Camping-- October Style!

For my really tough job, I HAD to go camping in October. Terrible huh? We left Tuesday Sep 30 and returned Thursday Oct 2nd. We camped in Snow Canyon, Ut which is in St. George. The weather was perfect and we had the perfect campsite ( well, after we set up our campsite and then explored the campground, found a better site, got permission, and then moved). The kids were awesome and it was really fun. We spent all day the second day in Zion's National Park. I had never been there before and really enjoyed it. We stopped at Cedar Breaks National Monument on our way back. Here are just a few of the gorgeous pictures of our trip.

This is the view from our campsite.

This place was incredible and I wish we had more time to spend there. I definately want to go back!

We rode the shuttle from the visitor's center and could get off and on as much as we wanted. It stopped at every stop along the way for people to get on and off. There was a shuttle every 6- 8 minutes at each stop so you never had to wait long.

The first hike we did was called the River Walk. It was incredibly beautiful! This is looking back towards the way we came. This was by far my favorite. The scenery was just beautiful!

This is looking up the wall of the canyon we hiked through. The walls were super duper high and so pretty. This was a bit of a water fall coming down the rock with maiden hair fern growing ( I think that is what it is called).

This is the viewpoint from the top of the second hike we did. This was called Weeping Rock. Apparently sandstone is very porous so it soaks up the rainfall. But it has to have somewhere to go so it falls out the bottom. I am standing under an overhanging rock where the water just seeps out. It looks like it is raining and you do get a bit wet standing under it. They have done studies on this water and it takes a thousand years for the water to travel through the sandstone and out the weeping rock!

The third and final hike we did was The Emerald Pools. I am sad to say I did not take any pictures on this one.... My leg had started hurting that morning. It was a weird pain in what felt like my achilles tendon. As the day wore on and we did more and more walking and hiking it got worse and worse. By this time I was practically in tears and having a hard time enjoying the scenery... We did see some deer and wild turkeys on this hike though.

After driving up to the Subway and driving through twice, we headed back to camp for a very late dinner. The Subway is a tunnel that goes through the mountain and is over a mile long. It is really cool. We drove through it and then not wanting to end up in Colorado, turned around and drove back through it.

Thursday morning we packed up camp and headed home. We took a detour in Cedar City to go see Cedar Breaks National Monument.

We found this cool train to ride on. Ben is the principal of the school and accompanied me on the train ride! It wasn't going anywhere fast though.

The drive up the canyon to Cedar Breaks was incredibly beautiful! We had a hard time capturing the beauty with the camera (plus the windshield was spattered with bugs).

But the Fall colors were magnificent! I love Aspen trees and even more so when they turn yellow and orange!

It was quite cold at the top of the mountain where Cedar Breaks National Monument was. We discovered that they close for the season in just a few days and planned our trip perfectly to get to see it.

The view was incredible!

These are all the staff from the trip. From left to right: Rich (my boss), Me, Brenda, and Ben.

What a great trip! I can't wait to go back and see more of that beautiful place. I highly recommend camping in October in southern Utah!