“Pioneer Day” is the 24th of July in Utah and is a day that many Utahns celebrate their pioneer heritage. With my wife home for a few days, we decided to take a last minute road trip to Zion’s National Park! My wife had an experience literally ‘blazing trails’ in the northeast for a summer while she was in high school so we are always looking for opportunities to take the kids places.
View from the start of the hike
We really only had one day to explore but we made the most of it – the picture above is the beginning of the “Emerald Pool” Hike – a roughly 2 mile roundtrip that took us FOREVER to do. Honestly, the pool / waterfall at the end weren’t that spectacular since it is the middle of summer in one of the driest areas of the state.
What? They are both happy?
I’ll be honest – it was a bit of a struggle to keep both kids happy and entertained on the hike but I’m glad we went. Later in the week, we decided to do another hike up the American Fork Canyon – not too far from where we live. We took a few friends and between 4 adults, we managed hiking 11 kids ages 3-11 on a 3 mile hike.
The brave adventurers
My wife decided to make a ‘scavenger hunt’ for the kiddos – find a leaf that has been chewed by an insect. . . . a smooth rock . . . . two different leaves . . . . . etc. We were happy that the hardest item to find on the list was ‘a piece of rubbish.’ The kids were entertained for a majority of the hike and it went very well.
The boys have really started to imitate and follow older kids ~ Twin A, especially, copies everything my daughter says (much to her dismay). The 11 yr old on the hike took off and the boys followed him almost the entire hike – it was fun to see and glad we live close to the outdoors and we can take advantage of some of the amazing mountains and parks nearby.
How’s your summer? HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING IT! Aloha ~
It's a Wunderful Life 