We woke up at 6:45 in an attempt to get to a Ride with a Ranger talk at by 8:45. We stretched and chatted for a few minutes before getting into gear. We pulled out of our campsite one mile down Dalton Walsh Road by 7:15. We ate some cereal in our dinner spot from yesterday and still had plenty of time for the kids to take out their bikes before our Ranger Ride.
Another thing we had time for before the Ride with a Ranger was dumping out my camp chair. “Why?“ you ask. Last night at our isolated campsite down Dawson Wash Road Scott dumped out my camping chair and guess what popped out. We are pretty sure it was the same indignant mouse from our other off-a-gravel-road campsite. After Scott dumped out my chair last night the mouse looked at us and promptly scurried right back up the wheel into the van. He was not in my camp chair this morning though. This is not our first time traveling with a stowaway. In Canada we picked up a pregnant momma who had babies in our van in Fairbanks. Today we visited Wal-Mart for the first time in at least a week. Mouse traps are now a permanent part of our packing list. Fingers crossed that the critter decides Nevada is too hot and hitchhikes with someone else.
The Ride with a Ranger program sometimes fills up very quickly. We were very lucky to get on a ride this morning. The ranger, Carolyn, had helped us out the day before when we discovered we were in the wrong place at the wrong time for a ranger talk. She was fantastic!
The mountain on the left is cable mountain, as it still has structures on it used to lower lumber into Zion and its nearby town of Springdale. The middle picture is called the Great White Throne. The picture on the right is Angel’s Landing. The first park superintendant at Zion helped build the trail up to Angel’s Landing.
The picture on the left is funny because in Alaska three years ago Brooke refused to be in any family photos, now Cody is anti-photo. The photo on the left was taken at Menu Falls. It is called Menu Falls because a nearby restaurant used to have the falls on the cover of their menu and their menus used to keep disappearing. People would take the menu and come to Zion looking for “these falls.” Thus the name Menu Falls. We loved the Ride with a Ranger. If you are ever in Zion we strongly recommend it.
After the Ride with a Ranger we got off the bus at the Temple of Sinawava and did the Riverside Walk. The walk was two miles long! It took us almost two hours, but that included time to play in the river in the middle of the hike and end of the hike. Notice in the middle picture above both kids are eating granola bars. I kid you not, Cody might have eaten ten granola bars between breakfast and lunch. The minute he would finish one he would ask what else I had to eat. Sometimes I have fruit, but we were out today. I can tell you something else we are almost out of… granola bars!
Almost to the halfway point we met up with this amazing woman and her husband. The dog’s name is Kiki. Kiki was, “The most photographed kid at the park,” according to her owner. The owner was pretty inspirational. We walked the rest of the entire walk with them. They just happened to be ready to go back after our river playing. Which was a good thing because Brooke was really captivated by the woman and her dog. The dog is a trained service dog. We didn’t quite understand and we didn’t want to be too nosey, but this is what I gathered from our conversation. The woman is a survivor of cancer, but is still undergoing some sort of treatment. The treatment causes her to have some side effects, which could be avoided with daily medication, but the woman refuses to live her life that way. So, she occasionally has attacks in which she becomes disoriented and needs her meds. Kiki the Wonder Dog can sense when she needs her meds and brings them to her. This woman and her husband were on her bucket list trip. They had been traveling for a month and had a month or so more to go. It is one thing to talk about your bucket list when kicking the bucket is not anywhere on the horizon, but quite another when it is. It really drives home how lucky we really are. Brooke who doesn’t like hugs actually asked to take a photo with our hiking inspiration.
The muck mid-hike.
The hike kept going after you crossed the river and became the hike to the Narrows. Scott so wanted to keep going. Someday. The middle picture above is Brooke with the little wall they built. The picture on the right is of Scott holding Cody’s hand, then Kiki and her owner, Brooke behind, and then Kiki’s other owner (Dad). Brooke just kept walking right next to Kiki and her owner.
- Brooke had to walk through a pretty deep part of the river to get on this rock. By this time it was 12:30 and HOT! She was thankful to be oh so wet. Guess who gave us our Junior Ranger Badges when we finally got back to the Visitor’s Center at 1:30. Carolyn! Scott thought we might be stalking her. No… we are just lucky people. She did such a great job talking with the kids. This was badge number six for the kids on this trip. The rangers always give a little speech and ask a few questions. Carolyn asked why the kids shouldn’t take flowers or rocks from the parks. I was hinting to Brooke that it meant there would be nothing for other kids to enjoy. Brooke said, “because the rocks are a part of the story of an area, and if you remove them part of the story will be missing.” Whoa! I love when the kids actually catch some of what they have been hearing. After our new badges and profusely thanking Carolyn we headed to our favorite meal site in the Visitor’s Center parking lot where Scott was cooking up some oh so nutritional and yummy Mac and Cheese. I don’t usually like Mac and Cheese, but the cereal from six hours earlier was long gone. The kids were excited to be playing in their irrigation ditch again! They raced “boats” (random pieces of wood). They were predicting which would be faster, explaining why, and then testing.
To the Valley of Fire…
