We recently got home from Costa Rica, and I was planning to update the blog with those photos. But then I realized that I never added photos from our wonderful spring break trip to the Southwest - so here they are!
(Remember that this blog only shows small photos, but you can click on them to see a larger version.)
For a while now we've been wanting to show the kids the southwest part of the U.S. Kraig and I had some great years in Albuquerque, but the kids have never experienced large mountains, colorful hills, and dry air, so taking a trip out west has been on our to-do list for a while. We realized there wouldn't be enough time to see everything (e.g., Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, other national parks), so we had to choose a couple of favorite places to focus on. We decided on Bryce Canyon and Zion.
Las Vegas was actually the best airport to fly into, and that became a fun destination as well. We chose to stay at the Rio Hotel, home of the magicians, Penn & Teller. Attending their magic show in the evening was a surprise for the kids, who have watched them on the TV show, "Penn & Teller Fool Us", for years.
The show was fun, but not exactly what I expected. The act focused more on humor and audience participation than a grand presentation of magic tricks. But I guess that made sense since it would be difficult for the large audience to see any kind of card trick, for example. Unfortunately, since we watch their show, we had already seen most of the tricks they performed. We were still amazed by them, though, and still can't figure out how they did them.
We had seen photos of Kevin's family visiting Omega Mart in Las Vegas, and we knew we had to check it out. How do I describe Omega Mart? First, there are interesting art installations outside.
When you enter, it's set up like a grocery store. But when you look more closely at the products, you'll notice they're a little...strange...
Some of the products are just for display, but others can be purchased.
Then, as you explore further, you realize that there are various portals to other "dimensions". For example, you can open the door to a refrigerated drink area and find a tunnel or stairway on the other side. This place is MUCH large than it appears. You can walk, climb, and sometimes crawl, to reach retro-looking rooms and large caverns with mystical music and light displays.
We didn't want to take the time to delve into it, but there was also a whole mythology about what was going on - some sort of corporation, a missing girl, a mystery to solve. There were clues in the rooms and on old computers. You could use a pay phone to hear special messages that might be relevant. We had to instruct the kids on how to actually use a pay phone.
Omega Mart was actually inside of an even larger building called "Area15". It included stores, a beautiful bar under a tree, and even a video arcade! Just like every arcade I visit, I beat the high score on Frogger.
As we drove away from Las Vegas, the kids immediately got excited by the sight of mountains around them.
And it just got more beautiful as we headed towards Bryce Canyon.
One thing we weren't expecting was the snow! As we got up into higher elevations, the snow was piled up high along the side of the road.
We had read that a couple of trails in Bryce were closed due to snow, which happens this time of year. But we started to become really worried about a forecast saying another snow storm would be coming through that night. Not only might Bryce be inaccessible for us to visit the next day, but we weren't sure if we'd be able to get out of the parking lot at the hotel. We considered that we might need to skip Bryce completely and go straight to Zion (lower elevation) instead.
We ultimately decided to go to the hotel and ask the staff for their opinion. They assured us the parking lot and roads out of the hotel will be plowed and we should be able to leave tomorrow. It was a nice, cozy hotel with a store, restaurant, and even a heated indoor pool, so we decided to stay. The new plan was to visit Bryce immediately (late afternoon & early evening), rather than the next day.
It was cold, but beautiful! We did have to walk through some snow and mud, but we walked along the rim and a little bit down one of the paths. It's funny...from the hotel you can't tell at all that Bryce is right next door. You can't see it when you park, then you walk to the edge, and WOW!
The kids enjoyed throwing snowballs into the canyon (there wasn't anyone underneath).
Our plan worked out perfectly. We felt like we had enough time there, and it would have been miserably cold if we had tried to visit the next day.
It was cold, snowy, and muddy, but we were able to walk down into the canyon a bit.
I've only been to Bryce once before, but I remembered it as the most beautiful national park I've ever been to. And this visit it definitely didn't disappoint.
The next morning, we woke up to snow! The Florida kids had no idea that their spring break trip would include snow, and they thoroughly enjoyed it.
The parking lot and road out were plowed, so we managed to get away from the hotel okay. Zion National Park is at a lower elevation, so we watched the snowfall fade as we drove away.
We were arriving at Zion earlier than expected. We wanted to wait until the next day to go into the park because it would be a full-day activity. You walk to a bus stop, take a bus to another bus, then get off at various locations within the park. I noticed on the map that there were other side roads where you could drive into a different section of the park. I thought we might try that out after checking into the hotel.
It started looking really gorgeous. Then suddenly, we were at an entrance to the park! Apparently we were coming in on one of those side roads I was talking about. How convenient! Luckily we had already bought an annual National Parks Pass, so we were all set.
Unlike Bryce, where you're at the top looking down, at Zion you go right into the valley, looking up at mountains and down a little into a river, so it's very immersive and impressive.
We were able to pull over to get out and take in the view.
It was a surprisingly short drive to the hotel because it was basically inside of the park. Springdale has to be one of the most beautiful small towns in America. We enjoyed eating outside, walking around the town, and buying rocks from one of the several rock stores there.
When researching the trip to Zion, I was a little overwhelmed by the logistics. However, everything ended up going really smoothly. The first bus stop was just a block away from our hotel. The bus picked us up and brought us to a line to get onto the park bus. This wasn't the busiest time of year to visit Zion, so the crowds weren't as bad as I had read about in the reviews. Some stops were mostly for views, but most included at least some type of optional hike. We picked the easy or moderately easy ones. Honestly, you don't really need to hike to get to the views, since it's all around you, so it didn't seem necessary to hike too far.
We brought backpacks to carry water bottles and to store our coats, if not needed. It was cold in the morning, but with the sun it was actually very pleasant.
I have been to Zion (and Bryce) once - it was the first time I met Kraig's sisters. We didn't have a ton of memories from that trip, except for that it was beautiful. As we walked through Zion, I started thinking that maybe Zion is my favorite national park. Bryce is incredibly unique, but the immersive beauty of Zion is overwhelming and all around you at all times. I took SO many more photos that I'm not including here.
The uppermost bus stop allowed access to the river. Some people rent boots and water-proof outfits that go up to your chest and allow you to hike through the water. If you start in the river and keep walking north, you'll go through an area called "The Narrows". The water gets higher and the mountains on either side get narrower. It looks like a gorgeous adventure, but it also sounded like one of my common dreams where I have to try to get through smaller and smaller spaces as I'm trying to get somewhere. It gets to a point where only thin people can squeeze between the rocks, and that sounded a little claustrophobic!
Because of the shade, it doesn't show up in all of the photos, but the river was actually a nice cyan color.
We only saw a couple of different animals on our hikes - wild turkeys and squirrels.
At this point I should probably admit to something, because I guarantee you it's one of the main things the kids will remember from this trip. I kicked a squirrel. It was an accident! They're so used to humans that they were walking around at people's feet and...I felt so bad. It was okay.
The "Three Sisters":
What an incredible place! At the end of the day, we headed to St. George to stay the night before returning to the Las Vegas airport. We were really curious to see St. George because it was actually one of the towns we considered moving to when we decided to leave Portland. It was pretty, and the location is so close to Las Vegas, Bryce, Zion, and other beautiful places to visit. But it would have been far from family.
No comments:
Post a Comment