Snow Canyon Hike

Lana and Eli warming up in the hot tub.

I had to work in St. George this week so I took the family down with me.  We stayed at the Clarion Suites, just off Bluff, where I always stay when I go down for work.  The rooms are nice, the food is good and its free and they have a nice pool and work out room.  We drove down Wednesday night.  I worked all day Thursday while the kids and Lana went swimming and goofed off at the hotel.  When I got home from work I went swimming for a few hours with the older kids and then we went to dinner at Golden Corral.  The weather was not super warm.

Noah and the girls playing in the pool.  Noah was cute with Kate, but he got in a little over his head while trying to help Kate learn how to swim.

We were able to Hike Johnson Canyon, it is usually closed through October, but they opened it a week early.

The boys on the way to Johnson Canyon

The girls on the way to Johnson Canyon

Lord Voldemort's Face in a rock!

The hike into Johnson Canyon was fun.  We saw some neat lava rock fields, Lord Voldemort's face in a rock, and some really neat rock features.  I had the family pose on a few big rocks so we could get some photos.

At the back of Johnson Canyon is a 200 foot arch.  It doesn't look that big, especially after going to Arches, but it was cool none the less.

Just a couple hundred yards up the canyon from the arch is a waterfall and pool.  The fall wasn't going because of the dry weather, but there was still a little pool with frogs and some fun rock formations for the kids to climb on.

There is a fall here in the spring and early summer that puts off a ton of water.  That's why it is closed all spring and summer.  They had a flash flood that moved a bunch of huge rocks and tore out some trees in August.

Kate posing in one of the little formations we saw.

Jenny's Canyon was a short fun little hike through a wash and back into a little slot canyon.  It is named for a 17 year-old girl that fell and died there in that canyon.  Eli was in heaven.  He loved playing in the dirt and climbing on the rocks.

We climbed up a fairly steep wall to get onto this ledge and take a family picture.  Lana took this one so I could be in a picture.  Honestly, I think she just didn't want to climb up.

Posers and Hosers!

Kanyon and Noah posing in a little arch back in Jenny Canyon.  This little slot canyon had a ton of little arches and caves to climb into.  We had a blast.

Noah and Kanyon looking through some holes in the wall.

Eli and Noah posing back in a little cave in Jenny's Canyon.

Emma and Katelyn looking through the wall.

This is looking down onto the mouth of Jenny's Canyon from a lookout point not to far away.  It only took us 10 minutes to hike back into the canyon from the road.

Petrified Sand Dunes, Snow Canyon, UT

The highlight of the day was hiking on the petrified sand dunes.  They are piles of stratisfied rock that are like steps so you can climb up and down without any problem.  Eli was a maniac.  We had to hold his hands or else he turfed it because of the uneveness of the rocks.  When we got there there was a group of people doing Yoga.  We had to quietly walk past them and then we let the kids run wild once we got on the other side of the hill from them.

Kate and Emma climbing on the dunes

Kanyon climbing down one of the dunes

Lana, Emma, Katelyn and Eli climbing the dunes.

Lana, Eli, Emma and Kanyon

Another look at Jenny's Canyon

We hiked from one side of the dunes to the other and then we saw this rock feature and the kids wanted to run over and climb to the top of it as well.  That was our last hike of the day and then the sun was down and it was time to leave the canyon.  We had a great time and it only cost us $6 to get into the park.  Worth every dime.