Posts Tagged With: slot canyon

Sand Hollow and Snow Canyon State Parks

While visiting Zion National Park we stayed at Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane, UT. This was an absolutely beautiful state park and our campsite was huge with gorgeous views all around!

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The Sand Hollow Reservoir was right behind our site.

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This campsite was so big that the kids decided to design their own national park in our back yard. They named it Red Sands National Park. They made a map with trail information and junior ranger books for Chris and me to fill out. They used an app on my phone to map how long each trail was and then led us on some trail hikes.

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I love to watch their creativity blossom at places like this!

We also visited Snow Canyon State Park in nearby St. George. This was a gorgeous state park with lots of fun hiking trails.

First we hiked a short trail to Jenny Canyon which is a slot canyon.

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Then we hiked the Lava Tube trail which was a new experience for us and something the boys really enjoyed. We were able to walk around in the lava tubes which are like underground caves. These lava tubes were formed during a volcano eruption many years ago.

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Then we climbed up this slick rock to an amazing view point.

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See the black hole in the ground below? That was one of the lava tubes we explored. I’ll admit it’s kind of creepy down there. It’s very dark and we only had our cell phone flashlights which don’t shine very far into the dark.

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There is so much to see and do in Utah which is why we keep returning. It was time to move on to more adventures but I sure hated to leave the incredibly spacious campsite at Sand Hollow. Wait until you see the site we moved to next. I’ll give you a hint, it was NOT spacious!

 

Categories: Utah | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Painted Desert, Slot Canyon and Hoodoos

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument spans almost 2 million acres in southern Utah. It can be difficult to find where to go or how to find information about hikes and other things to do there. It’s not your typical national park or monument with an entrance station and visitor center with all the information you would need. Thankfully I learned about some really cool hikes to do near Lake Powell from another Fulltime Family. All of these areas we explored were within 30 miles of where we stayed in Page, Arizona.

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First we went to the Paria Rimrocks Toadstools (also known as Hoodoos). The parking lot for this is right off US 89 between mile marker 19 and 20 heading northwest away from Page. It’s a pretty easy hike of less than a mile to get to the “toadstools” which are cool rock formations.

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Check out the yoga class going on in the picture below. What a cool spot for a yoga class!

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Some of this hike looked like we were on another planet. It actually reminded me of the Badlands in South Dakota.

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After this hike we continued on up US 89 to mile marker 31 to the Paria River Valley Road scenic drive. This is a 6 mile long dirt road past some beautifully layered, multi-colored cliffs. The colors and painted desert look was just stunning!

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On this drive you go through the Pahreah ghost town, a cemetery and the site of an old movie set. Some scenes from The Outlaw Josey Wales were filmed there.

Lastly we backtracked down US 89 back towards AZ to mile marker 26 and turned down House Rock Valley Road. About 8 miles down this dirt road is the Wire Pass Trailhead. From there you can hike to Buckskin Gulch, the longest and deepest slot canyon in the southwest. The canyon is 12 miles long but we only hiked for a few miles. We love hiking in slot canyons with the tall towering cliff walls high above us on either side and narrow passageways.

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We had such a fun day exploring these various locations in the Grand Staircase. There are many other hikes and locations to explore in this park, but it is so spread out so we only visited the few that were near where we were staying in AZ. If you are ever in this area I hope you’ll find the highway and mile marker information useful.

Categories: National Parks, Utah | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Tent Rocks National Monument

Tent Rocks in Cochiti, New Mexico is one of the coolest places we have hiked.  It almost ranks up there with Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon, a couple of our favorites from last year.  Beautiful views, rock climbing and a slot canyon all add up to awesomeness!

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We had never hiked through a slot canyon before.  A slot canyon is a narrow passageway between tall cliffs and rocks.  You have to be very careful not to hike through those when there is any chance of rain because flash flooding has been known to occur in these narrows and hikers have unfortunately been trapped and killed in places like this when that happens.  We hiked here on a day with no rain in the forecast.

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The view from the top was incredible!  My pictures really don’t do it justice.

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Jesse is trying to stuff a pine cone in a hole in the rock and Jake is just looking silly.

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This park is pretty small and the hike only takes about an hour or two.  There is also no Junior Ranger program or Visitor Center here.

For such a small park, it really was an incredible hike! I love being back out west where we can hike in places with views unlike anything I have ever seen.

Categories: National Parks, New Mexico | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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