VACATION - BRYCE CANYON & CALF CREEK FALLS

Wednesday after we left Zion we headed over to Bryce Canyon. On the way we stopped at a rock shop. Then Nathan and Joe went up a canyon rock hunting a while. We rode into Panguitch for lunch and a shake and then went over to Bryce. We stayed in North Campground in the park. We were really close to the Visitor Center again. We went on a ranger walk along the rim of the canyon that evening.

On Thursday morning, we rode over to Calf Creek Falls which was about an hour a way. We hiked the 6 mile hike to the Lower Calf Creek Falls. The kids loved it so much. We all wore our swimming suits under our clothes so that we could swim in the pool when we got to the end. It was cold and refreshing. It was a bit too cold to put our heads under the water though.
We had our picnic lunch at the waterfall. There was a raven that was hanging around trying to find some scraps of food. Jacob hadn't eaten all of his sandwich, so we put it back in his bag for later. We tucked it in with our stuff. As we were walking away from our blanket the raven went over and grabbed his sandwich from our pack. Jacob has talked about the raven taking his food ever since. We have gone on a few picnics since then and if a bird comes around he will grab his food, hold it tight and tell the bird, "It's my food." It is pretty funny. It was the perfect weather. There was a little breeze while we were hiking which helped keep us cool enough. There are several sections that are sandy like the beach, it was harder to hike on those sections. It was kind of long and Joe was pretty slow, but he did hike the whole way and he did a great job.

That evening we went to the ranger program and learned about the nocturnal animals in the park. Then Mark took the big kids over to look through the telescopes. They saw the moon and Saturn. They could even see the Saturn's rings. They said it was so cool and they wanted to get a telescope after that.

Friday morning Nathan, Sammi, Mark and I hiked down into the canyon on "the best three mile hike you will ever go on!" We hiked the Queens Garden Trail over to the Navajo Trail. It was really pretty. It was cool to see the hoodoos from a different angle. The weather was a little cool. It was nice that we weren't hot! We hiked back to camp because the bus wait was longer than we could have walked back. When we got back Shelly and Mom had camp all cleaned up and we hitched the trailer so we could check out of the campground in time. We parked it in the parking lot and went on the shuttle to all of the overlooks. We had our picnic along the way. At lunch there was a cute little squirrel that kept coming over. Jacob had fun watching and talking to the squirrel.

Friday we drove back to Ft. Green so that we could stop to mow the lawn. We stayed the night there and then came back to town on Saturday. We had a great time. Mark was already trying to plan another trip before we were even back.

That was our big trip of the summer. We had fun and hiked about 20 miles. Now the kids have gone to all of the National Parks in Utah. We need to start on the National Monuments and State Parks. We are hoping to go camping a few more times this summer on the weekends. We love camping!