On Tuesday we left Bryce and visited the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. We hiked the nature trails and made our way through the ancient forest.
As you can see, we left the high elevations and came down a bit so the children were able to unzip coats and take off their hats and mittens. Yay!
We spotted some very prickly vegetation along the way. Watch out for the cactus!
The Wide Hollow Reservoir is part of the park, I am sure it is fun to swim in during the summer months.
Blue sky and petrified wood benches for the win!
Roman was most definitely in a thumbs up phase during this trip.
I mean these pictures don't really do it justice but this petrified wood was so colorful!
Leo is always pointing out the yucca.
Just standing on petrified wood stumps.
It was a beautiful day for hiking.
We made our way around the trail loop,
And headed down the mountain for a picnic lunch.
Our plan was to spend the morning in the Petrified Forest and then visit the Escalante Staircase National Monument in the afternoon.
We went down the road and found the Escalante Visitor Center.
We got more stamps and stickers for our little passports.
After talking with a ranger at the counter, we decided to go on a hike to Calf Creek Falls.
The hike to the Falls and back was approximately 6 miles total.
There were markers along the way to draw attention to plants, geologic wonders, and petroglyphs along the way.
There were lots of points of interest along the way including this cool flora.
The children enjoyed finding all of the nooks and crannies in the rocks along the way.
The red rock was stunning.
We loved these beautiful blue skies!
We passed around corner after corner ...
...and saw beautiful scenery at every turn.
Roman was the kiddo who wanted a picture at every possible spot along the way.
Dan kept us on task, always reminding us that we needed keep moving so that we could complete the hike and get back to the car before it was dark. What a Dad! ;)
The trail was well marked and mostly sandy; it was pretty level and easy for the kids to navigate.
Check it out - if you squint at the lower left part of this picture, look about one third to one half of the way up and you will see red petroglyphs! What a cool piece of history.
There were very few 'Are we there yet?' comments on the trail. These three did a great job.
We were almost there ...
And we finally made it to the beautiful Calf Creek Falls!
It was a spectacular sight!
We didn't stay too long knowing that we had many miles to trek before getting back to the trailhead.
And then we were off!
We made it back, fueled by water, little oranges, and grit! :)
We said goodbye to Calf Creek and feasted on burgers, fries, and milkshakes that night.
It was definitely worth it - one of our favorite adventures on the trip.
