Kayla MathieuFrom the title I’d say it’s apparent we had a busy week. The original plan was to stay in a state park within Bryce Canyon for the week, but after two weeks of snow, we decided to skip Bryce Canyon and venture back the way we came. By traveling just an hour back the way we came, we drastically reduced in elevation and into much warmer weather. We managed to book a campsite at the Sand Hollows State Park, but the longest we could book the site for was 4 days. Only 10 minutes into our drive after leaving Coral Pink Sand Dunes, and Lylah lost a tooth. Once we arrived at our campsite we immediately fell in love with the place. The view was absolutely gorgeous! There was a picture perfect lake in the foreground and a heavenly mountain backdrop. There was space for my aerial rig near our campsite. The shower houses were modernized and clean. There were UTV rentals, boat rentals, kayak rentals, jet ski rentals, etc. Just about anything you could want to do, they have it. We unfortunately were not able to take advantage of all the rental services due to timing issues, but I wouldn’t be opposed to traveling back another time. If you are ever camping in southern Utah, this is the place to stay in their Lakeside campground. Another perk of this campground was we were close to a decent sized town and I was finally able to talk Rylen into getting a haircut. He is trying to grow his hair out, but it was getting out of control.
We didn’t do a whole lot during our stay at the Sand Hollows. We explored the campground, walked the cat, played outside, nothing crazy. On the 3rd day of our stay, we found out why we could only book the site for 4 days. The Sand Hollows State Park was hosting the Off-Road Wrecker Games and people from all over the country began arriving Wednesday evening. By Thursday, the place was PACKED. I left the campground to grab the mail at the post office and it took me a half an hour to get out of the campground and another half an hour to get back in. Honestly though, since we were already at the campground, it would have been awesome to check out some of the off-road races, but this was why we could only book for 4 days and we had to leave.
Due to the Off-Road Wrecker Games, all of the state parks in the area were completely booked, so we packed up and headed about 45 minutes north to an RV park called The Orchards at Kolob. By traveling just 45 minutes north, we gained elevation and ran into snow again. We are not huge fans of RV parks, but this was the nicest one we have stayed at thus far. It is actually run by a younger couple and is fairly new. We were so impressed with how clean everything was, washer and dryer on site and modernized, individual shower rooms with your own sink and toilet. This place was great! Unfortunately, we were really just using this space to park our RV for the weekend. We arrived at the RV park on Thursday, then we left the RV to stay at an Airbnb near Zion National Park on Friday. Before we left, Rylen lost a tooth. The Tooth Fairy was busy at our place this week!
My good friends Katie and Chris made a weekend trip to Utah to visit me! I was so excited to see them, even though their trip was brief. They had quite the adventure trying to get where we were, forgotten IDs, zip tying the rental car, crazy news from back home, but they made it! We all met up at an Airbnb then Katie, Chris and I drove to Zion. Even though it was cold and drizzly, Katie was on a mission and I’m always down for an adventure. While the three of us went hiking, Colton and the kids stayed behind to check out the hot tub. It was after four in the afternoon when we made it to Zion and no one was at the gate, so we were able to drive right in and onto the scenic road without any issues. We did an easy hike, the Riverside Trail, which lead up to the Narrows. The Narrows is another bucket list hike of mine, but the trail is in the river and the weather and river conditions were not exactly favorable. Saving that hike for another time.
The next day we all drove back to Zion for more hiking. There was a chance of rain in the forecast, but temps in the 50s and partly cloudy, so it was a decent day for a hike. The line driving into Zion was longer than any of our other trips to the park, I assumed this was because it was a decent day on a Saturday, but as we drove up to the gate we were waved through. No park pass, no charge, same with Chris and Katie. Then we noticed the buses driving in the park and noticed they were only allowing the buses to enter the scenic drive. That’s when we realized off-season was over and it was the first day of the peak season. So we parked our cars and took the shuttle to the trails. In a two-week period, we were able to experience Zion in its peak season and off season.
After we arrived at our pre-determined trail head, Colton (who is an absolute saint) took the kids for their own hike, while I went hiking with Katie and Chris. Two of the most popular trails to hike at Zion are The Narrows and Angel’s Landing. The rushing water currently in the Narrows took that hike off the table, and we did not acquire the permits needed to hike Angel’s Landing, so instead we decided to hike the Emerald Pool trail from the lower pool to the upper pool. When we arrived at the lower pool, the trail route leading to the upper pool was closed, so we had to double back and use the middle pool trail instead. While we were sloshing through the mud on our way up the trail, almost to the middle pool, we see lightning and hear the thunder. Then it started to hail! Thankfully, inclement weather was brief, and we continued on. Once we made it to the middle pool, the snow and gentle waterfall that I had encountered in our prior excursion just a couple of weeks prior had now turned to a large, gushing waterfall. We discussed turning back, but I had already made it to this point once and had to turn back. There were a number of people on shore putting their hiking boots back on after trudging through the rushing river. While we sat and debated, one of the other hikers said it wasn’t bad and totally worth it. That’s when Katie and Chris said I got a crazy look in my eyes and my boots came off. I hiked barefoot through the ice-cold water first while Chris was on shore serenading me with the song “Dumb Ways to Die”. After I made it safely across, Katie and Chris followed. After we found the upper pool trail and began heading back we had to make a decision, walk back across the river and take the middle trail back down or cross a different river and head back down on the Kayenta trail. Either way, we had to cross a freezing cold river again, so we went with the latter for a new experience.
After an exciting day of hiking, we all travelled into town for some Peruvian cuisine before saying good-bye to Katie and Chris. They then headed to Vegas to take some aerial silks classes, and we went back to the RV resort to pack up the RV and prepare for our move to our new destination the following day. This was definitely a busy week, and an exciting weekend!
