workers are not nice. In fact the one that told Cory he could be there was down right asking for someone to punch her in the face. Winter and I come back from the bathrooms to find Cory and Ledger standing on the sidewalk at the front instead of in the car...hmmmm. Close by is a woman in a uniform from the park. Just by how Cory was standing I could tell he was agitated. Having been married to him for almost 7 years and loving him for more than 9, I know it takes a lot to get him to lose his cool. This crazy woman gets on her walkie talkie and calls for a Ranger to come up and "help her with a hostile man." WHAT?! Cory was just standing there, with Ledger in his arms. We start to walk away back to the car and she follows us. Cory tells me she made him move the car because she said he couldn't be parked there. He told her he wasn't parking, he had just let us out because Winter was going to pee her pants. This woman insisted that he move. Cory tried to explain that with all these people everywhere if he left we would get separated because that was where he had dropped us off. He told her we just ran the bathroom and would be right back. She then demanded he move the car. Cory said a few choice words including she obviously didn't have children and probably never would. When we all reached the car with want-a-be ranger woman in tow, Cory told her to go away, that we were there as a family trying to enjoy the park and she was ruining our experience. She wrote down our license plate (which is only registered in my name and info so a fat chance that will do her any good.) It really made me wonder who rained on her parade that day? Why couldn't she just leave it alone? Why push someone like Cory who rarely acts in anger to that point? When she marched behind us and wrote down my tag I was ready to punch her myself, but I am different from Cory :) The funny thing about it all is we decided there wasn't anything that a Ranger could have or would have done anyways. We were leaving, we hadn't touched anything, and I am pretty sure in a national park, freedom of speech is still allowed, I'm just saying.

Now for the rest of our trip... we found a lovely little stream that the kids adored! I am sure the water was freezing, but it was really warm out and they didn't seem to mind.


Isn't he just beautiful?! He has just a tiny tiny hint of a smirk on his face there. I just love my little muffin (stud muffin.)



Winter found a log that she promptly began to cover in sandy mud she herself made.

It was a pretty day. Not too hot, not too cool in the shade.

Millipede! Cory loves to find and point our big weird bugs to the kids. They love it too.
It was a good trip and we are glad we went. Things didn't go as we thought they would, but what can you do? What are your planned trips for this summer? What will you do if they don't go according to the plan?