Love in the Desert

Darin and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary Sunday.

20 years!!! That's a LONG time.

Anyway, Darin took me down to southern Utah for a 5-day getaway to sort-of relive our honeymoon--we went camping in Zion and Bryce.

This time we skipped Bryce, but added Cedar Breaks.

So Saturday we left early--in time to make lunch at the Big Rock Candy Mountain Cafe where we had some really good burgers.
Thanks to Mom and Dad for the recommendation. After lunch we drove on down to Cedar Breaks.
It's a pretty spectacular little Bryce-type canyon, complete with a very big, very old Bristlecone Pine and a great hike to an overlook with one MEAN echo. We met some guys who were coming out of that overlook who told us exactly where to stand to get the best echo. At 3:00. Not 12:00, not 2:30. 3:00! We picked up our obligatory refrigerator magnet (Suzanne's collection) and cane medallion (Darin's collection). After Cedar Breaks we drove to St. George where we checked into our hotel, got some dinner, and did some shopping so we could eat in on Sunday for lunch.

Sunday, being our Anniversary, we decided to just kick back and relax. We slept in, read, played some games, floated in the pool, visited a local botanical garden, visited the St. George Temple visitor's center, then went out to dinner.

Monday, we went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
WOW!!! Pictures do NOT do it justice! You can't come close to getting any kind of scope for how big it is until you're standing on it's edge.

We did a couple of good hikes, visited all the great overlooks, got a bit of vertigo looking over crumbling canyon walls, snatched each other right out of the air... No. That's The Emperor's New Groove. There was no need for snatching, though we did sidle right up to the edge and hang our heads over to look down. OK. Actually we belly-crawled to the edge to take a peak over the side. Wow! WOW!! It is AWESOME!
And the North Rim is beautiful! I had always envisioned this chasm in a scrub desert, but you actually climb to near 9000 ft elevation through acres and acres and miles and miles of evergreen forest. Ponderosa Pine and Quaking Aspen type forest. Did you know there is a herd of buffalo living in the forests north of the Grand Canyon? There is! We saw them!

We loved it so much there we're planning to take the kids there for vacation next year--that is IF Obama's Cap and Trade (better known as Bait and Switch) somehow dies coming out of the gates. Otherwise we may not be able to afford the gas, let alone food or clothing or medical care or electricity or...

Tuesday turned out to be another easy-going day. We did some shopping, went to the St. George Temple and did some sealings--an anniversary tradition for us. We stopped by Iceberg for shakes then chilled out the rest of the day. Chilling is nice.


Wednesday we checked out early and headed to Zion National Park.
I have to say, the shuttle system they've implemented at Zion and Bryce is phenomenal. It makes the whole trip SO laid back and relaxed. No hassling over parking or following lost people up the canyon. We parked at the visitor center, hopped a shuttle, and did the canyon. We did it in two legs. The first, the morning leg, we did the Emerald Pool loop. Great hike, medium to strenuous, about 2 hours. We added on the Grotto trail and picked up the shuttle there. Then we went into Springdale for lunch. By the way, if you go to Zion, don't plan on having a lot of lunch choices in town. We were really craving pizza and had heard that the pizza and noodle place in Springdale was really good, but they didn't open until 4:00! We ended up having some excellent deli sandwiches at a little ice cream and deli down the street. It was cheaper that way anyway. Then we headed back to the park and on up to the Narrows at the top of the park. We hiked up the 1 mile trail to the river's edge, then hiked another mile up the narrows, IN the water most of the way. It wasn't too deep. Ankle-deep through most, though there was one spot where the water came waist high at the shallowest. We played, too lots of pictures, loved being wet in that desert heat (it was 106 that day).
We met lots of really nice people, and had a great time. That afternoon we hopped in the car and headed home. 5 1/2 hours later we were hugging our kids.

Great trip!

Thanks, Darin. You're the greatest, and I love you more than ever.