In the middle of May my sisters and I were able to get together WITHOUT OUR KIDS for the first time in a decade. It was wonderful!
Lindsey and Emily came up with the idea for this trip around December of last year. They realized that we probably couldn't afford to have another family reunion this year. But we could afford to get together as sisters. Emily had never been to Zion National Park and it had been years since most of us had been there so they decided that would be a fun destination. As soon as they told me about the idea I got so excited.
Very quickly we decided we had to call our weekend "Sisters in Zion" after the
song we sometimes sing in church.
My sisters
Before I tell you about our weekend together I want to tell you a little about my sisters.
Let's start with Hillary. She is 8 years younger than me. When we were kids she was my annoying little sister, but thankfully she grew out of that. She's married and has a toddler boy named Walter. She and her husband bought a condo in West Valley a few months ago. Hillary is currently the president of the home owners association for all the buildings in her condominium complex. Hillary is also one of the most well read people I know. She's always talking about a new book.
Then there is Becca. Becca is married to my brother Billy so technically she is my sister-in-law, but she's fit in so well with our family that we don't need to make distinctions. I often wondered what Billy's wife would be like, but I never imagined he would get someone as wonderful as Becca. She's smart and articulate, and she also will laugh about farts with the rest of us. Thanks to Billy's nomadic musical career Becca has become something of a world traveler. She's been all over the US and even went to London at the beginning of the year.
Emily is next. Emily has accomplished more before age 30 than pretty much anyone else I know. She has a bachelors degree, and has morally supported her husband as he's earned his Bachelors, Masters, and most recently his PHD. Oh and she had FIVE kids. They just bought a home outside Raleigh, North Carolina. (That's where my parents moved.) Emily is so happy to settle down and attempt to simplify her life a little bit. She's definitely earned some downtime, but I suspect that her level of relaxation is still going to outpace most people. She just naturally likes to be involved in things.
Lindsey is only two and a half years younger than me. And has been my best friend for most of my life. She's also one of my favorite people in the world. She taught first grade for three years, but this year she decided it was more important to stay home with her three kids. She's been doing VIP Kid lessons in the morning for children in China and then she has the rest of the day to run her household. That's been good for me because it means she has time to talk to me on the phone again. After I quit my job we renewed our habit of talking for over an hour each week. My favorite thing about Lindsey is how unruffled she can be about everything. Even things that stress her out don't affect her for long.
And then there is me. The oldest and the most Type A of the group (though I've mellowed out a lot over the years.) I have four kids and a husband who just graduated from school (again). I worked for a few years as an accounting clerk and then a deputy treasurer. I've counted a ton of cash. Recently I left my job because we will be moving soon and I want to spend the summer with my kids. (Time will tell if that's a good decision.) I'm planning to spend the next year as "a writer" to see if that's something I want to do long term. (Time will tell if that's a good decision too.)
Prep
If you were paying attention to the number of kids I listed for each sister than you know that there are 13 children between the 5 of us. That meant there were 13 children that had to be watched in order for us to get away for this weekend. Good thing we all have outstanding husbands that were willing to watch the kids. The trickier part was finding a weekend that worked around the work schedules of said husbands.
Back in January we had to have a multi-line phone call with all five of us girls where we all discussed the different constraints on our time. We were shooting for a weekend in April, but couldn't find one that worked. Becca was taking some pre-requisite classes for a masters program and wouldn't finish school until May 14th. We all realized that weekend, the 16th through 20th would work. There was only one complication - my 12th anniversary was the 17th. But I told my sisters, "Brandon and I can celebrate another time. If this is the weekend that works then this is the weekend that we are going."
Very quickly we fell into the roles we felt most comfortable with. Hillary volunteered to take care of all the meals. That's no small undertaking. Becca is a vegan, and Hillary and Lindsey both prefer Keto. Prepping meals for all those different eating requirements would stress me out, but Hillary loves anything to do with food. So she was perfect for this. We all paid her $30 and she provided us with an amazing and satisfying array of foods. I came home with a few new recipe ideas.
I took care of booking our accommodations. By the time we had a weekend narrowed down I could only find one night in the campground that is actually in the national park. I snatched up that Thursday night booking as fast as I could. It was $20. I was able to find an RV park a little ways out of town that had tent sites. So I booked us there on Friday night. That one was about $60. We wanted to stay in a hotel on our last night because we knew we'd want showers and real beds by then. I couldn't find us a decent priced place for under $250 in Springdale, but I did find a La Quinta in La Verkin for $155.00. All our accommodations cost less than $250. Everyone contributed $50 which is a steal for a three night get away.
Lindsey was good at putting together a non-binding schedule for our four days together. She also took care of getting shirts that said, "Sisters in Zion." She traded labor with a friend for help with the shirts.
Becca's skills would come in handy when we got inside the park. She and Billy had camped in the park for something like 6 days a few years ago. She'd been on every popular hike and several lesser known trails. She was great to have along.
Emily was a good cheerleader throughout the planning stages. She'd come up with the idea and was good at keeping the ball rolling. When we were in the park she helped with prepping all the meals.
I had another job that came out of being one of the two people that didn't have to fly to get to Utah. I was in charge of providing the camping supplies. On Wednesday afternoon I loaded up my tent, 5 sleeping bags, two little air mattresses, two camp chairs, the cook stove, a griddle, pots and pans, propane, roasting sticks, paper products, water backpacks, first aid supplies, and my bag. At first I planned to take the Jeep because Brandon would need the Honda to take the kids places while I was gone. But then I realized that the Jeep was already feeling crowded. It didn't have my sister's backpacks or the cooler full of food in it yet.
I decided the Honda was a better choice. So Brandon and I moved everything over to the Honda. Brandon and the kids really didn't have that many places to drive that weekend so they could get by with the Jeep.
I drove down to Utah on Wednesday evening. I left when it was still light outside and I got to see the prettiest sunset in the area around Tremonton. I arrived at Hillary's house in West Valley around 10:30.
She'd just finished making bread and so I was treated to home made bread. So yummy!
Becca was flying into Salt Lake from New York that night around midnight and I planned to go to sleep before Hillary picked her up. But around 11:00 Becca texted Hillary and let her know that they'd been able to take off from JFK much earlier than planned and so they were already landing in Salt Lake. We hurried to Hillary's car to go pick up Becca from the airport.
Once Becca was in the car this whole sisters trip suddenly felt really real. I get together with Hillary every few months, but I haven't seen Becca in almost a year. This was a BIG deal.
Back at Hillary's place we chatted for a bit. Becca astounded me by announcing that the two bags she was carrying held the entirety of her summer wardrobe. She's a pro at packing light. She and Billy have spent the last few summers in a state of quasi homelessness as they attend summer music festivals and travel the country. They have similar plans for this summer.
Eventually we realized we'd have plenty of time to talk the rest of the weekend so we went to sleep. I was on one couch and Becca was on the other. We were asleep by 12:30.
Day One - Thursday May 16
We were so excited to get going the next day that none of us complained when our alarms when off at 6:30. Hillary put things into the cooler and then into my car. Then we started driving down to Southern Utah.
The drive takes about 4 hours, but it didn't feel that long. We talked and talked and talked about EVERYTHING as we drove. Pretty soon we were seeing signs that said Cedar City was only a few miles away.
Lindsey and Emily had flown into Las Vegas early early on Wednesday Morning. They'd driven up to Cedar City and stayed at Lindsey's mother-in-law Kari's house. So that's where we headed when we got to Cedar City. Lindsey's in-laws are something of an extended family to all of us. We've all stayed at their house at least once. So it was fun to see Kari. We had her take our first official picture of the weekend.
Lindsey and Emily hadn't been too sure when we'd arrive (and we'd been too busy talking to text them with any sort of travel update) so they'd made plans to go shopping with Kari and Lindsey's sister in laws Shari and Maria. So we all ended up going on a quick shopping trip together.
Then we went to Costa Vida for lunch. Lindsey worked here in college. One time Emily came to visit Lindsey and they bought chips and queso which felt like a big splurge at the time. Emily kept saying, "I'm so glad we got chips." It turned into an inside joke. So we made sure to get chips as well as Sweet Pork Salad for everyone. Kari, Shari, and Maria came too. It was kind of tricky to get all 8 of us in the picture, but we made it.
After lunch we said good bye to the in-laws and started on our way to Zion NP. Lindsey had been riding with Kari so it was fun to finally have her in the car with us. We all talked and laughed as we drove the 45 minutes to the park.
When we came to the gate I paid $35 for a 7 day pass into the park. As soon as we entered the park we went straight to our campsite. I was happy that we had reservations there because the parking lot for the visitor center was full. We would have had to pay to park in Springdale and then take the shuttle into the park. But with a campground reservation we basically waltzed right in.
We all worked together to set up the tent. I realized the last time I used this tent was at the family reunion last year.
Here's our campsight. (I really took this the next morning, but I figure it goes well here)
We didn't have any firewood, and the campground didn't sell any, so we all hopped back into the car to drive to a gas station in Springdale. Then we went back to our campground, parked the car, and then walked the short distance to the Visitor Center.
We looked around for a bit, asked a few questions, filled up on water, and then decided to hop on a shuttle to see the canyon.
During the busy season the canyon isn't open to cars. You have to take a shuttle bus. This is nice because everyone can look out the windows at the beautiful scenery.
We rode all the way to the last stop - The Temple of Sinawawa.
It's surrounded on almost all sides by towering sand stone cliffs.
The river walk trail starts here. It's a mile long and we were itching to hike so we went on the trail.
The river walk trail ends where"The Narrow's" begins. The Narrows is a section of the river canyon where you can walk upstream in the Virgin River itself. Unfortunately the water levels were too high for us to do that. So we took a group picture instead.
Then we headed back to the shuttle stop. Light rain was starting to fall so we decided we wouldn't try any other hikes that night. We still had three days of our trip after all. We gave each other massages on the way back down the canyon.
Back at camp we stared getting dinner ready. We hadn't eaten many of the chips at lunch, but they sure came in handy now.
Hillary had made tin foil dinners for us to eat that night so it was important to get the fire going. However, the rain seemed to have other plans for us Hillary ended up standing over the fire to keep it dry while I got it going.
Once it was going we didn't wait to let the fire develop coals. We just plopped the dinners wherever we could find a good spot. Hillary had precooked the dinners so we just had to heat things up, we didn't actually have to cook anything. Soon we decided everything was warm enough and we brought the food to the other sisters who were waiting under the tent porch.
After we finished eating we hurried to clean up and then we dived into the tent. We played a round of Green Thumb which was our favorite card game from when we were little.
The rain never really let up so we just got ready for bed and snuggled into our sleeping bags. We stayed up talking for a while, but around 10:00 it started raining so hard that we couldn't hear each other so we all just fell asleep.
Day 2 - Friday May 17
I didn't sleep well during the night. I should have stretched out before laying down, but I didn't and I felt my back tighten up as I lay on my thin blow up mattress. So I was constantly moving around trying to get more comfortable. I was also thinking a lot about the hike we had planned for the next day - Angel's Landing. I'd done the hike back in 2010 - when I was about 11 weeks pregnant with the twins. I'd done okay on the hike then, but I wasn't so sure if I wanted to go all the way to the top this time. I decided that I was okay if I didn't make it to the top, but I'd try anyway.
One good thing about that night was that I didn't get cold at all. I was using one of the new sleeping bags Brandon and I bought this year. It was nice and soft and warm. I even had to kick off my socks and take off my jacket. I've NEVER done that while sleeping during a rain storm.
Most of us woke up around 6:00 the next morning. Since three of us were on different time zones we didn't really consider how early it was for the other campers. So we were having a normal volume conversation. Later, when we went to brush our teeth, a lady said, "do you know how well your voices travel?" Oops. I hope everyone enjoyed our early morning discussion about bra sizes.
The rain had stopped during the night and this morning was promising a beautiful day.
Since we didn't have a campsite in the park for that night we needed to park our car at the Visitor's Center before going up the canyon. A Ranger had told me we should get a spot if we were there before 9:00. There was no way I was going to miss a parking spot while we were already in the park so Lindsey and I hurried to take down the tent while Emily, Hillary, and Becca worked on breakfast and dinner. We had Avacado toast for breakfast. The tent was soaked, but we figured it could dry out that night. So Lindsey and I just rolled it up anyway. We've put away a lot of tents together over the years so you'd think we'd know what we were doing, but this ended up being the worst job ever. The tent was so cold that Lindsey couldn't roll it well. We ended up leaving the poles out and almost forgot the rain fly. But we got it all together.
We loaded the rest of the stuff into the car and then drove over to the Visitor Center. There were still a lot of spots to choose from so I got one with shade. We filled up on water again and then caught a shuttle.
We rode that to the Grotto Station, got off, used the bathroom one last time, and then started on the trail up to Angel's Landing.
Here's what Angel's Landing looks like from the trail head. The trail would switch back up the side of the rocks to the gap on the left side of the rock outcropping. Then we'd go through what's known as Walter's Wiggles that would take us up the back side. From there we had a place to take a break before continuing up the steepest parts of the trail to the top.
I was taking it slow. I've tried to get into shape the past few months, but I knew I wasn't well prepared for a long hike. And this was going to be 5 miles round trip. Lindsey hung back with me because she was worried about adjusting to the altitude. She and I joked that we were in the 30 year old division while the other three were in the 20 year old division.
The back had some perks though. I got excellent pictures of my sisters. I love this one.
At the top of the switchbacks we stopped for a rest. I'd been feeling a little light headed so I was happy for a break. Still I felt like I was doing better than I had when I'd hiked this when I was pregnant.
Then we went into refrigerator canyon.
Soon we were at Walters Wiggles. These are 21 tight switchbacks. Honestly, they weren't as bad as the long switchbacks we'd done earlier.
Soon we were at the top of Scouts Lookout. After another chance to rest and a bathroom break we kept going.
This is where we started using the infamous chains to help us as we climbed. It's also where I started re-thinking the wisdom of this whole hike. I didn't feel as in control as I wanted to feel. My feet kept slipping on loose sand that was on top of the sand stone. And there were so many people! It was hard to climb up while other people were trying to climb down.
We made it to a small stopping place and Emily needed too stop. She was terrified. I told her that I'd stay with her if she decided to stop here. Lindsey, Becca, and Hillary kept going.
We rested for a while and then Emily surprised me by saying she wanted to keep going. So we kept going. It was good for me to act as Emily's coach. It was kind of a way for me to trick myself into feeling more brave than I really did.
I was feeling like we had a good chance of making it to the top when we rounded a bend and saw this sight. We still had to climb THAT!
I had absolutely no memory of this view from when I climbed Angel's Landing before. I don't know if I just blocked it out of my mind or if I never actually looked up and saw it. But this time it was seared into my brain. I wasn't sure if I could make that climb. Emily wasn't a fan of this view of the trail either. We stood there for a while contemplating whether or not we should keep going. We ended up talking with some of the other hikers and forming "The Angel's Landing Support Group." Ultimately we all decided that it wasn't worth it to keep going, and that we were all still good people even if we chickened out."
Emily and I sat down to rest. I pulled out my camera and used the zoom to find our sisters on the trail making the climb up the mountain.
Hillary made it easy to find them because she had on a bright blue backpack and a pink sweatshirt.
Emily and I admired the view - without getting too close to the edge.
We also kept looking up at the trail and wondering how anyone was brave enough to do it. I told Emily that now that I'm a mom all I can see is how dangerous that trail is. I don't know how I ever climbed it.
Even though we didn't go up the rest of the trail we had a great time hanging out. Everyone who came around the little bend and looked at the rest of the trail said, "OH SH*T" So we named this place "Oh Sh*t Point." The people who were part of our support group were Filipino. They were talking about people who rock climb sheer cliffs and then sleep in hammocks on the side of the cliff. The guys said, "I'm sorry, I'm not Caucasian enough for that." I laughed really hard at that. I also overheard another conversation. I don't know the context, but they guy said, "It's kind of amazing how much respect people give to people wearing florescent vests." I found that hilarious as well.
Here's a view of almost to the top of Angel's Landing. There were quite a few people going up and down the trail. That was one of the main things that worried me - I just didn't want to deal with navigating around people while trying to climb.
Emily and I decided to make our way back down and wait for everyone back at Scout Lookout. So we headed back. This was actually harder for me than going up had been. That was another reason I'd decided it was better so stay down. My most vivid and terrified memories from the climb last time had been from on the way down when I could see how far up we were. I'm glad we didn't go all the way up.
Here are pictures from my sisters' cameras.
They made it too the top and earned their victory pictures.
Emily and I made it safely back to Scout Lookout and had a wonderful conversation there. After a while we saw Hillary's pink jacket coming down the last bit of trail.
When we were all reunited we took a picture together to show off our matching shirts. Most of them had been covered up by jackets all morning. The fronts say, "Sisters by Birth, Best Friends by Choice." That's the perfect saying for all of us.
The backs said, "Sisters in Zion"
Dark clouds were starting to form to the east so we decided it was time to head down the mountain. So soon we were going back down Walter's Wiggles.
We'd stayed together as a group on the way up, but the way down was a different story. Just about everybody had to go to the bathroom so that was setting the pace.
I was plodding along again, but I was happy because my knee wasn't hurting me. I finished physical therapy over 6 months ago and my knee hasn't bugged me in months, but I was still worried that all the down hill hiking would aggravate it. But I wasn't having any trouble. If anything it was my toes that hurt the most.
Check out all those switch backs.
Lindsey and I got separated for a while, but then met up again. We talked about books we've read. Lindsey liked to point out flowers as we hiked. She noted that these flowers had been closed on our way up that morning.
We finally made it down and found a picnic table for lunch. The wraps had been made that morning and they tasted AMAZING.
Lindsey's kids had decorated the lunch bags for us. They had some very unique designs on them.
I was able to zoom in on people at the very top of Angel's Landing. We felt bad for them when it started to rain - and then HAIL on us. What would it be like to be up there during a hail storm?
The hail didn't last long and so we decided to do one more hike - at least a short one. So we hopped on the shuttle and went up the canyon to the Weeping Rock stop.
The trail up to Weeping rock was short, but MUCH steeper than I remember it. Lindsey and I were questioning our decision making skills on the way up. But we liked the view.
The water that leaks out of this rock takes thousands of years to reach this point.
Here I am again.
We were pooped after that so we road the shuttle down to the Museum stop where we'd heard there was a movie. We were all very happy to sit in the chairs and watch the movie for a few minutes. (Though the chairs could have been much more comfy.)
Behind the museum is the a really pretty view. So I made sure to get a picture of that.
Here's the view from the front. That's the Watchman in the middle.
We refound our energy and decided to walk back to the Visitor Center via the Pa'rus trail. It took us under the road.
Me and Lindsey
This was actually one of my favorite hikes in the park because we were basically alone on the trail. We passed one other group of people. That's pretty amazing considering how crowded everywhere else had been.
We made it back to our car and then drove out of the park to find our campground. I'd made the reservation back at the end of January. I'd always meant to look up more about the campground, but aside from printing the confirmation I hadn't done anything else. I didn't even know where the campground was. But thanks to GPS it wasn't a big deal.
The campground called the Zion River Resort it was located about 15 minutes outside of Springdale.
We set up our tent so it could finally have a chance to dry. None of us were hungry yet and it was too sunny to enjoy our campsite so we went in search of the rec hall that the office staff had mentioned to me. We found it and enjoyed all the wonderful accommodations that come with an indoor room. (Namely chairs.) We all took a break from the day and surprisingly didn't talk much.
I was able to get on the Wifi, but didn't have service to make phone calls. I got a text from Brandon wishing me a Happy Anniversary (I'd pretty much forgot.) He also sent me a copy of his temporary Powerplant License. He'd taken his written test that morning and passed it. This was the final thing he had to do to become a fully licences A&P Mechanic. That was great news.
A little while later we pulled ourselves of the chairs and went back to our tent area. We started a fire and cooked chili (Hillary even had a can of vegetable chili for Becca) and hot dogs over the fire.
We had a lot of fun relaxing around the fire. We had fun telling each other stories about when we met our husbands. One of the fun things about having Becca along was that we could tell stories to her. So we could talk about how Lindsey and I got married two weeks apart and she was hearing it from us for the first time.
I'm glad that we got one perfect night together around the fire.
After the sun set we decided to go to bed. I'd mentioned how much my back hurt during the night so Emily traded spots with me. I got to share the air mattress that we'd borrowed from Lindsey's in-laws with Lindsey. Emily used my fluffy wonder sleeping bag and I used my old sleeping bag that I'd bought in college. I think it was the first time I've slept in it since I got married. Lindsey had also borrowed a big blanket from Kari that we covered ourselves with. We were toasty warm.
As I fell asleep I kept picturing Angel's Landing. And I kept seeing people and things falling off of it. Lindsey said she saw the same things in her sleep. It was like all the fears she'd ignored while hiking came back to her at night. Other than that we had a peaceful night.
Day 3 - Saturday May 18
We were all moving a lot slower the next morning. We slept til a little after 7:00. Then we took our time even getting out of the tent. That was one thing I really appreciated about this trip - I didn't have to do any early morning potty runs with my kids.
We still wanted to make it back into the park before 9:00 so we could get a parking spot, I didn't feel the same urgency as I had the day before. If we didn't get a spot we could always drive to the Mt Carmel tunnel or even go to the Kolob area of the park.
For breakfast we had peanut butter and bananas on toast. We were running out of time so we decided to make lunch later in the day when we had a better idea of where exactly we'd be.
Lindsey and I packed up the tent and did a much better job this time.
We drove into the park and were there a little after 9:00, but we couldn't find any parking spots at the visitor center. So we headed up the road a bit to the tunnel that leads to the west entrance to the park. I took this picture of the tunnel exit a little while later. But this is a good place to show it. The tunnel is a little over a mile long and just barely wide enough for two lanes of traffic. Its fun to drive through.
We passed the (disappointing) Checkerboard Mesa.
I pulled over at a little pull out and we decided to take a little walk down a random little trail.
We had fun taking pictures with the timer on Lindsey's phone.
We went back to the car and planned to drive back through the tunnel and then out of the main part of the park and go to the Kolob area. But as we got closer to the tunnel a parking space magically appeared at a little parking lot near a trail head. Becca told us the trail wasn't that long and so I hurried to take the parking spot. Soon we were grabbing our backpacks and getting ready for an unexpected hike.
This was the Overlook Hike. The trail started out with some stairs built out of rock.
But soon it leveled out.
We passed some really cool features.
And even used a small bridge at one point.
This tiny ledge was probably the trickiest part of the hike.
We saw mountain goats.
And cacti.
And finally came to the majestic overlook. It was a great hike.
There were lots of people there which was kind of amazing considering how limited the parking was for the trail head. Many of them had parked on the side of the road further up the road from where we'd found our miracle spot.
Me and the overlook.
Me and Lindsey. I know I have a lot of pictures with her, but I was always so happy to take another. It was so great to be on an adventure with her again.
Hillary braided all of our hair so we could take a cute picture together. Lindsey took this picture of us all waiting. We totally got photo bombed at the last minute, but honestly it would be easy to photoshop Lindsey into that spot.
Then we took a staged photo of all of us. Lindsey and I hadn't realized that the other three planned to wear their Sisters in Zion shirts again or else we would have planned to wear ours again too. Oh well, we still look good together.
Looking out over the valley below.
Then we headed back down the trail.
Here's the view of the tunnel from the trail.
And here is the parking lot. We weren't parked here, and our area had a few more parking spaces, but you can see how limited the parking is in this area.
You can see my Red Honda parked at the end of the sidewalk up above. The line of cars is waiting for an RV to finish going through the tunnel. Traffic was so crazy.
I'd been hoping to make it to the Emerald Pools hike on this trip into the park, but I figured we'd either have to come back in the evening or wait til Sunday. Hillary wanted to buy some souvenirs and she didn't want to risk having the gift shop closed by the time we came back so she suggested I just drop her off at the visitor center and drive around the parking lot for a few minutes.
So we went back to the Visitor Center and I dropped Hillary, Lindsey, and Becca off. Emily stayed with me and we talked about my home buying plans while we circled the parking lot for 15 minutes. We took this picture of all the poor people stuck in the shuttle line.
After 15 minutes I went back to where I'd dropped the off the other girls. I could see them and I motioned for them to come to me. But they waved me over to them. I thought that was kind of dumb until I saw what they were standing by. It was an EMPTY parking spot. It had opened up just seconds before they saw me. That's pretty amazing because in the whole time I drove the parking lot only one other spot had opened up and it already had a car waiting for it. As soon as I pulled in Lindsey said, "Emerald Pools anyone?"
So we hurried to shove some food and water into our bags and headed to join the long line for the shuttle. We were only in line for about 15 minutes and soon we were heading up the canyon again. We couldn't believe our luck. The first place we got off was the Court of the Patriachs. This is another short, but steep hike. I knew we wouldn't be in the mood for it after the longer Emerald Pools hike so it made sense to do it first.
As we went down the hill from the little overlook I started to feel pain in my knee. Pain isn't really the right word though. It was more like tension? I don't really know how to describe it. I was just suddenly more aware of my knee than I had been all weekend. I decided now was a good time to pull out my knee brace that I'd brought along just in case some thing like this happened.
I put it on while we waited for the shuttle. When it arrived we took it up to the Canyon Village stop. The lodge here is operated by Xanterra which is the company I worked for in Yellowstone. Sometimes I fantasize about spending a summer working here.
We followed a sidewalk passed a beautiful green lawn to the Emerald Pools trail.
I didn't take a lot of pictures on the way to the pools. The trail was super crowded.
But the pool was worth the hike.
There is a waterfall that shoots over a cliff. And it's so pretty.
Here's Emily by the waterfall.
I would have loved to keep going on the trail to the Middle and Upper pools, but those trails are currently closed. The trail has been washed out in places and so only the Lower Pool is accessible right now. Too bad.
So we turned around and went back the way we'd come in. Most of the trail was shaded which was nice since it was afternoon by this point.
When we got back to the lodge area we found us a spot under this giant tree.
We had a yummy lunch. Then I went inside and took pictures of the front desk for the lodge. It made me a little homesick to be in there. Part of me wanted to find the controllers office and start rolling coin or something.
Back out on the lawn we took this fun picture of the backs of our shirts. (Lindsey and I had changed back into our shirts when we finished the Overlook Hike. We didn't want to be out of uniform for any other group photos.
Then we rode the shuttle back down the canyon and went back to our second miracle parking spot of the day. We said goodbye to the canyon and drove out of the park. We back tracked to the interstate and drove about 20 miles north to the exit for Kolob Canyon. I went inside the visitor center and showed them our 7 day pass. Becca and Lindsey came in with me. The ranger showed Becca a list of three hikes and she asked, "are these your best three hikes or are they the only three hikes." He kind of sheepishly said, "The only three hikes."
We drove up the road and were blown away by the scenery. Only Becca had ever been in this part of the park so the rest of us were just stunned. The road took us to an impressive overlook.
This picture is not doing the area justice at all.
Our three hike options were a little like the story of the three bears. One hike was too long (14 miles round trip), one was too short (1 mile round trip) and one was just right (4 miles round trip). We picked the 4 mile Taylor Creek Trail. The ranger had said it started out with a decent down some stairs at the beginning but after that it was level. It sounded great so we drove there and headed on our fourth hike of the day.
The ranger had failed to mention that we'd be crossing over Taylor Creek quite frequently. This made the trail more difficult than we expected, but it wasn't too bad.
We saw only a few other hikers on this trail. That was a nice change from the crowds in the main part of the park. We were all rather quiet as we hiked. I think we were just enjoying the silence. As we hiked we got closer and closer to this steep outcropping.
The little trail decription we read in the visitor center said we would pass two historical cabins. So I was happy when we came to the first one.
The trail began to take us into a canyon between large outcroppings.
After a long time we passed the second canyon.
By this point I was beginning to wonder what exactly was at the end of the trail and if it would be worth it. We passed a hiker on his way out and asked him how much further. He said, "It's hard to say distance wise, but you still have to cross this creek about 25 more times." We thought he was joking. He wasn't.
My knee was doing okay, but I was glad I'd been wearing my brace all day. I could tell that my knee just wasn't used to this kind of use yet.
We FINALLY came to the end of the trail and it was definitely worth it.
There was a huge grotto area cut into the sand stone. The air was cool.
We took some pictures to celebrate.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend.
Then we sat down to see what we had brought for dinner. We had been talking about going to a restaurant for dinner, but had settled on a hike instead. So in that light this food looked utterly ridiculous. Cheese, lunch meat, an avacado, a tomato, some oranges, some trail mix, and Hershey bars. What had we been thinking?
But it actually came together really well and we were all satisfied by this dinner.
We'd started hiking at 4:00 and the park ranger had told us that the hike took him 4 hours when he had to stop and talk to everyone on the trail. It was 6:00 by this point so we figured it was going to take us 4 hours too. Sunset wasn't until 8:30 so we knew we had time to get out before it got dark, but still we knew we needed to get going. So we started heading back.
Lindsey and I ended up hiking at a nice leisurely pace the whole way back. Our earlier silence was over and we talked about politics the whole way back.
Lindsey started out counting how many times we crossed the stream, but she gave up pretty quickly. She said, "I'll just count the cabins instead."
The hike out took us a long time, but since we knew where we were going it didn't feel as long as the hike in did. When we were getting close to the end Emily came looking for us. I guess we'd taken a bit longer than those 20 year olds expected us to.
We got back in the car and drove back south to our hotel in La Verkin. I was so happy we'd planned to stay there that night. We'd been right when we thought we'd want real beds and showers by this point. I went into the hotel to check us in and Lindsey drew names to see what order we would take showers. Hillary won.
Becca pulled up Billy on Facetime. It was great to talk to our brother. In the early days of planning this trip Emily and Lindsey had discussed whether this should be a sisters trip or a sibling trip. They decided that we wouldn't be able to talk about certain things if Billy was along so that's one reason Becca was invited instead of Billy. But it was still good to see and talk to Billy for a bit.
I got on the wifi and onto Facebook. I found a pleasant surprise waiting for me. A few weeks earlier I'd been interviewed by a reporter for the Post Register newspaper in Idaho Falls. He was curious about the local blogging scene and had got my name from the lady who runs the Idaho Falls Mom's Blog. I'd told him a little about my 51 cent adventures blog. Things like why I started it and how it made me feel like I had a voice even when I was a stay at home mom with my kids. I really didn't think much about the interview and honestly part of me thought he was just using the article as a ploy to find out how much of a competition the local bloggers posed to the newspaper. So I was surprised when I saw that the article had been published. I was even more surprised to discover that
I was the lead story!
This was the cherry on top of a pretty perfect day.
Lindsey took her shower after Hillary. When she was done it was my turn. They borrowed my car while I was in the shower. They went to a nearby store and found some chips, crackers, hummus, and a cake. The cake was to celebrate Emily's 30th birthday in June. Becca took a shower while they were gone and they came back when it was Emily's turn. They hurried to set up a little surprise for her. They'd even bought her a shirt during their trip to the gift shop earlier that day.
Lindsey also showed us the bags that our lunches should have been in that day. These were also decorated by her kids. The words correspond to our birth date and month. See if you can figure out whose is whose.
Emily came out and was so touched by the impromptu birthday celebration. Then we all climbed into the beds (Becca took the floor on the condition she could sleep in one of my comfy sleeping bags) and sort of talked for a little while. We were all pretty beat by this point.
Lindsey had told me to take two ibuprofen before going to bed so that my knee wouldn't have a chance to bother me in the night. I'm glad she said that because it didn't hurt me at all. And I haven't had problems with it since.
Day 4 - Sunday May 19
I'm not even sure how late we slept in this time. But eventually we pulled ourselves together enough to go downstairs for breakfast.
Then we came back upstairs and laid in bed some more. I appreciated the fact that we didn't have squirrelly kids forcing us to pack up and leave.
At some point we decided it would be fun to go back to Kolob Canyon and do the 1 mile hike. But almost as soon as we brought up that plan we opened the window and discovered it was raining. So that was the end of any hiking plans.
Kari had invited us to go to church with her and Lindsey was planning to go. So we put ourselves together for that. We were an interesting sight. Hillary had only brought hiking boots and she'd developed blisters that made it impossible to get the boots back on. She had a long dress and planned to go bearfoot. I only had tennis shoes. Lindsey had a skirt but only a t-shirt to wear with it. Becca just had leggings, and Emily - well she was actually pretty put together with a dress and chaccos that almost passed for nice sandals.
We drove back to Cedar City in the rain. It was kind of a crazy drive. There was so much standing water on the freeway.
We went to Kari's and then rode in her van to church. We sat in the very back of the room so no one would notice our motley crew. I'm glad we went though because I was looking down the barrel of a crazy week and "I needed to get some Jesus."
Then we went back to Kari's house and unpacked her things from the car. Lindsey and Emily also took their things out of the car. They did some laundry so they could have clean clothes for their flights home.
Kari fixed us an amazing dinner. There was lasagna, jello with fruit in it, bread and more bread, salad, and five flavors of ice cream to choose from. The best part was that I just had to sit there and eat it. I told Kari that she could count this as her ministering for the month.
I wished I could stay there longer, but I had a 7 hour drive home ahead of me so we had to start saying goodbye. I insisted on one final group picture.
Then we all hugged and Hillary, Becca, and I went out to the car. Lindsey and Emily would stay at Kari's for a few more hours before they left for Las Vegas. Lindsey flew out at midnight and Emily flew out the next evening. Emily would stay the night at Kari's sister's house.
Our drive back was pretty uneventful. None of us felt like talking so Hillary put on some music and we all just zoned out until Utah county. We left with sunny skies but drove through a lot of rain and a little bit of hail.
We were talkative during the last hour of the drive. Soon we were pulling up at Hillary's condo. She and Becca got out and we pulled their stuff out too. I helped take it inside but didn't stay long. Soon I was back on the road to Pocatello. My car seemed very empty on that drive.
I got home around 10:00, Brandon helped me unload everything. Then he sat on the bed with me and listened to me tell him all about my trip. I'd been fine while I was driving, but I started feeling really lightheaded so it was nice to just lay down and talk with Brandon. He told me a little bit about his weekend. (Charlotte caught a fish, it rained, the kids were pretty good at church, etc)
Post Trip (Don't worry, this part is short)
We went to bed, but I had a hard time sleeping. I'd had a couple of those caffeinated crystal light drink mix ins to keep me alert while I was driving and I guess they were keeping me up. I eventually fell asleep.
Brandon got up around 4:00 and got ready to leave for Twin Falls. His first day of work started that morning at 7:00. He had everything all ready in the Jeep and was so excited to go. Later in the day he texted me and said he loved his job already. And when I talked to him that night he couldn't stop telling me the good things about his day. It was so good to hear.
I woke the kids up for school in the morning. They were so happy to see me. When they came home from school I bribed them to look at all my pictures with me. I told them they could have one cookie for each day's worth of pictures we went through. Since you have read this far you deserve 4 cookies too.
It took me a while to get back into the swing of things at home. I took so many naps last week. And then I came down with a cold so I was tired from that as well as the trip. Brandon came back from Twin on Thursday night and I think I spent most of Friday sleeping.
I'm so glad that I had this chance to get away for a few days with my sisters. About halfway though the weekend I said to them all, "There isn't another group of four women that I could spend this much time with and still like them all."
Sisters really are the best!
PS it only took four days before Lindsey and I called each other and had an hour long conversation. We will NEVER run out of things to talk about.
