Zion Explorers

On Sunday, June 8th, Char and I took the Hase (6 years old) and Mae (3) to the desert in southwestern Utah. We flew from Oakland to Las Vegas, then rented a car and drove to Virgin, UT, just outside of Zion National Park. We stayed at an Airbnb for five nights. The house was located right next to the Virgin River, about twenty minutes from the entrance to the park.

Before we left, I was lucky to find a guidebook in our library called 50 Hikes with Kids: Utah and Nevada. It was a great resource for finding hikes that were a good fit for us, and even included a scavenger hunt for each hike and a place to get a treat afterwards - usually ice cream.

It was Hase’s first time on an airplane, and Mae’s first time that she will remember; she flew to Santa Barbara at about five months old. Since our flight was delayed by two hours, Hase had plenty of time to build a LEGO airplane from a kit that Char brought along.

We stayed at an Airbnb right next to the Virgin River, about twenty minutes from the entrance to the park. It was a very comfortable and private home base for accessing Zion and the surrounding area. We felt lucky to have the river right next to us so we could cool off in the afternoons, when the temperatures were usually in the 90s. The owners were very accommodating and happy to let Hase and Mae play with their dog, Dixie, who quickly became a family favorite.

Hase wanted to see the river as soon as possible, so we went down to check it out on Monday morning.

Afterwards, we drove into Zion National Park and drove Highway 9 through the Zion - Mt. Carmel Tunnel, then parked just the other side of the tunnel to do the hike to the overlook. The overlook is on top of the canyon wall, over the Great Arch, and has a dramatic view of the canyon. Characteristically, the kids didn’t care much about the views, but were very interested in snacks. Throughout the trip, gummies and pretzel sticks were our main motivators when morale was low.

On Tuesday we headed to Snow Canyon State Park outside of St. George, where we hiked the Lava Flow trail to three lava tubes. At the third one, we went inside and turned on our headlamps to explore the cave. The kids did great with scrambling through the rocks with all fours. Snow Canyon has very dramatic rock formations, definitely a place we would explore more given the chance.

On Wednesday, we hiked to the narrows in Red Hollow, near Orderville. It was the longest drive, about 1:15 from Virgin, but I think it was my favorite hike. We drove through Zion National Park again on the way there, through the Zion - Mt. Carmel tunnel and out the east entrance. The hike itself was short, about half a mile up a sandy wash to the entrance of the slot canyon. The walk in the slot canyon was also short, but magical. There was no water in the creek, only a sandy floor and curved red, orange and pink sandstone walls that came in close enough to touch on both sides. In several places, chockstones were lodged in between the walls that required us to scramble up and over. We saw several butterflies and found a big, furry black caterpillar near the point where a steep wall blocked the way.

On the way back, we stopped at The Rock Stop in Orderville for ice cream and souvenirs. We also checked out the Belly of the Dragon, a man made tunnel under the highway that was dug straight through sandstone. It was somewhat underwhelming after the lava tube, a much wilder cave that we were lucky to experience alone.

On Thursday, we drove to Kolob Canyons at the northwestern corner of Zion to hike to Timber Creek Overlook. The trail started at the end of the road, which climbed from the entrance station to above 6,000 feet elevation, revealing dramatic views of Kolob Canyons, “finger canyons” of several creeks that divide the plateau and drain into the Virgin River. The hike was somewhat similar to the Canyon Overlook trail on Monday, though less exposed and with fewer people. In general, the views were impressive, but that pure sense of isolation and wonder were somewhat missing. Still, it was a worthy way to spend our final full day in Utah.

On Friday morning, I spent some time outside before everyone else woke up, watching the sunrise wash over Gooseberry Mesa as the moon shone in the belt of Venus. Birds were singing as the sun came up. It was a wonderful moment of calm before we retraced our steps back to Santa Rosa.