Canyonlands National Park

Day 3 of our trip – we got up nice and early, and got on the road since we were staying 45 minutes away from Arches National Park. That was supposed to be our first stop of the morning. We arrived at Arches at 8:30 am. You are probably thinking “hey, why are you talking about Arches when the post is supposed to be about Canyonlands?” Well, sadly, it is because Arches had a big ‘ole sign at the entrance telling everyone that the park was closed due to being at capacity, and we should try to come back in 3-5 hours. Apparently, 8:30 in the morning is not considered early at Arches! Hubby went onto the Arches Twitter account and read that the park actually closed not long after 7:30 am. That’s crazy to me!!! So, we decided to continue following the Arches Twitter account and flipflop our order for the day – which meant we were off to Canyonlands instead (thank goodness they are only 40 minutes apart)! We went to the Islands in the Sky section exclusively.

Once in Canyonlands, after hitting the Visitors Center, we drove out to see the Upheaval Dome and Whale Rock. We stopped at few amazing scenic overlooks and pull offs to enjoy the view. We were going to do the Mesa arch hike, but the lot looked super busy, and I really wanted to hike at Arches with the girls. Because of the heat and the fact that Arches was now going to be in the hottest part of the day, I knew I had to pick carefully. Instead, we drove out to Grand View Point Overlook and hiked around the rim. It was crazy to stand on the edge of those cliffs. Unfortunately, the pictures don’t even come close to the feeling of being on the edge of the earth that you get standing at this viewpoint!

I tried to get the edge I was standing on as a way to gauge the drop off…still doesn’t even come close to the feeling of being on that edge 6,000 ft up

We had a lot of fun hanging out in that area, and I’m glad we went all the way down. Hubby and I had been to Canyonlands for a brief jaunt before, so we had to hit our favorite spot from last visit – the very first view in the park: Shafer Canyon Overlook. There’s a nice little path that takes you down some stairs to get to a landing that sticks out into the canyon. Last time this was our first view – this time, it was our last view! The girls and I went out to the edge of the rock formation in search of the shade of the rocks (more work but great rewards), while Hubby stayed on a little more solid ground. We just sat on the rocks and thought about how lovely the views were.

My view from my rock seat in the shade. 🙂

The girls noticed a road down the side of the canyon, so we had a blast watching everyone go up and down those crazy dirt roads. I’m pretty sure if I would have recommended going down that road, my entire family would have thrown me off the cliff after yesterday’s adventures! Hahaha.

Looks fun to me! 😉

After that, Hubby checked out his Twitter feed and saw that Arches was accepting visitors again, so we hightailed it out to get to Arches! Until next time, Canyonlands!

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Capitol Reef National Park

Well, after the bust at the slot canyons earlier, we were off to Capitol Reef National Park. I was really excited to see this park, as I wanted to see the Pioneer Register (and redeem myself).

We drove the entire length of the Scenic Drive (which definitely lived up to its name)!. Where the road ends, there is a dirt road turnoff for the Capitol Gorge. Due to our last experience on a dirt road, you can imagine my hubby’s look at me as we made this turn. However, it was a MUCH shorter excursion.

A much more scenic dirt road!

We drove in and around these rock formations and enjoyed the view until the road ended at the trailhead parking lot. Then it is just a 0.5 mile easy hike to get to the Pioneer Register.

Thank goodness for flat, shaded hikes!

Just as I was about to doubt myself and thought we might have missed it (since my confidence was definitely shaken), we came across another family and they told us it was just ahead. In fact, right next to them was a sign saying that the area was under camera surveillance. I thought this was odd, until I saw that we were at the Pioneer Register, and the National Park Service was deterring other people from adding their own graffiti to the wall. It was really neat to look at these old signatures that are still on the walls today. The people stood in their wagons and carved (or in some cases SHOT) their names on the walls of the rock.

Standing in the same exact spot as this person from 1888.

The scenery around Capitol Reef was gorgeous. My only regret in this park is that we didn’t get there early enough to have pie from the Gifford House. More unfinished business in Utah, I guess! 🙂

View from the front seat of the rental car. Sometimes it just doesn’t get any better than this!

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Slot Canyon…or not…

I was super excited to see a slot canyon – I’ve been looking at amazing pictures at Antelope Canyon for over a decade now, and I had done a lot of research on where we can find an easily accessible slot canyon since Antelope Canyon is still closed due to Covid.

Enter Peek-a-boo Slot Canyon. Reviews said it was the most accessible slot people have been to. There were pictures of young kids scrambling up the entrance. Someone even was quoted as saying ‘this was grandma’s favorite hike.’ Sounded like a win to me.

I did all the appropriate research, printing out word descriptions, tracking where we’d go on Google Earth, everything. We even stopped at the visitor’s center before going and got the official map to the slot. You’d think we couldn’t screw this up. Or could we?

Where does this road even go?!?!

Well, the drive to the trail is a 26-mile dirt ride adventure on a road that they call ‘washboard.’ Though we did have a rental, we still were not keen on losing a wheel, so hubby took it slow. It took us about an hour. We found the parking lot for the trailhead, and the area looked like a scene out of a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. Desolate desert every way we looked. Despite the 118 degree temperatures, I was determined. We started in on the trail, and I set my watch to make sure I could keep track of our distance traveled.

“Looks so inviting,” said no one

We were following the trail very well, and saw some nice desert views, if you’re into that kind of thing (my family was not). Eventually we came to a marker that marked the rim trail going to the right and the slots were to the left. I went to the left of the sign and continued on the path. After going about a mile, we realized we must have missed a turn, as we were still up on the rim. Unfortunately, I didn’t know where we went wrong, so we turned around. At this point, Wormy (after having declared “I hate the desert” a half mile in) is crying. I was pretty sure that was only going to make her feel more dehydrated (don’t worry; we brought the camelback with us).

Once we got back to the sign from before, we realized we needed to scramble down a pretty hefty rocky ledge in order to get to the slots. The path we followed was the people who must have looked at that and said “heck, no” and kept on toward the rim trail. It didn’t help that the area below was fenced off. I didn’t see that there was an opening in the fence until I looked closer.

Unfortunately, by this time we had gone 2 miles in the brutal heat, so I couldn’t afford to drag my family through another mile just to get to the slot canyon, plus a mile back (assuming we didn’t get lost again!). I was so disappointed in myself. This was what I had hoped to be the highlight of the trip, and instead I ended up torturing my family. Ugh.

On the way back to the car (Dad of the Year carrying Wormy out)

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Bryce Canyon – Home of the Hoodoos

Our next stop on the tour of Utah’s Big Five National Parks was Bryce Canyon. We got into Bryce, Utah the night before, and were super excited to find breakfast included with the hotel (Bryce Canyon View Lodge). Even better – it was a hot breakfast buffet!!! Woohoo! All of the chain motels/hotels had stopped breakfasts due to Covid, so this was our only included meal for the whole trip. I’m not sure if my excitement is coming through or not – I’m talking FOOD here!

Anyway, the reason that was all relevant was because it meant we got a later start getting into the park. By later, I am talking 8:30 am. This is noteworthy, because we went to the parking lot for the Navajo Loop trailhead, and it was full. We did several laps, but no luck at all. We were too late to be part of the early crowd, but too early to catch anyone leaving. I was bummed, but I suggested we ditch the crowd and do the farthest out point in the park – Bryce Point. We drove out there (seeing the Prairie Dog burrows on the way), and it was significantly less busy. This spot was breathtaking. We got out of the car and walk out to the lookout, and the view really did take my breath away.

Our first view of hoodoos!
Though there was plenty of altitude, we only felt the air a little thinner when we were exerting ourselves – no altitude sickness!

We then drove to Inspiration Point, which was equally stunning. This point required a little longer of a walk to get to an observation area that jutted out over the canyon. We spent quite awhile at this stop – watching birds soar, walking around the rim trail, looking down at people hiking at the bottom, etc. It was crazy to think that we weren’t all that far from Zion, but the views were so drastically different!

Along the rim trail at Inspiration Point

After we had thoroughly enjoyed the views here, it was time to try our luck at the Navajo Loop trailhead again. However, the girls did learn through their Junior Ranger books that Ponderosa Pines smell like vanilla and butterscotch in the cracks of their bark. I’m sure the other tourists enjoyed watching our family sniffing tree bark on the way back to the car! By the way – in case you were wondering, they really do smell delicious! So…anyway….back to the first stop we went. And, of course – no spots. To make matters worse, now the lot was blocked off so that you couldn’t keep doing slow laps around to find a spot. We decided to give up and save the hike for another trip. We definitely got to see the amazing hoodoos and enjoyed the views we had. Until next time, Bryce Canyon!

Lisa Werner1 Comment

Zion National Park

After flying into the Las Vegas airport, and visiting the Valley of Fire, we visited at Zion National Park. To be honest, I was a little intimidated by this park. During the months of February through November, the only way to get into the depths of Zion are through shuttle bus. Up until two weeks before we left, the park was using tickets to control the number of people riding the shuttle. They had just discontinued that system, but I knew that attendance was up at every national park in the area. The other thing that worried me was that the main parking lot for the shuttles is the Visitors Center lot. If you do not get a spot in that lot, you must park in paid lots in the nearby town (Springdale) and ride a shuttle bus to the park shuttle bus route. The town’s shuttle bus system only runs until 6 pm. Since the hike I really wanted to do was the farthest stop on the park shuttle system, I was worried about enjoying my time in the park while watching the clock. The whole reason I enjoy national parks is because there is no sense of time (normally) while I am enjoying gorgeous views or fun hikes! And then there’s that hot weather I’ve been mentioning….

My fears were not necessary, however. Because of the time change between Valley of Fire and Zion not being in our favor, we arrived at Zion at 2:30 pm. This actually worked out well, since many people left in the afternoon due to the heat – we had many spots in the Visitors Center lot to choose from. By the time we visited the bathrooms, refilled water, scoped out the Visitors Center area, and such, there was a park system shuttle waiting for riders (no line!). We hopped on (masks required), and rode all the way out to the Temple of Sinawava. We wanted to do the Riverside Walk (2.2 mile) trail to the beginning of the Narrows. Most of the other stops were actually closed due to large rockfalls, so this was one of the only hikes that we had on our list that was still open.

The buses waiting to pick people up from the Temple of Sinawava stop

The Riverside Walk was fantastic – none of the members of my family complained about the length, as the walk was on mostly paved, smooth paths, and there was a lot of shade to be had. There were plenty of beautiful views of the river and the big rock walls the whole way. You could also see waterfalls and hanging gardens. Then, when we got into the river for the section of the Narrows we did, the girls had such a blast! They loved the cold water and the fun of trying to walk anywhere (my husband wasn’t so sure…hahaha).

Lovely shaded walk
Look at this view!

Though we really, really enjoyed the views from the Riverside Walk and the Narrows, we also loved the drive out of the park. You are allowed to drive your car on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, which goes off to the East from the park. If you are headed to any of the other national parks in Utah, there is a good likelihood that you have to go this way anyway. You get to drive up the East Rim through a series of switchbacks and tunnels.

This drive brings you to the East entrance to the park, which was pretty backed up at the time we went through.
This is not the big tunnel, but a cute little tunnel through this beautiful wavy rock!

We loved all of the canyon views and the Checkerboard Mesa. There was definitely so much to see in Zion, and we hope that next time we go, the rockfalls will not limit what we can see/do! This was one of my favorite stops in our trip because of how amazing the views were everywhere you looked!

Checkerboard Mesa

Lisa Werner1 Comment

Valley of Fire State Park

Finally! A return to travel! We had airline credits from our canceled trip last summer that had to be used by September, so we decided to head to the Southwest. In hindsight, it seems a trip to the desert in summer may be a questionable idea, but it’s even better when there is record heat and drought conditions! It was HOT!

Our first stop was a beautiful state park in Nevada – Valley of Fire State Park. We came in from Las Vegas, and it was 45 minutes or so away, and a very easy drive. We arrived on a Sunday midmorning, and there wasn’t a line to get in, and didn’t seem very busy.

Since we came in from the west, our first stop was the Beehives. The girls had a lot of fun climbing into the caves to find cooler spots in the shade. This spot gave a great view of the surrounding area.

Beehives – with plenty of hiding holes to find shade in for curious kids!

Next we hit up the Atlatl Rock, which is definitely worth the climb – the petroglyphs to be seen here were very easy to locate and view.

You’ve got this!
We had fun making up stories for these petroglyphs!

Next, we were off to our hike for the morning – we did the Fire Wave hike. It was roughly 0.7 mile hike to the Fire Wave. Though this one is undoubtedly not as immense as the super famous Fire Wave in Vermilion Cliffs, it was so much more accessible for us (no ticket system, significantly shorter hike). It was a very hot hike, however, as there isn’t much for shade after the first 1/4 mile. It was quite a sight to see, however! You can continue on the trail past Fire Wave, or you can turn around and head back to the parking lot (like we did). Interestingly enough, the trail closed a few days after we were there due to a high risk of heat-related illness!

So pretty and swirly! Who knew rocks could do that?!?
Wormy is using her Dad as a ‘shade tree.’

After this, we were going to hike the White Dome area and pink canyon, but I really tired out Wormy and Squid, so they were not interested in this idea at all! We drove around the White Domes area, and then headed out to drive the rest of the park.

Near the Elephant Rock/Visitors Center area

I highly recommend a stop to Valley of Fire State Park. It was quiet, calm, and peaceful. Usually we experience similar environment at national parks, but with the uptick in visitors to most of them, this was a nice change!

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Seven Bridges in the Fall

Does it get any better than this?

I absolutely love fall! The flavors of apples, pumpkins, and the occasional hot chocolate….the fluffy sweatshirts…bonfires…and, best of all: the gorgeous fall colors!

A few days ago, I took a little excursion that I really need to do more often – visiting Seven Bridges Trail in Milwaukee. Seven Bridges is actually part of Grant Park, but good ‘ole Google can help you get there using the name Seven Bridges.

There are a few options for where your trails can lead you, but I always start here:

The entrance to the trail

There’s a little parking lot along the road in front of this area. However, since there’s not a lot of parking, I would imagine it probably fills up pretty often. If you continue down the road, there is a much bigger parking lot, and access to the trail there as well.

No matter where you start the trail from, you will end up going over many bridges. The trail is fun for kids as well. The area is beautiful in any season, but I love it in the fall. You can even find yourself walking along the shore of Lake Michigan if you so choose! Be careful if there has been a lot of rain, though, as the trail does get muddy.

Here’s the map from the Milwaukee Parks page (https://county.milwaukee.gov/files/county/parks-department/Park-Maps/7bridgesmap.pdf):

Enjoy the trail and hopefully you see views like this when you go!

The bridge that overlooks Lake Michigan – my personal fave!

Lisa Werner1 Comment

A Favorite Fall Stop

Even the drive in is beautiful (and, no, I was not driving when I took this picture)

One of my favorite annual spots for the beautiful fall colors in Southeastern Wisconsin is Holy Hill. For some reason, it just doesn’t feel like fall without this stop. The drive from where I live is always part of the fun for me. It’s like a great symphony building up to the big, brassy, grand finale!

Once you actually get to Holy Hill, you have the option of parking right at the basilica, or down below. If you are only going to take in views from the basilica, definitely park up the hill. If not, your choice is up to you, because you will end up hiking up that hill one way or another!

I like to walk up to the basilica and take in the view first. Usually, I will climb the observation tower (it’s a beautiful view, but SUPER windy up there), but the tower is closed this year. Don’t worry, though- the view is still worth it – after all, you are on a giant hill. In fact, when you look to the East, be sure to check out the view of downtown Milwaukee!

After the amazing views above, I like to climb down and visit the Stations of the Cross. You end up slowly going down the hill, and the fall colors of the wooded area combined with the beautiful statues make for a very peaceful time.

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Fall Color Adventure – Bruce, WI

Last weekend, we had a nice adventure in Northern WI. We went up to Christie Mountain, as they were having their “Leaf It To Rusk” fall festival. At Christie Mountain, you can ride the ski lift up and/or down to view the fall colors in the Blue Hills of WI. Even though the colors were a week behind the anticipated peak for that weekend, it was still a beautiful trip. In fact, I think this was the prettiest fall drive I have ever made!

When you get to the ski hill, you must pay cash for a ticket and decide whether you are purchasing for both directions, or just one ($5 per person, each way). We were unsure, so I asked how long the walk down was, and the lady told me it actually takes less time to walk down than to ride down. We chose to ride the lift up (who wants to walk uphill?!?) and then walk down.

The ski lift actually comes to a stop for each passenger to get on, and these chairs seat 2 (maybe 3, if it is an adult and 2 kids). There were plenty of pretty colors to see, but if you ever do this, don’t forget to check out the view behind you. You will be able to see that view when you reach the summit, but it’s just so much fun to see it while dangling in the air!

Once you get to the top, there were photo op stations set up with hay bales and pumpkins, and you can walk around pretty much anywhere on the ski hill. Be sure to check out the views from each of the ski runs, as they all were a little different. There was also food available for purchase from a barbecue place. It smelled delicious, but we did not try it.

So many beautiful colors!

I have to say, we’ve now done both the Rib Mountain fall ski lift ride and this one, but I think this one was my favorite. They are both amazing, and we were lucky enough to do Rib Mountain right at peak, but the drive to Christie Mountain really made it for me. I felt like we truly experienced the fall colors from EVERY angle – below, above, next to… I just love those beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows (and, when you’re before peak, the greens are a nice contrast as well).

Not bad for a week before peak!

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Mommy Camps, Week One

With all of the usual summer camps and classes canceled, I decided to help my girls have some adventures this summer of our own. For my first week of summer camp, we did three different ideas rolled into one. I figured there’s no way I can fill 8 hours with just one theme for 5 days. Instead, I created more of a collection of classes for the girls to explore some of the things they have interests in. For week 1, this included writing, movie creation, and cooking camps.

I actually tied the writing and movie camps together. The first day last week, I had the girls write a script for a puppet show. They had to keep in mind how many puppets they could easily switch between. They also needed to be sure to develop a plot. This was mainly aimed at my soon-to-be 1st grade daughter. My soon-to-be 5th grader didn’t need as much coaching on the elements of a story, which was good. I was able to help my youngest while my oldest went off on her own to work.

Then I had the girls pick out their puppets, and I had old socks available in case they wanted a character we did not have. That way, they could make anything they needed. They were sent off to practice their show 3 times to work out the kinks and character switches. After that, they performed the show for each other (and me & my camera!). Voila! Movie #1 was done!

Fun with puppets!

For day #2, we read some fairy tales from Grimm’s Fairy tales and then read some twisted fairy tales (I have a thing for crazy twists on these classic stories ever since I had a teacher have us right our own twist. My favorite one to read is “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” by Jon Scieszka. It’s told from the viewpoint of the misunderstood wolf!). I then tasked the girls with writing their own mixed-up fairy tale.

For the movie part of this adventure, they could either choose to act out their story, or perform it as another puppet show. Surprisingly, they mixed it up!

Day #3 featured the girls working out their very own newscast. Since they’ve been writing newspaper stories for their summer paper, I had them start their articles for that for the writing side of camp. However, I teach music lessons on Wednesday morning, so I typed out a nice guide to creating a newscast and how to split up the headlines, special feature, weather, and sports portions of the newscast. They then had to work out their parts and once my lessons were done for the morning, I recorded their newscast. I then put it all together in a quick iMovie, and added a nice news fanfare lead-in and closing. Boom. Done.

Day #4 involved the girls learning how to persuade their parents with a persuasive essay of their choice (Wormy chose to advocate for a game night, and Squid asked for a time turner from Harry Potter…oh boy). We then talked about how these same skills were used when companies make commercials – aiming for a certain audience, selling their points to change people’s minds about their product, etc. The girls then wrote, practiced, and recorded their own commercials for a product of their choice.

All of the movies I’ve made of the girls are housed on their very own unlisted playlists on YouTube that I have created. I will then be sending out a link to family to watch videos, if they are interested.

On Friday (day #5), we finally had a break in a heat wave we were having, so we took a break from the writing and movie work and played outside. The girls also had a dance recital tonight that they practiced for each day, as well, so they got extra time in practicing outside.

For the cooking part of our camp, the girls have been making food from the America’s Test Kitchen for kids subscription box that Squid’s awesome godmother bought the girls. I decided it was super awesome they can make these fun recipes, but I wanted them to also know the basic things – you know, survival food! Their cooking this week featured Mac & cheese (from a box), tacos, corn dogs, spaghetti, and grilled cheese. I am happy to report that I was able to stand in the kitchen and tell the girls exactly what to do without doing a single thing myself. They truly made dinner for us completely. And, added bonus – both girls can cook noodles, brown meat, and flip things in a frying pan. You know, those important skills….

I love kids’ knives! They both aren’t scared to chop things up because the knives aren’t scary!

So, stay tuned for next week….I think we’re going to do ukulele camp and photography camp for certain. We will see what else we need! There have been requests for the rest of our movie camp ideas to come along as well (stopped animation is on the list!)

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