Zion National Park Vacation September 2017

This is our family vacation to Zion National Park and Kanab, Utah.

The tram through Zion.

 Our first hike, weeping rock.

We quickly figured out that Claire was not going to fall asleep anywhere or anyhow and so the nap was a foregone conclusion and just tried to do the best we could. We arrived at the park a little after she usually goes down for a nap and so what were we to do? She wouldn't sit in the backpack nor fall asleep in the car or tram or anything. She has never not napped before. 

A lot of Zion's hikes are paved and easy. Something about the type of stone and rock makes it so water seeps out of the rock and drips down on this overhang. It was beautiful.

You can see how Claire just had to be left alone. :/ 

 Our favorite parts of the park were places where noone was. This was at a bus stop for Big Bend I think and it was a viewpoint for the Cathedral and Organ or something like that. 

We took a hike down to see the river and it was an oasis. We discovered where we will go given an apocalypse.

 Same place

 The Virgin River running through the park is really nice and cool. Here is a fall off of Stop 9 for a riverwalk and then the start of the Narrows, what Zion is famous for apparently.

 I went by myself for a little ways before going back to the fam.

 This is as far as the kids got. I guess they were done hiking and wanted to just play with what they saw right in front of them.

 Ted is asking for someone to fix him. He is rocket crashing or something.

Deer came very close to the trails. 

A squirrel on the rocks.

Another 'weeping rock'.

The river

You can see the canyon closing in on the narrows.

The  last hike of the day that wasn't supposed to be a long hike and just got to be a bit too long by the end.
You can see that Claire gave up on shoes and socks by now.

Pretty bridges on (and a waterfall not pictured because a shirtless guy was in the way of any shot of it) on this Pa'us trail which made it worth it, even if it was just too long for that day.

 The view from our hotel.

Day 2
We had to stop before going into the tunnel and saw a horned sheep, but didn't get a good picture of him.

 Stop 6, hike to Emerald Pools. Here are two deer right off the trail.

Claire just walked SOOOO slow and ate this whole bowl of snacks at the start of this trail. 

 I perked up once the sun came out and we discovered this cool thing right off the trail.

More 'weeping rocks' create the pools on this hike; three sets.

A seat just for Claire.

The middle pools.

 We went home for lunch and rest and such (Claire did take a short nap on the way back to our hotel, so that was something). Then we went back out to try one more hike. We found this one and just explored off the beaten path. Beautiful views. 

Then we went to the Moqui caves. We have always seen this, but never gone in. It is full of discoveries of one man and his great-granddaughter was there answering questions. I guess it was the history of it and being family-owned that made it so interesting. It was quite a collection of one guy (Garth Chamberlain).

DAY 3

 We were hoping to take a tour of the Best Friends Sanctuary, but realized they had to be booked in advance. Instead we took a hike on the property. It was all sand though and the kids just wanted to play and so it was hard and slow. 

Anasazi shelter

  

 We ended up sending Derrick ahead to see the "hidden pool".

They let us carry them back, which was a big blessing.

It was pretty cool, but we decided that was enough to see and started home.

Overall, we enjoyed it and the kids did pretty great. We are happy that we did a vacation with young kids and enjoyed it and found some special things and we weren't sick of each other or frustrated at the end.