I was super excited today to get to Zion National Park.  It was another day to make you melt (hello, 105 degrees).  Getting into the park was a driving adventure.  We passed a van that had given up towing a camper up the switchbacks…I can’t even imagine trying that haul!   We managed to find a place to park and walked over to the visitor center to get our bearings.  The park is mostly accessed by bus, so we hopped on and headed over to the museum for a ranger talk.  The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges, and we were off to explore more of the park!

Many of the trails were closed, some very recently due to storms and with the heat we decided to skip many of the hiking opportunities and bee line to the Narrows.  On the hike there, we came across fat squirrels despite all the signs that site fines for feeding the wildlife!  They were not shy in the least, and Lily loved having them come right up to say hello.  The highlight of our visit was hiking The Narrows, and by the joy in my kids’ faces I have determined that playing in rivers is a major hit, once again!  After our last river walk, I decided to just wear my tennis shoes in (plus they could use a good washing).  There was potential for flash floods, so we didn’t travel too far upstream but it was such a cool experience!

We tried getting out of the park at a decent hour so we could pack up camp to leave in the morning and still ended up staying longer than anticipated.  It takes a long time to get around in Zion!  It would be late when we got back to the camper, so we grabbed dinner at Thunderbird Restaurant, Home of the Ho-Made Pies.  The sign was made to save money back in the day, and the family owned restaurant decided to capitalize on the modern interpretation.  The kids got Wiki Stix and they made many creations with them.  Lily stuck hers to the car window and, well…wax.  I need to remember to clean that before we get back home!