With summer here, Jacqueline and I only had one day off together. So, it was getting harder to get out and do something adventurous. Add to that our two year old daughter and the fact that Jacqueline was now a couple of months pregnant and we really had a challenging situation. But we were bound and determined to make it work. So when we looked for a place close to home to go camping and hiking, we found Red Canyon Campground only an hour and forty-five minutes from home. It is right outside of Bryce Canyon National Park in the Dixie National Forest. We left Saturday morning and the slowest part of the drive was definitely getting out of Zion.
We first went to the campground and found ourselves a spot. We picked one that had a nice level tent pad that was across from the bathrooms, but away from most other people. We knew the campground was likely to fill as there were only a few spots left. We ate some lunch, then got our stuff together to go for a hike. We went over to the Visitor Center and got a map. There were a whole bunch of trails in this area, none of which that I had hiked. We chose the Losee Canyon Trail which was a 20 minute drive from where we were at.
The weather was nearly perfect out in the low 80's as we began the hike. We chose this trail because it was fairly level but provided some good distance to put the miles in. Zyla was still going to be carried in the backpack as she was not quite ready to do a hike of this distance.
The hike was fairly interesting as the path followed this canyon through the red rock formations and canyon bottom. I was slightly disappointed because the trail was commonly a horse trail, so it was a little bit sandier than I was hoping. There was a bit of horse droppings, but not enough to really impact the hike.
Jacqueline was doing well with the hiking despite being obviously pregnant. We went most of the way to where the canyon met up with another trail, but turned around before it actually did. We got the point of the trail by this point. When we were heading back to the trailhead, Zyla fell asleep. When we got there, we didn't want to take her out of the pack and ruin her nap, so luckily there was another short trail at the trailhead that we could go hike.
This trail was called the Arches trail. While the red rock of Bryce area is better known for its Hoodoos, there were some arches and windows that made this trail more interesting than the other one even though it was only a short distance. It was a loop trail that took us right under one of the so called arches. It was definitely worth the extra effort to hike up to here.
We got back to the car with Zyla getting a sufficient nap. Then we went back to the camping. We had a really fun evening as Zyla got to sit around in her chair with the rest of us reading books and listening to music. When it came time to go to sleep, she went to sleep by herself in the tent while Mom and Dad played games.
The night got remarkably chilly. We decided to wake Zyla up to put on her warmer down jacket. She was not very happy as she screamed and I am sure woke the neighbors. We did not have a great night's sleep, but knew that was from things that we could correct in the future. In the morning, we really only had the time to eat breakfast, pack up the car, and go as Mommy had to work later in the day. It was a very successful trip and we knew we wanted to get back out and do more camping as the summer progressed.
We first went to the campground and found ourselves a spot. We picked one that had a nice level tent pad that was across from the bathrooms, but away from most other people. We knew the campground was likely to fill as there were only a few spots left. We ate some lunch, then got our stuff together to go for a hike. We went over to the Visitor Center and got a map. There were a whole bunch of trails in this area, none of which that I had hiked. We chose the Losee Canyon Trail which was a 20 minute drive from where we were at.
The weather was nearly perfect out in the low 80's as we began the hike. We chose this trail because it was fairly level but provided some good distance to put the miles in. Zyla was still going to be carried in the backpack as she was not quite ready to do a hike of this distance.
The hike was fairly interesting as the path followed this canyon through the red rock formations and canyon bottom. I was slightly disappointed because the trail was commonly a horse trail, so it was a little bit sandier than I was hoping. There was a bit of horse droppings, but not enough to really impact the hike.
Jacqueline was doing well with the hiking despite being obviously pregnant. We went most of the way to where the canyon met up with another trail, but turned around before it actually did. We got the point of the trail by this point. When we were heading back to the trailhead, Zyla fell asleep. When we got there, we didn't want to take her out of the pack and ruin her nap, so luckily there was another short trail at the trailhead that we could go hike.
This trail was called the Arches trail. While the red rock of Bryce area is better known for its Hoodoos, there were some arches and windows that made this trail more interesting than the other one even though it was only a short distance. It was a loop trail that took us right under one of the so called arches. It was definitely worth the extra effort to hike up to here.
We got back to the car with Zyla getting a sufficient nap. Then we went back to the camping. We had a really fun evening as Zyla got to sit around in her chair with the rest of us reading books and listening to music. When it came time to go to sleep, she went to sleep by herself in the tent while Mom and Dad played games.
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