Grand-staircase-Escalante National Monument

I mentioned, in my last post, about a place you really should happen upon, if ever wandering through Utah...... Grand Staircase Escalante national Monument. At the very least you should try this drive....We barely even grazed the surface of this area.... I REALLY wanted to find a slot canyon and have fun with my camera but it was scheduled to rain that day and well there's a little concern about flash floods when you are in any canyon area. So we opted for more HIKES with no threats of flooding! By this time..... we are on day 5, hikes 6 and 7. The boys were growing a little weary of "exactly" how many more hikes they had to do. Trail blazer Q decided that hiking was his favorite new sport but Trail blazer Marz... well... sometimes his feet would hurt or his back would get hot... or he was hungry... what can one say, he's a 5 yr old. I was really impressed he lasted as long as he did....

So, we set the bar a little lower and decided to go for an "easy" short 2 mile hike thru Box Death Hollows Canyon..... hummmm ... something in the name should have set me off. Off we went - down a gravel road to Box Death Hollow Wilderness named Hell's Backbone...

it was very pretty but a few wrong turns and it has you wondering who was the joker who rated this hike an "easy" hike?

'

opps - wrong canyon.... we went up a few sections like this and decided this really couldn't be the right way.... so we back tracked.... eventually, we found the right trail...... but there was a creek that kept getting in the way of the trail.... if it had not been a cold day and we were not cranky from the previous hikes, we had already been on.... I might have been a little more patient with box death hollow area. The creek seemed innocent enough.... but after having to cross it about 10 times, with increasingly difficult attempts to not get wet, without even getting 1/2 a mile, we decided to bag the whole hike.....

we did find the box canyon - of course my picture does it no justice... it's really a box formation and it's quite pretty.

So we hop back in the car and drive the amazing hogsback road over to the calf creek falls hike.

It's simply breath taking- very vibrant red canyon along a river that you don't have to cross... you just enjoy the hike on a well maintained trail, no fear of getting lost, right up my alley. :) but not necessarily up his alley.. he was pretty much DONE!

so we struck a deal.... if he would walk back to the car with me.... I would give him a juice box and color with him until dad and bro returned......

it worked.... but we had to make frequent stops... and take loads of pictures..... (which was fine by this shutter-happy-bug known as Mom)

Quite a ham .....

On the drive back to Bryce Canyon, again I was astounded by the view. Also was pleasantly surprised to find one of the COOLEST coffeehouses in the US..... it was nestled in the switchback of the windy road - with a little wooden sign saying "coffee" in the middle of, literally, NO sign of human life - one of those - it you blink you miss it - establishments.....

We did take one last detour thru the Kodachrome Basin State Park which was once again "breathtaking"...(duh)... we did not spend much time here because the boys were wiped out and frankly, so was I.... I felt badly for my husband who really wanted to go run to the hills and start digging out those rocks for sharks teeth and fossils. Next time, honey...

That wraps up the happy Utah adventure....

The next morning we awoke to some SNOW!!! It was lovely from the heated car..... we detoured thru Cedar Breaks Natl Monument which looked NOTHING like the picture I linked to.... It was SNOW WHITE..... not a stitch of red rock to be found...... solid white and a balmy 17 degreees.... (lol)

also, on the drive home we detoured thru Death Valley, just for fun..... one last post on spring break - I promise then I have a stack of photos to show you regarding some stitching.......

xo,

amt