Our trip to Zions

So every spring we go to a place down around St George to camp. It's nice to go in the spring because it's cold up here and perfect weather down there. We decided on going down to Zions and also wanted to visit some ghost towns. This year I took time off from work so that we could get a head start in going down because we didn't reserve a camping spot. We figured we'd be fine because we weren't staying in the actual National Park campground, just a campground next to the park. Shouldn't be a problem right?

Wrong. Oh so wrong.

If there is one lesson we both learned, is to not ever EVER think a camping spot will be available on a weekend down around one of the most popular national parks in the United States. 

Because if you DO think that there will be a spot for you, you will end up driving around for an additional 3 hours looking for something, anything and you will end up in KANARRAVILLE (which is 20 miles north of St. George) at an RV park, in a little cabin surrounded by RV people who come and drink wine and talk your ear off while you are making your chicken fajitas in the community fire pit with the wind blowing smoke into your face no matter where you stand. 

If it can happen to us, it can happen to anyone. 

Like I said, lesson learned.

We still managed to have fun though. After our little bickering when we at first couldn't find a spot and were hungry, we stopped at a pretty sweet ghost town right by the Zion's Park- Grafton. There was a neat graveyard that had really old tombstones. It was neat to walk around and look at them. Down the road from the graveyard were some houses that had been restored, and one you could even walk in! Pretty neat. Paul was uber excited because some scenes from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" were filmed there. In honor of that, we watched that movie when we got back. Oh Robert Redford, I think I have a crush on you.

Isn't he dreamy??? Ha ha ha. But seriously.

So, like I mentioned before, we stayed in KANARRAVILLE. I feel like I have to capitalize that name because I want you to understand how ridiculous it was that we had to go 20 miles away. 20 miles makes a big difference in weather people. I guess I am really grateful that we found a dinky little cabin to stay in that had a little space heater because it was chilly up there in KANARRAVILLE. But, it worked out great. 

I do have to say, not everything was a bust when we found out we had to stay in KANARRAVILLE. I made a cool breakfast thing that I found on good ol' Pinterest! We made muffins in hollowed out oranges.Even though they don't look too pretty, they tasted great AND I was proud that at least something I had planned turned out well.

The next morning we headed into Kolob Canyon ready to hike and see the beauty!

And we did, kinda. We saw a lot of beauty, but didn't hike. Turns out the Kolob Arch hike is pretty much the only available hike from that entrance to Zions, and it's about 8 hours and HARD. Well, surprise surprise, I didn't want to do it. So we snapped some pictures and drove back down to the other entrance and had a wonderful time!

First, here is the lovely cabin we stayed in: It even came with a picture! So homey.

I don't know who this person is, but I was trying to just get the awesome shot of this amazingness.

 It really was breathtaking.

 Next stop: Zions! I feel like the pictures don't do it justice. It really was BEAUTIFUL.

We also didn't realize until we were down there that it was Earth Day weekend. Oops. That was also a mistake because it was SO CROWDED. We had to park outside the entrance and walk in. Luckily it wasn't too far. They don't let you drive your car around most of the park, you have to take a bus. We had a map and picked out a few little hikes we wanted to do.

 One hike was actually 3 trails combined if you did the whole thing. It lead up to these emerald pools and they were really neat!

 A little friend we saw:

 The last trail we did lead up to the beginning of the Narrows hike, where you are basically wading through water the whole time. Obviously we didn't do it, but I really want to sometime. Anyone interested??

 Also, I am completely aware that I look like a dweeb with my pants rolled up. But I didn't really care.

We decided NOT to stay in KANARRAVILLE another night, so we drove home after our day in the park. We got back around midnight and were pretty pooped, but it really was worth it! I love this tradition we have and I hope to continue it for years to come.

I Got A Name

FYI, my phone is pretty sweet. Mainly the camera. Which is a good thing because that's the main reason I wanted an upgrade was because my old phone had a horrible camera.

Below are some pictures of what we Siddoways decided to do on a Saturday night- record some music. I used a cool "documentary" filter for the pictures so we look legit. Check it out.

Not a bad way to spend an evening, right? Paul is finishing "editing" the song and maybe I'll get up the courage to actually post it on here somehow. . .it's a little nerve wracking. I am no Celin Dion, people.

But if you are interested to know which song we covered, it's "I Got a Name" by Jim Croce. Check it out:

I've been listening to a lot of 60's and 70's music lately at work and I am IN LOVE with this song. I don't know why, but it seriously makes me so happy when it comes onto Pandora. In fact, I've looked into a lot of Jim Croce's stuff and I really like it. I like it so much that I may or may not have asked Paul to think about getting me some of his music for my birthday.

I think I was born in the wrong decade. Oh well.