Root Family

Root Family

Dec 15, 2006

Zion National Park, & Snow Canyon Nov. 2006

Alene, Caiden, and my Nephew Brady (who is 1.5 years older than Caiden) all went down to stay in St. George this weekend to get into a bit warmer climate. We spent our time in a hotel there at the Marriot, which was very nice. Alene gets great discounts there through her work as a travel agent. When we arrived we immediately hit the pool. I convinced Brady to do a belly flop for $1.

Saturday we went out to play some mini golf and then headed back to the hotel to watch the BYU-New Mexico game. BYU won 42-17 and with this win BYU has the out-right championship to the MWC and an invite to the Las Vegas bowl, which Alene and I will be attending in December. I was able to stream the game to our laptop (stupid MTN channel) and since the TV was free I figured I'd watch two games at the same time (Michigan-Ohio St). College football heaven.

After the game, we did some more swimming then went out to Cold Stone to celebrate Brady's BD (he turned 9). One thing I've noticed is that St. George does every portion much bigger than they do in Salt Lake. At Cold Stone, the portion of ice cream they gave was HUGE. At Cafe Rio, I felt like they piled on more meat and also didn't skimp on the beans and rice.

On Sunday we went to Zion National Park, which was beautiful. It could be my favorite park in Utah (at least so far). We drove to the Temple of Sinawava and hiked the riverside trail that leads to the entrance to the Narrows. I want to hike up (or down) them a someday. Alene has already done it and says it becomes kind of boring, but she said she would do it with me when we had the chance. It's so cool to see a river flowing out of the canyon with nothing but rock wall on each side. We also hiked did the Emerald Pools hike, which was beautiful.

On Monday we went to Snow Canyon and did a couple of the hikes there. We went into Jenny's Canyon, which is the only Narrows spot in snow Canyon. Not very long at all, but it was fun to explore around. We then hiked out to 3 ponds, but never found the 3 ponds. The trail map listed the hike as 3.5 miles round-trip, but we had to have gone at least 2 miles and still had not found anything. We ended up just climbing on some rocks nearby. Getting out there, we hiked through a sandy river-bed for quite a bit which was nice because the sand was really soft. We worked our way back to the car and went over to the red sand-dunes area and played around on them for a bit. I was disappointed that the dunes weren't very steep (funner to jump into), but it was still fun.

ZION NATIONAL PARK

Hiking along the Virgin River on the riverside trail

Zions National Park 11.19.06

We almost lost Brady over this cliff

Zions National Park 11.19.06

The virgin

Zions National Park 11.19.06

Zions National Park 11.19.06

The only tree with golden leaves still on it

Zions National Park 11.19.06

At the narrows

Zions National Park 11.19.06

Wading around in the virgin river at the beginning of the Narrows



Looking back down canyon

Zions National Park 11.19.06

Caiden and Brady hanging out on the trail

Zions National Park 11.19.06

Alene and I on the trail

Zions National Park 11.19.06

Ran across a deer on the Emerald Pools trail

Zions National Park 11.19.06

The lower emerald pools

Zions National Park 11.19.06

It was still more colorful up here than below

Zions National Park 11.19.06

At the middle pools

Zions National Park 11.19.06

The boys at the middle pool. They were much further from the edge than they look

Zions National Park 11.19.06

A little narrow section on the trail down

Zions National Park 11.19.06

SNOW CANYON

Jenny Canyon narrows section

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Alene doing a little stemming

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Up in a little side part of the canyon

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Barefoot Brady hanging out on the slickrock

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Caiden and Brady

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Brady jumping over a bush at Snow Canyon near 3 Ponds



Me, up in another side canyon

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

In another side canyon near 3 Ponds

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

"3 Ponds" (where are the ponds??)

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Resting along the trail (I love this picture of Alene)

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Alene's sandals after a hike in Snow Canyon



At the sand dunes

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

Sand Angel

Snow Canyon 11.20.06

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