Zion Canyon Emerald Pools Hike

With Zion I have decided to break it down by hikes. This place is amazing. We only had one day to spend here. I would go back in a heart beat and spend 3-4 days there easily. There are so many trails to hike. This was the first hike we opted to take...in the heat of the day..it was 104 degrees that day. I would recommend doing this hike in the late afternoon when it is cooler, as most of it is in the sun. The pools are not the kind you can swim in and cool off in. At one point we got to where you had the option of heading to the middle pool or taking the 0.3 trail up and back to the upper pool. We opted to do this...oh my..it was quite the challenge. NOTE: Read the trail guide book first...we read it once we got to the upper pool. It stated " trail no longer maintained by USFS, sections may be considered strenuous". Hey we did it and view was well worth the hike.

Bauer's Canyon Ranch RV Park

I will admit this maybe the only post I make about an actual RV park. When looking for a place in this area. I wanted something that had us close to all 2 places on the must see list...Zion Canyon and Coral Pink Sand Dunes. I can say it turned out to be very a fun park. It is on a working ranch..nothing fancy. But we had fun time. The kids played in the sprinklers in the orchard, upon returning from a much shortened trip to the sand dunes. The kids loved the horses. Now some of you are wondering..Why a picture of the sheriff's truck. You see it was not until the third time we drove by this nice young officer that we slowed down took a better look at him. He was in fact cold stone stiff..yes he was not a living breathing deputy..but in fact a mannequin. Seems throughout Kane County..he was no alone. Yes we passed 3 different ones all the in the same condition.

Maqui Cave, Utah

This was really cool. I mean cool...it never reaches over 70 degrees inside. So you can imagine how nice it felt being that it was well over 100 degrees outside. The cave was bought in 1951, by the Chamberlains and is still owned by the family today. It originally was made into a bar and dance hall. The Chamberlains paved the floor of the cave, painted the walls white and installed bars and an orchestra stage.

Now, the cave has a showcase of a wide variety of items collected and created by the Garth Chamberlain over his lifetime. These include: dinosaur tracks, wood carvings, paper currency (both real and otherwise), as well as a large (and rather strange) fluorescent mineral display. Sections of the original bar and dance hall are still there.

I think what Zeke liked the best was that Garth Chamberlain played in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the mid 40's.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Okay I will admit..I honestly thought I had more of the trip done then this.
So yes..we went and we saw and we played for maybe 30 minutes. I can tell you the place not to be when it is over 100 degrees in the desert. That would be attempting to run and play in the sand dunes. The sand was so hot..forget about trying to do things with shoes off. It was still cool to see.


Now when we were leaving the very hot sand dunes. Norm offered to buy ice cream at the Baskin Robbins...very funny...as there were only a couple of towns between the dunes and the RV park and they may have population of 100 people on a good day. But sure enough...I found ice cream..it was not Baskin Robbins...but a nice little Mom and Pop place in Orderville. It had the Fred Flintstone car out front.

Bryce Canyon National Park

I would have to say this is now one of our favorite National Parks and we can't wait to go back. There was way more to do and not enough time, but isn't that true with all vacations. We did one combo hike off the Navajo Loop and Queen's Garden Trail. We also did a free bus tour. It was enjoyable and fun. They took us out to the end and then stopped on 5 other overlooks. It was great to get learn about the canyon, the founding family, the names of some of the hoodoos and the story of Butch Cassidy, as he is from that area and the family homestead is near there, although we did not make it over to that town.

Bryce Canyon National Park Photos

The Big Trip Days 1-4

So my thoughts are to have several blogs of the big trip..they will most likely be formatted by location/days. We departed Bellingham on the afternoon of June 18th. We arrived in Boise on the 19th picked up my nephew and then headed out to Utah on the 20th. We had quite the thunderstorm in Salt Lake City but made it to our first stop in Springville, UT. It was a nice RV park, the pool was closed, but I assume that was due to the thunderstorms. Then the next day it was off to Bryce Canyon..it was a short travel day and that turned out to be a good thing. As unplanned event #1 occurred. It was new tires for the travel trailer and we also had them inspect the wheel bearings (this will be discussed further in the end of the trip event). While they did that we walked over to Wendy's to have lunch. Then it was back on the road to get to Bryce Canyon through the Dixie National Forest and Red Canyon.