Ben and I ran into Muddy Bee Bakery and grabbed some items for breakfast: a raspberry lemon scone, a cinnamon roll, a loaf of sourdough, and breakfast sandwiches.
The breakfast sandwiches were the best!
We were able to get afternoon passes for the shuttle and headed up. The Visitor Center parking lot was packed, but we managed to find a spot.
The shuttle is running a lower capacity (about 33 people per shuttle-which is made of two buses each) due to COVID. Our first driver was great and pointed out several of the scenes in Zion along the route. We saw a few deer along the drive as well.
There were a few trails I had on my list, but several were closed due to rock falls (stops 2, 3, 4, and 7). We decided to walk the Riverside Trail (stop 9, the final stop). It is completely paved and ends at the river where the Narrows trail begins. It is a pretty easy walk, about 2 miles. The trail goes through a swamp area (crazy in the middle of a desert) and gives you peeks at the river. Some of the rock walls along the trail were seeping water. Different plants and flowers were growing out of the rocks near these spots and made for some very pretty scenery.
There are signs everywhere saying not to feed the wildlife (in particular a lot of “don’t feed the squirrels”). These squirrels are ballsy. They come right up to you and beg for food. You know how Custer State Park had begging burros? Zion definitely has begging squirrels.
We had to wait a little bit for the shuttle back, but it wasn’t too long.
We were able to get passes for the next day in the early afternoon and decided to hike the Narrows. We rented equipment from Zion Guru. The store was in Springdale, which is right outside the gates to Zion. It was $25/person and you got a hiking pole, neoprene water socks, and water shoes/boots.
Note: The park does state to wear a mask, but it is not really well enforced. There were people who kind of had it on for the shuttle and once boarded took it off.
Zion is only 25-35 minutes away from our campground. We couldn’t get Zion Shuttle passes for our first couple of days there. In Zion during the main season, you need to park at the Visitor Center and take a shuttle along the Scenic Drive, the main road through the park. The shuttle passes have to be bought ($1/each) on recreation.gov. They go on sale each morning at 9:00 am MT for the next day. The morning and early afternoon passes go super fast, so get on right away to get the best time. If you are going in October, they are sold a little more in advance according to the website.
However, there is another way to see Zion if you can’t get passes right away! If you enter on the South Entrance, you enter through the Park Gates (they do check for passes/admission), and come to a split in the road. One goes to Scenic Drive (shuttle only right now) and the other goes on to the Zion-Mt. Caramel Highway, which you can drive on in your own vehicle. (If you enter on the East Entrance, you also pass through park gates and are already on this road. I believe it is also State Route 9.) You can find several trails and parking pull-outs along the road. You also drive through an awesome tunnel made in 1930. It is a mile long with windows cut out of the mountain. The windows were created for air, but also offer nice scenic views as you drive by. There are height restrictions though.
About the tunnel. You can see one of the windows in the mountain side.
The drive is worth it just for this tunnel! 🙂 There is another smaller tunnel along the road as well.
On the other side of the tunnel, you will find various trails and pull-outs. The landscape is really neat. The rock looks like it is layered. Ben called is phyllo dough rock, which is what it looked like!
We stopped at a pull-out to look at Checkerboard Mesa, which Will had just learned about in class! There was also someone painting in the parking lot.
It was towards the end of the day, so we didn’t do any hiking, but I did find a trail there that I want to do before we leave.
Today we drove to Bryce Canyon (about 2.25 hours from the campground). We wanted to see the hoodoos, so we looked for the best trail to take. (And by best, I mean the best that we could actually hike!) We looked in the National Parks* book and on the AllTrails app. We ended up taking a combo trail from the All Trails app for Wall Street and Queens Garden.
It was a great trail and really worked out our legs! The incline and switch backs made sure everyone was tired at the end. The views were incredible though. The combo trail was a loop trail, so we ended up back near the parking lot.
At the end of trail, near the parking lot, we ran into another family heading into the trail as we were heading out. They were a large group, with 5 or 6 kids. No one was wearing a mask and they were taking up almost the whole path. We had our masks up and stepped off to the side to let them by. Their kids were running everywhere. The dad noticed us and said, “Let’s move out of the way so they can get by.” Awesomesauce. We said thank you and started moving past them, when he adds “Make sure to stay 6 feet away or we’re all going to die.” Seriously? I didn’t mock you for not wearing a mask. We just waited by the side so you could get by and we could then go. There was no reason to add the sarcastic comment. If you don’t believe in wearing a mask, fine, but you don’t have to be rude. Especially if someone isn’t being rude to you. Ok, I’m done venting.
We got back to the truck and ate lunch. We drove around the park for a little bit seeing different overlooks/pull-offs. On our way out of the park, we stopped and walked Inspiration Point. It had some amazing views overlooking all the hoodoos. There are three levels to this path/observation points, but each one has a great view.
There are several tourist shops outside of the park. We stopped at a gift shop on our way home. There was a sign on door that said the state of Utah was “recommending” masks, but they were not required to enter their store. We picked up some postcards and a couple of other items, but we tried to be really quick.
Utah is by far the worst state so far for mask wearing. I would say 90%+ are not wearing masks outside, and even inside at least 50% are not. Right now it is up to each county if they require masks or not. Moab was much better at requiring masks to be worn indoors, although outdoors was still bad.
I am glad we went to see Bryce. The landscape was amazing and very surreal to hike through and then see from up above.
We made it to Arizona today! We drove to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was about a 2.5 hour drive from our campground.
We hiked the Cape Royal/Angels Window Trails and the Bright Angel Point trail. These trails were pretty well paved. There were some nice overlooks along the way. We could even see the Colorado River on the Cape Royal/Angels Window Trails. The views were amazing, although the trails were a little crowded.
It was pretty and had more trees than I was expecting. We saw some lizards, a couple of hawks, maybe a turkey vulture, some wild turkeys, and even a snake in the parking lot.
We have definitely seen more snakes on our trip than we usually do at home. We did our research before we left and learned identifying marks of poisonous snakes (at least for the US/North America). Poisonous snakes will have cat eyes (elongated pupil). They will have thicker bodies and broader triangular heads. Rattlesnakes will have the rattle sound, but some other snakes apparently will also mimic this noise by moving their tails against the ground/leaves. Poisonous snakes also have a heat pit on their face/nose, but I don’t think you can see that one from far away! The exception to these rules is the coral snake who has round pupils, but you can tell it’s poisonous by it’s coloring (red and yellow a dangerous fellow, red and black poison lack). This website was really helpful when it came time to teach the kids what to look out for. Of course, we still try to maintain all the distance we can!
Friday the boys did not have live school sessions, so we ran moved back the start of school by an hour and ran into Moab to try some of the local bakeries. They were usually open from 7:00 am until 12 or 2pm. It hadn’t worked out yet to try them with school hours.
We found a parking spot near our first stop, Red Rock Bakery. We grabbed a plain and an everything bagel with cream cheese. They were delicious! It is a really cute bakery.
We walked over to Doughbird. It is a super cute donut shop. They also sell chicken at 11:00, but we were too early for that. Nick was very disappointed. We got an Oreo Cheesecake, a Caramel Apple Pie, and Raspberry Delight donuts. These looked like more artisan type of donuts.
Next stop was just for me…coffee! It was a very nice mocha, which I really enjoyed. We also got a cinnamon roll there.
Our final stop was at The Donut Shop. This shop had more traditional donuts. We bought a few donut holes, a Bavarian Cream with chocolate icing (like a Boston Cream), a raised glaze, and a Raspberry Bismark (filled).
Donuts were definitely more expensive in Moab than at home. A glaze was $1 and the other donuts were $2 to $3 per donut.
We brought our goodies home and cut them up so everyone could experience each one.
The Raspberry Delight and Raspberry Bismark were everyone’s favorites for the donuts.
After breakfast, the boys worked on homework. When they were done with school for the day, I took them to the pool and worked on laundry.
It was the night before we left for our next stop, so we also started getting ready and packing up. It was a pretty good day.
We had always turned left out of the campground to head into Moab. This time Ben wanted to turn right and see what was the other way.
After driving for a little bit, we came across the Hole N” The Rock. It’s hard to miss with a Jeep sitting on top of the rock and huge white letters painted on the rock face. We stopped in and walked around the outside. They have a petting zoo, a couple of stores (souvenir/gift shop type of stores), and a few wacky outside decorations. There is also the “hole in the rock”, which is a house built into the rock. It started as a homesteading site in the 1940’s. A couple dug out their home in the side of the sandstone. They created a diner that catered to local miners and later added a gift shop. There is a 12 minute tour of the inside of the house for $6.50/person.
They didn’t have electricity in the house until the 1960’s! The inside is incredible, and just goes to show what people can do when they don’t have video games (Ben’s pep talk to the boys to encourage them to do more instead of playing on electronics.). The house is quirky and honestly, they must have been bored out of their minds with no electricity to get it all done. The bathtub itself is carved out of the rock, which is pretty cool to see.
I would say it is worth the side trip if you are near Moab (it is maybe 15-20 minutes from town). We did not go to the petting zoo, just took the house tour and browsed the stores and the outside grounds.
After the tour, we went back towards Moab and stopped at Lop’s Pop Stop (a soda stand). The boys tried Gummy Bear water (made with fruit juice and puree) and I tried a Happy Camper soda.
We were getting a little hungry and saw a local diner (Milt’s Stop & Eat) that was crowded, so we gave it a try. We ordered an onion ring, fries, cheeseburgers, and one cheeseburger with fried bacon and an egg on top. Everything was very tasty. We continued further into town and stumbled upon a local outdoor market. They had puppies to pet, so I got my dog fix in! We got some groceries and headed home.
Ben has seeing the Milky Way on his bucket list. We had heard Canyonlands was great for star gazing, so we headed there right before sunset.
The colors over the canyons were amazing while the sun was setting. There was a full bright moon though, so while we saw some great stars, we didn’t really see the Milky Way. There is a faint shadow in some of the pictures that might (maybe…hopefully…) hint at the Milky Way, but I think we will have to try again when the moon isn’t as bright.
After Canyonlands, we drove to Arches to try our luck there. Still no Milky Way, but gorgeous nighttime landscapes.
The pullout area we were at for Canyonlands did not have a bathroom. I got to use my camping funnel* for the first time. It was…different, but when you got to go…It worked though, so funnel for the win!
The day started a little rough. The school had done an update to the software and students and teachers were having a hard time accessing their accounts. The boys couldn’t log on at first, then their “live” session links were missing, and once those showed up, their assignments disappeared. Some of their classes were cancelled because of the issues. Hopefully, it all gets resolved for tomorrow!
Once school and work were finished for the day, I wanted to go see some of the dinosaur bones and petroglyphs in the area. It was much cooler today, so it was perfect for hiking. The morning was in the 50’s and the high forecast for 82!
Our first stop was at Mill Canyon. It is right off of 191. The drive starts off going through private land and ends up on BLM land. Mill Canyon is a dirt/gravel road until you reach the Track Site. You might be able to use a car on this road to reach the dinosaur track site, but they do recommend 4-wheel drive. If you want to get to the dinosaur bone trail, you definitely need 4-wheel drive and probably a vehicle that sits higher up (SUV/truck/Jeep). It was the first time we had tried a more challenging terrain or used 4-wheel drive in the truck. We did alright and didn’t get stuck in the deep sand.
The bone trail is left open to the elements. There are informational signs at each stop, but it was really hard to see the bones in most of the locations. We had the information pamphlet and the plaques to help guide us, but other than look “four feet to the left” or look for purplish spots in the rock, there wasn’t anything to really guide you to find the bones. It would have been super helpful to have a simple diagram of the rock or something.
At the end of the bone trail, you can see the remains of a copper mill. It looks like the back wall and corners of a stone foundation.
(NOTE🙂 I have a lot of pictures from the trails. I only put the a couple above, but if you scroll to the end of this post I have a few more pictures as well.)
We went back to the truck and headed back toward the dinosaur track site. There is also a path for the Halfway Station, an old railway station. However, that sandy path looked even rougher than the one we had just gone on and we didn’t want to risk it.
At the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite, there is a gravel parking lot, a campsite, and a bathroom. There is a short trail down to the dino prints. The site is fenced off and once through the gate, you walk on a wooden boardwalk in a loop around the footprints. There are informational plaques around the trail/boardwalk. Some prints are easier to see than others, but you can definitely see some.
I think this is where we lost Ben.
I think my expectations were a little too high. Will and I still enjoyed it, but I think Ben and Nick were not very impressed. Ben especially started loosing interest when the dinosaur track plaque stated they didn’t know what kind of dinosaur made the track and then showed what they thought it would look like. There are a few other dinosaur sites near Moab, but it seems that they all require off-roading or 4-wheel drive.
After Mill Canyon, we went to Poison Spider Trail. Poison Spider has two slabs with dinosaur tracks and some petroglyphs. The trail information I read beforehand claimed you could see them from the parking lot. I guess technically you can, but you would need to know exactly where they are and probably need binoculars to really see the tracks and petroglyphs. We took the trail and saw one slab with tracks. These tracks were a little easier to see. We didn’t see the petroglyphs until we were almost back to the parking lot. I turned around for one last look and just happened to see them.
There was a saving feature to our adventure today, one that everyone loved: Utah Highway 279. We passed this turn-off (toward Potash) every time we drive back towards Moab. This time we took the road to get to the Poison Spider Trail. We saw people rock climbing along this stretch of highway and there was the Colorado River near the road as well. The main attraction (for us) were the petroglyphs along the cliff walls. Some were faded, but most of them were easily visible. There is a small sign stating “Petroglyphs” by a small pull-out, so look for it as you drive by. There were so many of them, it was amazing. Ben claimed everything was worth it just to see them.
The top row is the pictures as I took them. The sun was shining off the cliff faces, so some of them were hard to see in the pictures. Others were faded by time. The bottom row, I added a filter and darkened it to make them easier to see.
(Side Note: At the corner of 191 and the turn-off to 279, there is an UMTRA Energy Project. The area is fenced off with an electric fence and there were radioactive symbols around. I looked it up later and they are removing uranium tailings. I guess there used to be a uranium processing plant there.)
Non-dinosaur information at Mill Canyon Bone Trail
Monday was a pretty boring day. The boys had school, with a lot more live sessions with teacher. Nick had guitar lessons after school. Ben had work today as well. I managed to get a lot of pictures downloaded, but still have to work on the videos.
After everyone was done with work, we went into Moab to explore the town some more. We found two Little Libraries and the boys each found a book. Nick’s is more of a workbook (do 1 thing a day). I am loving this Little Library idea. We had a couple near us at the house, but with the city library not far from us, we didn’t use them a lot. These are helping so much on the road. The boys get to find new books and return ones that they brought with them or found on the road. It is really helping with storage space.
We ordered a pizza for dinner and ate back at the RV. The boys finished the evening with some time in the pool in the evening.
Today we went back to Arches to see a couple of the arches we had missed before. We hiked to landscape arch (longest in world), the Windows, Turret, and Double Arch. On the way out, we saw Pothole Arch. We had missed this one earlier in the dark. It is harder to see because it is a horizontal arch (like a pothole) instead of a vertical arch.
Landscape Arch is in Devil’s Garden, which is at the end of the park road. You don’t hike the whole Devil’s Garden trail (which is good because it is long), but you do get to see some of it’s towering sandstone. There was also a smaller arch to the right of Landscape. We saw a few lizards along the trail and a small herd of female and baby deer right near Landscape Arch. We all just stood there for a minute starting at each other. Their ears are so much bigger than the deer’s back home!
Next, we headed down to the Windows and Turret Arches. These were pretty busy. North Arch definitely had the most people, as it as the first arch. South Arch was pretty empty. It’s not much further, but you do hike around a turn, so I guess a lot of people skipped it. The Turret Arch is across the way and on the same loop.
The final (planned) arch for the day was Double Arch. It has two arches out of the same base. It is across from the Windows and you can see it partly from the parking lot. You can see the arches, but will get a better view if you move closer. It was a nice sunny day, so you could really see the Double Arch really well from the lower parking lot. We did walk to it and it was neat to see.
Because we got such an early start to the day, we headed back to town for brunch. It’s been much harder to make pancakes in the RV and everyone was craving some fluffy pancakes.
The day ended with a Nerf battle between Ben and the boys and a dip in the pool. We had the pool to ourselves and it was amazing!
