Zion and Bryce

Got to Bauer's Ranch and Campground on Sunday. Just chilled for the rest of the day. Left on Monday morning for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Cedar City, Utah to the Ford dealer. 63 miles on hwy 14.  It was like the sister of the million dollar hwy!  The a/c worked fine on the way there and the technician found nothing wrong. They did do an oil change and then found a substantial leak in my power steering. The part was going to take 3 days to get there. Drove back in the pouring rain on that hwy 14. 

In the meantime my niece Rachel and my great niece, Mariah and my great nephews, Cayden and Cameron drove from Las Vegas to come and stay with me for a few days. She had a hairy ride through Zion Park to get to the campground. They were all exhausted but all was good. The next day was also raining so we decided to hold off on Zion and do other things.  We went to Coral Pink Sand State Park. The kids all hiked up the dunes, I never would have made it. They had such a good time!

    

Then we went to Moqui Cave. It is an interesting story. A man bought the cave and teenagers used to come and party in it. So he  put in a bar and a dance room inside the cave to at least make some $$$$. The bar is still there but not in use anymore.  It is mostly a museum of artifacts. That is certainly the very short version of the history!

  

 

It is now Wednesday and we are going to Zion Natl Park. It is a beautiful day! Another amazing park. Sooooo much walking. You actually drive to a shuttle area and get on the bus.  The bus stops at 9 places.  You can get on and off as you please. We got off at The Grotto which was  a mile round trip. I wanted to see the waterfalls. Well, that was the wrong place for the waterfalls. We found that put about half way in. We got back on the bus and got out at the right place. It was, for me anyway, a long hike. Three quarters of the way up to the waterfalls it was all red, slippery mud. The kids were slipping and sliding and falling.  We were all hysterical. We did make it to the falls, although not much water was running. Still was beautiful and a really fun hike!

 

  

   

 

We saw so much wildlife going through the park. It was  the highlight of the drive, for me anyway!

  

  

  Even a scorpion, yuk!!!!

We didn't get back to campground until about 8 or 8:30. Tired, and hungry! We grilled burgers and dogs and it was pretty good considering it was still frozen and it was late. Went to bed about 1:00 AM after watching a movie and laughing, laughing, laughing! Needless to say everyone got up late! Rachel and the family packed up and headed home. I had such an awesome time with all of them. Nice to get to know the kids. They were rambunctious but what do you want from 4 year old twins and an 8 year old. They were fantastic. I so look forward to doing it again sometime!

   

 The blacksmith made a horse out of half a horseshoe for Cayden!