The Newmans do Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks!

All I can say is that it’s been almost a week later after returning from our trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. I’m still in awe. I can’t stop thinking about it. It was beyond stunningly beautiful at both parks.

It’s amazing to be able to see God’s creation up close, first hand. Amazing. Just amazing.
I can't help but think how anyone can doubt our God after seeing his beautiful creations in this world. National parks definitely help me feel a strong connection to God. They are so pristine, powerful, grand and yet so peaceful. 

I’ll start off with some photos from Zion National Park. Peeps, the pictures don’t do it justice. Not by a long shot. This place is amazing, gorgeous, majestic, mysterious. So many words I can use to describe Zion. Zion has beautiful ginormous red rocks that were carved out over millions of years by the peaceful yet raging at times Virgin River. Sparkling pools of water (The Emerald Pools) that are just so amazing that you want to drink from them. I fell in love with this national park, and didn’t want to leave.

We were able to do a lot at Zion, such as hike all three levels of the Emerald Pools. The hike to the lower pool was super easy, on a paved road. The lower pool was beautiful with a waterfall that we walked under to get to it.

Here we are at the middle Emerald Pool

The kids wanted to touch the pool. It was super icy cold, but felt so refreshing.

After a pretty short, yet extremely rocky hike, we made it to the upper Emerald Pool. SO worth it. The water was a sparkling green. I seriously wanted to jump in and swim in it, it was gorgeous. Worth the hike up, and worth the twisted ankle on the way down. Oops.

We did the River Walk hike to the beginning of the Narrows. Here are some photos from that hike:

 

Man it was gorgeous. We got to Zion that day about 9am and it was about 39 degrees out when we started the hike. It didn’t help that the hike was mostly shaded the entire way, but it was well worth the cold temps.

 

We stayed at a place called Zion Ponderosa for the week. It was great. On the days that we didn’t go into Zion or Bryce, we just hung out at the resort. They have a TON to do there including ATV’s (pictured above), horseback riding, bungee trampoline jumping, rock climbing, ping pong, you name it!

 

We were able to take a day trip out to Bryce Canyon National Park, which is about 2 hours North East of Zion.

No words needed to describe the beauty of this place.

   

It even snowed that day. SNOWED! I think we lucked out big time to be able to see Bryce Canyon with snow. As if it couldn’t get any more breathtaking.

On our way back home we stopped at a Cracker Barrel!

SO MUCH FUN.

A good friend of mine who recently moved here from Tennessee had told me about this place, and I’ve been dying to try it out. I thought I’d have to travel all the way down to the southern states to see a Cracker Barrel… Nope! Found one in good ole Utah. They also are in Arizona. Opening soon in Las Vegas, and word is, they just bought some land out in California! Yay! Although depending on where in CA, it may just be closer for us to drive back to Utah, ha.

 

Cracker Barrel was yummy. I had maybe THE best pancakes I’ve had in my entire life. Brandon’s breakfast was HUGE. The prices were spectacular. The coffee was really good. And they have a super cute country store in the front of the restaurant, that of course I had a little too much fun in :)

Friends, if you haven’t been to a Cracker Barrel yet, you MUST find one- www.crackerbarrel.com


Well, that about wraps it up. As I was writing this blog and putting together my photo album from this trip, I couldn't help but feel a little sad. Never have I felt this way about a vacation, or national park. I'm pretty sure I've found my park ( #findyourpark ). And that would be Zion. There's SO much of Zion that is still a mystery to me. I'd love to go back one day and hike (or attempt to hike) Angels Landing. I'm pretty sure there's NO WAY I'd actually hike the chain part, but I'd at least like to try and to get to it. I WILL hike The Narrows. No doubt about that, but I think that's a hike that would be good when the kids are a bit older and taller (ahem, Ciera) I'd like to see "The Subway". If you have no idea of what I'm talking about, Google "Zion Subway". Amaze. I'd like to hike the Canyon Overlook trail and camp out at The Watchman Campground. Until then...