***overlook any spelling and grammar errors. I’ll edit in the morning, after sleep and coffee***

We woke up this morning in St. George, Utah and headed to Zion National Park. Good thing mom actually had the archaic things called maps (thanks Utah Tourism Department) because the cell coverage in the desert was zero to none…

We arrived at our hotel faster that expected but thankfully our room was ready! So we unloaded, packed sandwiches and snacks and headed out for day one in Zion.

Springdale, Utah is the small town that has grown up around Zion with plenty of hotels, restaurants and anything you could need, including one of the most efficient shuttle systems I’ve ever seen… only Disney could rival these shuttles… and I’m not sure these guys aren’t better.😳

So we hopped on the Springdale shuttle, which makes 9 stops in Springdale. There is a shuttle stop within 50 yards of our hotel,

and we rode directly into the Park. We purchased an Annual Pass to the National Parks for $80 so all our parks through July of 2020 are covered.

On to Zion, WOW! The views! The history! I have to take a moment and acknowledge President Theodore Roosevelt for creating our National Parks System. These places are gorgeous! I can’t get over that we have these breathtaking areas reserved in our country, and that people come to visit and don’t litter, or destroy by taking advantage of it.

We talked to the Park Ranger and since there is a chance of thunderstorms tomorrow, we decided to get some of our big hikes in today. So off we went to hike the Narrows!

Along the way, we had a picnic and fought off some overfriendly and chunky squirrels not a bad view for lunchThis place is little boy heaven, and a parent’s nightmare! The boys wanted to climb everything, and normally, I’m the go-ahead-climb-it parent, and Mike is the worrier but here… with these sheer rocks and dangerous drop-offs and edges – whew! I’m giving Mike a run for his money for most nervous parent 😀We finally found some common ground and they climbed and climbed… not until their hearts were content, but as much as our nerves would stand 😬

Maybe some yoga will help my nerves 🤣

We hiked through about half the Narrows – just like it sounds, they are narrow passages between the giant mountains. Very cool and a little intimidating. The water was fast moving and the rocks were slick so it was slow going at times. There was also a dark cloud with thunder booms nearby. The Rangers warned about flash flooding, and how quickly it could happen, so we were proceeding with cautious excitement 😊

Michael slipped at one point and lost his slide (shoe) then when he went to grab it, and the current almost took his feet out from under him. There was definitely a moment of fear there for a second. I never believed it when people say 6 inches of water could knock a grown man off his feet, but I think we all do now. (Thankfully a kind man down the water caught Michael’s shoes for him 😊)

After we finished the Narrows or as far in as we wanted to go, we caught the shuttle to Weeping Rock. Water comes in on top of the mountains, and is absorbed. And then travels through all the rock, until it ultimately finds a way out… and when it does, it’s the Weeping Rock

Guess who got soaking wet?We then headed to the Lower Emerald Pools (the middle and upper level hikes were closed due to rock slides… and they’re also listed as strenuous hikes – but we were totally going to do the strenuous hikes if they weren’t closed (yea, right 🥵)). This was quite a hike itself so I can’t imagine what the other hikes entailed –

But the views were just amazing!

We skipped the visitors center, movie and museum for today – we can check those out tomorrow especially if it’s raining. We did get wet again while Leo practiced stone-skipping and Michael built the Brown Rock tower in the river.We calculated we hiked about 8 miles total today so we are wiped out – again.

We grabbed dinner at Jack’s Sports Grill near the hotel, and Michael decided to try something new – Bison Burger! It was delicious!!! It was so good that we’re thinking of going back tomorrow and have another one 🤪

I can’t imagine how you see all this and don’t believe that there is a God in Heaven and that he loves you very much. There is no way something this beautiful just “happened”.

The boys swam after dinner and to just put the perfect ending on today, we had a rainbow over the mountain ❤️

Tomorrow is supposed to be significantly cooler – high of only 80, and were headed out for horseback riding if it doesn’t storm. (Never thought I’d think 80° wasn’t hot, but then again the 95° today, compared to 114° yesterday, felt downright pleasant 🤪🤣🤪)