A Day in Zions

We spent the day in Zions on Saturday. It was such a nice day. We went earlier than we normally do. There was more stuff going on in the area than just a free entry day, so it was way more busy than we've ever seen it. We always go on free days and don't have problems with parking. This time all the lots were full and you had to park in the city and walk in. We checked the lots anyway and after wandering for a bit got lucky with a good spot. Phew. 

Each time we go we try a new hike with the kids. We usually just don't end up doing the whole thing. We kinda just go off of how well the kids are doing. This time we decided we'd to the Emerald Pools hike. There are lower pools, middle pools, and upper pools. To go to the upper it's a mile and a half. We decided we'd just go until the kids were done and see what we could see. 

The kids look forward to the "bus" shuttle rides that take you to the trail heads. Ollie was especially excited, cause he doesn't get to ride the school bus like he wants to. 

There are so many people from all over speaking so many different languages. Gabe asked me why everyone was speaking Spanish, even though hardly anyone was. :)

Milo is getting too big for our carrier. We tried him a few different ways and took turns carrying him. We contemplated bringing a stroller, and we might have if we were to do this other hike, but we didn't want to mess with it not knowing what to expect. We were glad we didn't. 

Most of the beginning of the hike was paved, which our kids actually don't care for. They love the rock climbing and dirt trails. Can't blame them, we like them better too. So in the beginning it wasn't too fun. As soon as we hit the rougher terrain they were in Heaven. 

There were waterfalls that fell into some of the pools. They were pretty. I bet after a good rain storm they'd be amazing. The pools were beautiful as well. Nothing spectacular, but they were nice. 

We got to the middle pools and kept going. Mainly cause after the middle pools it turned into a dirt trail with rocks everywhere and stairs. The kids LOVED it. That's the kind of hiking they enjoy. They like climbing and getting dirty. Ollie got to the dirt and said, "Okay let's get dirty!"

We finally made it up to the upper pools. I think people thought we were crazy with three young kids, but we were the ones trying to keep up with them. At the top we celebrated with suckers. The upper pools weren't as pretty as the ones below we thought, but we had fun going to them. 

Ollie cracked us up the whole time. He insisted on scaling the biggest rocks he could find going up and coming back down. He usually was sprawled out on them. 

When coming down Ollie noticed a shirtless hiker. He just started giggling, while pointing to him he said, "Hey he doesn't have a shirt on!"

These were the middle pools on the way back down.

If you look closely you can see the tarantula that Adam and Gabe found as they frolicked off the trail for a potty break. I guess there is a reason that they say to stay on the path. :/ We didn't have much off a choice when Gabe was afraid she'd pee her pants. It wasn't the only creature we saw. We had a deer jump on the path right in front of us, we tried to catch some lizards, and Ollie had a good time chasing grasshoppers. 

A few family pics down at the bottom. Phew we made it. 3 miles later and the kids were about done. We were so impressed by how amazing they did. They had so much fun and were so good. When we hit the paved part towards the bottom the weren't happy about it. :) 

We finally let Milo out and he was loving it. He had a few hard moments where he really wanted to get down and explore like the kids, but we wouldn't let him. Fun day, good times. We love days like this one.