It was a year ago that my mom, sister, niece, the girls and I spent a week in Zion, and oh how I wish we were there right now instead of on COVID-19 lockdown. My sister lives in Texas and was attending a retreat but needed someone to go and watch my 1-year-old niece. I am going, to be honest with you and regret telling you thins at the same time. When my mom asked if I wanted to join her to go watch Realynn for a few days, I had to do a little research into Zion to talk myself into it. I am not fully sure why I was hesitant, but I also realized that any trip I get to spend with family and my daughters is a trip worth taking.
It was right after Easter, and thankfully the Easter bunny brought the girls all of their hiking essentials 😉 Our flight to Las Vegas left at 5 am from Reno which we live almost 2 hrs from. If you do the math that means no sleep for my mom and me, so we decided to add a little extra stop to the trip and stayed the night at a resort in Reno which was a great way to kick off one of my favorite trips ever.
We landed in Vegas, met up with my sister and little Realynn, and rented ourselves a beast of a vehicle to head to Zion. It is only a 3 hr drive from Las Vegas and honestly, I have a soft spot for desert drives being that I grew up in the Mojave Desert, so the 3 hrs flew by as I caught up with my sister and enjoyed the views.
DAY 1
After checking into the hotel and informing my girls we did not come all this way to sit at a hotel pool, we headed into the park so that we could do a couple of hikes with my sister before she had to go to her retreat.
Just driving the road into Zion National Park is amazing enough, but once you enter where the trams are you are already surrounded by the insane beauty of Zion.
April is a killer time to visit the park, its right before the crazy summer crowds hit and the temps are still nice. There are a few trails that are typically closed this early in the year due to water levels, but if you are not going to do those specific trails I say go for it.
We spent the first day doing all of the hikes that had trails we could push a stroller on, we were not prepared to haul Realynn around on our backs the first day.
DAY 2
My sister’s retreat was actually taking place on the other side of the park from where we were staying, as we wanted to stay near the entrance of the park. Unbeknown to use the Mount Carmel Tunnel that allows access from one side of the park to the other just happened to be closed during our visit for rock slide repairs. This meant that there was no way to go through the park, which meant we had to go AROUND the park. This was a 3 hr detour but I am so happy that we did it while driving we went through the tiny town Oderville, UT and as we passed through we saw a place that offered off-road vehicle, um yes, please!
So after dropping my sister off, we headed back to Oderville to see if we could all jump in an off-road vehicle and head out to the desert. Mind you we had a 1-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 7-year-old so dirt bikes were not an option. Lucky for us we found an awesome guide who took us out in a huge Hummer and headed out into the red sanded desert.
After having some fun on the sand dunes we stopped at Peek-A-Boo Canyon and let me tell you… this was the best-hidden gem EVER! Unlike the National Park trails we pretty much had the entire canyon to ourselves, I think we passed two other groups the entire time we were there. We spent two hours exploring the canyon and taking all sorts of amazing pictures. It is a place the girls and myself will never forget.
We eventually headed out and made the trek back to our hotel where the kids were so tired they didn’t even beg us to go swimming, who am I kidding, my kids don’t get tired they spent another two hours at the pool before they finally went to bed.
DAY 3/ DAY 4
During the rest of the trip, we hung close to the park and went on any and every trail we could find. We took turns wearing Realynn on our backs and by the time we needed to go pick my sister back up from her retreat they had the Mount Carmel Tunnel road which is a wonder all on its own.
We also did a little goodbye hike as we were driving out of Utah and back to Nevada. We conquered some fears and my sister is a champ who scaled a rope wall carrying her daughter on her back.
After getting back to Las Vegas we were able to spend one more night of fun for Kinleys 8th birthday before heading home to California. It was one of the most memorable trips of my life and I hope it is a trip that my girls will look back on even as they get older. We WILL be returning to Utah to experience some of their other national parks, Moab is next on our list 😉
It was this trip that inspired my plans for the mural in the girls’ room. Next, I will share my next step of trying to put the thoughts in my head down on paper to see if it would translate.