This morning we decided to visit a park close to the condo, since we had done so much driving already, so we went north a few miles to
Snow Canyon State Park.
Derrick's parents had met a woman at the resort, prior to our arrival, who'd been traveling alone and had no mode of transportation. She had asked if anyone at the resort would be interested in helping her see a few of the local parks and sights of St. George, so of course Derrick's parents said they could help her out. She went by Jo and she was 81. Great Grandpa Dale is 84, so it seemed only right that we bring her along with our family adventure. There was no room in our van without moving car seats around, and I didn't think she would be very comfortable in our van anyway, so she rode with Derrick's parents in their van.
We looked at the hiking reviews prior to going so we knew the level of difficulty as well as scenery for the trails, and we headed off. It was a beautiful warm day and perfect, if not a little warm, for hiking.
The day fee was $6/vehicle, so we quickly paid and then drove through the park, checking out the scenery and seeing what there was to do. It was a very diverse park with lava flows, canyon hikes, sand dunes and petrified sand dunes, scenic overlooks and arid desert. I was impressed with the variety of things to see and was excited to get hiking. We drove over to the far north end of the park to see what the hike to the top of an extinct volcano and crater would be like, and the hike looked steep, difficult and something that not everyone in our group would be able to do, so we decided to head to Butterfly Trail and see the most diversity and then see how everyone was feeling after that.
Butterfly Trail was a 2 mile moderate difficulty trail that took us by lava flows, over petrified dunes, through the arid desert and to the West Canyon overlook for a nice view of the park. These were all new things for us to see, so it was a great hike. There was a lot of Navajo Sandstone, leaving behind a lot of sand and neat rocks, so the kids were pretty entertained. Grandpa Ernie, Great Grandpa Dale and Jo hiked a little ways in on the trail then set up their chairs to rest and wait for us as we hiked.
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| Grandma Vicky and Great Grandpa Dale with the boys |
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| The boys LOVED the sand and couldn't get enough of it! |
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| The colors of the landscape were amazing! |
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| Derrick on the petrified dunes. They went on forever! |
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| Elliot really enjoyed the hike. |
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| He mostly liked jumping from one rock to the next! |
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| Remnants of lava flows. |
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| Ethan standing by a lava tube |
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| Derrick and the kids in the lava tube |
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| It was HUGE! |
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| To see the West Canyon, you hike to the top of this overlook. |
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| Everett didn't want to hike up this large structure, but once we were at the top he was happy. |
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| This was high enough for me and the kids, the view was beautiful. |
Ethan and Everett climbed to the very top of the overlook with Derrick (it was pretty narrow and I didn't want to attempt it with Elliot) and from our view we could see those we left behind in their chairs.
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| Derrick took Ethan up a bit higher. Scary!! |
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| At the very top!! |
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| Everett and Elliot looked for Grandpa, Great Grandpa and Jo. |
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Can you see all three of them?
(look at the center to find Gramps and Jo, Grandpa Ernie is on a rock to the right past the bush) |
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Then it was Everett's turn to go up top!
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