Spring Break At Zion's National Park!
My son wanted to take all his "buddies" on the trip with us. He got mad when I told him he could only take one or two. He said he couldn't choose and wound up not taking any. A few hours later on the drive down my daughter started crying, because my son had taken her stuffed animal. When I looked in the back seat I seen my son hugging her stuffed animal and crying! He is so funny!
We stayed at Bumbleberry Inn, just outside the south entrance into the park.
The last time I was in Zion's was about 20 years ago. They didn't have biking trails back then, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I took my children's tandem bikes, but once I seen the biking trail I realized my son could have rode his own bike. I will for sure bring their bikes next time.
The first day biking my back wheel fell off. No wonder why I was struggling to pedal! I was happy my friend was along to fix it for me!
We biked from our motel (Bumbleberry Inn) in Springdale to the south entrance . Once in the park we took a biking trail (Pa'rus Bike Trail), which ran along the edge of the Virgin River next to the camp grounds. The biking trail crossed back and forth across the river four or five times. At the first bridge crossing my daughter asked where the thunder was coming from. It was the sound of our bikes crossing the bridge. We biked as far as we were allowed, which was a total of about 4 miles from our motel to the Canyon Junction shuttle stop. Once at the stop we parked and locked our bikes and took the shuttle to hiking locations.
I wasn't sure how my daughter would do on the hikes, because she can be defiant at times and likes to do things on her own terms. She proved to be an excellent hiker, which is good because we will be hiking the Grand Canyon in a few weeks! The only problem on the hikes was no bathrooms along the way, which my daughter needed! Boys have it so easy! She had to finish the hike in wet bottoms....poor girl!
One day we hiked the Hidden Canyon Trail. It was the same hike I had snuck on with my oldest sister, it seems like a thousand years ago, while the rest of my family (Dad, Mom and sisters) went on the Weeping Rock Trail. My sister and I never told our parents we were going on this hike and I'm sure we gave them a scare. Anyhow, I remembered part of the trail had chains in the wall of the mountain with a narrow path. I wanted to at least hike to see the chains again. I dragged my friend on this hike 20 years ago, and she was not happy to be heading up it again.
Once we got to the chains I got excited and wanted to continue. My daughter, who was just complaining about her aching foot was suddenly also excited. We both immediately crossed the first set of chains and begged my friend and son to follow. My friend said she would stay and take pictures and my son said he would stay with my friend and come when she was ready. The trail curved around the inside of the mountain side making a U shape path. Across I could see the next set of chains, which was higher up and on an angled solid slick rock slope. I wanted to continue and go to the other side and so did my daughter.
We made our way to the other side and the view was beautiful. I wanted to continue to the tip of the mountain to see the view. I called to my friend and son and told them to come over. My friend did sign language to tell me that my son was crying. I yelled over to my son and asked him to come meet my daughter and I. He yelled back at me crying, saying I lied because I only said I was going to look at the chains and not hike beyond them. He also said he wanted my daughter and I to come back. This surprised me, because if you knew my son you would know this is so unlike him!
I told my friend we would just go to the tip of the mountain and come back. My daughter and I continued up the trail. My daughter was climbing with zero fear and kept getting ahead of me. The rock was now angled instead of flat and we had to hold tightly to the chain embedded in the rock wall. I could hear my son screaming louder now. I stopped and told my daughter to stop. I told my daughter out of all four of us, my son would be the one most in tune with the holy ghost, and maybe his behavior was a premonition prompted by the holy ghost, telling us to turn around. I told her we could no longer continue to the tip and we needed to head back. It killed me because I wanted to continue but my better judgment kept me from the tip. Three times I have been on this hike and three times I have never made it to the end of the trail and there I was so close this time to meeting this goal.
My daughter and I made it back to my friend and bawling son. He was so upset that all I could do was hold him and tell him we are all right and let's start back down the mountain. It immediately started to rain hard and the wind picked up. If my daughter and I would have continued to the end of the trail we may have met our doom because the rain was coming down so hard the chain would have been wet and so would the angled slick rock trail. I do not think my independent daughter would have been able to make it back because we were slipping with little to no rain. I am so happy I turned around and listened to my son. Maybe I was not meant to go to the end of this trail!
That same day we wound up biking back to our motel in the pouring rain. I loved riding in the rain, but my poor children got all wet and muddy. Mud and water flew up from our rear bike tires and saturated my children. They were such good sports and never complained. My daughter did mention that she could not look up because water was getting in her face. My son's pedal fell off and he waited patiently while my friend secured it in place. What a wild and awesome adventure that day turned out to be.
We woke up the next day to snow. I could not believe it was snowing. The wind was blowing making it very cold. If we would have brought our coats and hats we may have tried to hike some more, but as it was, we did not. We went to a 3-D movie at the Zion's IMAX theater allowing time to pass to see if the weather would get better, but it only got colder, so we headed home.
I chose to take the scenic path home, which only made my son sick. We only had to pull over once, thank goodness we had Dramamine in the car. He always gets car sick.
All in all we still had a fun filled adventure at Zion's National Park and we can't wait to go back.
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