Last year I had a chance to visit two amazing places with my friend Patrycja: Valley of Fire in Nevada and Zion National Park in Utah. We didn’t have much time then, but I fell in love with the area. I also knew my kids would have a blast exploring those parks. This last thought inspired a dream to come back again with my family. And the dream came through this year. We went together during spring break and even brought our friends with us. Every day was packed to the fullest and below you can read about and see some of our adventures exploring Southern Utah.

The first couple of days we stayed in Vegas. We spent very little time on the Vegas Strip but instead decided to see Hoover Dam. It was, of course, packed with tourists but very impressive nevertheless. I was fascinated with the stories of how the dam was built. And since we went with our local friend he shared a very cool secret with us…

Here is a view from the dam to the south…

here is the view from the Hoover Dam bridge to the north…

and here is a view down 🙂

On the way out we stopped at an overlook where our friend Jeff told us about historic railroad tunnels. They were built during the construction to transport building materials from Boulder City. It turned out the first tunnel was right under the overlook so we decided to skip over the fence and explore it. The first tunnel led to the second and the next and… we ended up hiking the entire trail.

The next day we decided to spend on water. We drove from Las Vegas to Willow Beach Marina on Colorado River and rented a boat for four hours. Jeff told us about some wonderful hot springs in the area and we were excited to experience them.

I noticed this very old trail (not used anymore) along the cliff and admired brave souls that used to hike there.

A moment later my jaw dropped when I saw how that trail continued on this self propelled cart to cross over the river. I’m sure somebody must have used it at some point, but… no way!

Jeff recognized the beach that has a trail to one of the hot springs, so we anchored the boat and went exploring.

There was a warm stream very close to the beach. We followed it up and the water just kept getting warmer and warmer. At the end was an old metal ladder and some hot pools on the top.

Here is another hot spring we found. This one was on the Nevada side of the Colorado River, very close to the Hoover Dam. The water felt heavenly…

The next morning we left Vegas and drove to St George, UT which was our base for exploring the area. Valley of Fire State Park was on the way so of course we stopped there. As I thought, the kids loved the amazing rocks and couldn’t stop without scrambling over them. It was like a Nature’s playground. We didn’t know that then yet, but it turned out we found several more incredible playgrounds like this one.

Riding a petrified dinosaur…

And here is an elephant rock…

So many fun hiding spots!

There are a lot of fun things to do around St George, UT but we decided to start our explorations at Zion National Park. It was a spring break Monday and it seemed like all the vacationing families came to the park to hike that morning. I think there was a record number of visitors that day and record high temperatures for March. This didn’t discourage us and we followed on our plan of hiking Angels Landing trail. This is quite strenuous, long and totally epic trail. As one of the main attractions in Zion the trail was crowded with people, but the final experience was so worth it!

The first three quarters of the trail are quite easy, with paved wide path. Can you see the summit on the very tip on the first photo below? This is where the trail follows a ridgeline and ends with a 360-degree views of Zion Canyon.

Lots of switchbacks on the way.

We’re half-way there! With the Zion Canyon view behind us.

More switchbacks and more people… This is very close to Scout’s Lookout.

Here is a view from Scout’s Lookout. Those who are afraid of heights stop here.

I was almost ready to give up as well when I saw the continuation of the trail leading to the top. It was on top of a narrow ridge ascending 1500-feet above the valley below. Quite scary! If you look closely you might be able to see tiny people hiking the narrow spine of the mountain. Alek was all eager to continue but Stuart, Sonia and I were not so sure about it. In the end, after a short snack break at Scout’s Lookout, we decided to conquer our fears and keep climbing the last 500 more feet in elevation. The photos don’t really reflect well the vertical cliffs that were on both sides. I had to stay focused on the path (it was a very good exercise in practicing being present in the moment) and didn’t take as many photos as I’d like to, but hopefully some of them will give you a sense of scale and adventure.

Here is a view back from one of several false peaks towards Scout’s Landing.

And here are the breathtaking views from the top… They were so worth the climb!

On the way back to the park shuttle we admired he cool, turquoise waters of Virgin River. The coolness of the water was perfect for our tired feet.

After a very intense hike in Zion we decided to take it slow but the following day turned out to be quite adventurous as well. Red Cliffs is a desert reserve near St George, UT. Our plan was to find a canyon with a stream and some cool waterfalls and pools that we saw online. This was another incredible place with rocks to climb, pools to jump into and a canyon to explore. It also was full of people, fortunately the further we went the less crowded it got.

Bryce Canyon National Park was next on our list. We were exhausted after our previous hikes and wanted to just admire the Hoodoos from the rim. It was a two and a half hour drive from St George and we thought that driving might be restful as well. The kids slept all the way there and… kept sleeping when we were driving from one lookout point to another. Some of us also got a mild case of altitude sickness as Bryce is at an elevation of 10000 ft. We drove to the end of the road and stopped at each overlook on the way back. The landscape was dreamy even though high noon was definitely not the best time to admire it. The colors started to come alive in the late afternoon, but it was our time to head back. We’ll definitely have to return to Bryce some other time and spend a few days there to discover its hidden treasures.

The last serious hike we did was at Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. Equipped with the maps from BLM office in St George and drove another two and a half hours to explore the wilderness. After hiking for over a mile in the desert the trail entered an amazing Buckskin Gulch canyon and we followed it for another two miles or so. I think this is one of the longest slot canyons in the world, so backpackers follow it to the end (for about 12 miles) where it connects with Paria River Canyon. We were lucky that it hadn’t rained for a while, because I’ve seen photos of people wading in a knee deep mud in Buckskin Gulch. For us it was perfectly dry and besides one 6 foot drop off, the trail was very easy and flat. This was my first time in a slot canyon and I felt like I could keep going forever. Each turn brought more amazing views, more rock formations, colors, terrain to explore. And the best part – there were not so many tourists there!

It was quite cold on the bottom of the canyon. Stuart found a great spot to warm up.

And I’ll finish this post with a few photos of desert plants.

Exploring Southern Utah was an amazing adventure that we’ll never forget. It’s amazing (and almost unfair) how much this part of the country has to offer. I know we’ll be back to see more national Parks in the area, and hopefully we’ll remember to plan for some other time than spring break 🙂

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