Zion National Park Day 1- July 9th

Today was driving day, left at 6:30 in the morning. The most exciting part of the drive was stopping at Lake Powel for lunch. Lake Powel is in Page which is on the Arizona/Utah border. We ate a picnic at the visitor's center lawn. We thought the lake was so beautiful and the dam was huge. We went inside the visitor's center to learn more and then it was back in the car. We arrived at Zion after an interesting drive on the Mt. Carmel highway which is very windy and narrow, a little scary I thought. But there was this fun tunnel that was cut through a mountain; it is so narrow on the sides we had to go through it one way, driving down the middle. It was very long and dark; we pretended it was a ride at Disneyland while Daddy sang the Pirates of the Caribbean song so we made it fun. Then we made it to our campsite! Zion is very beautiful. It is a canyon and all of the campsites are down in the canyon near the Virgin River so all around us you are looking up at towering red rocks and cliffs. Reminds me a little of Sedona. OK while it is beautiful it is HOT… today it is 104 degrees. So after setting up camp the first thing was taking a dip in the river. The river is just a short walk from the campsite so the kids had fun cooling off. After that is was dinner time and then we rode our bikes to the visitor center. Leah, poor thing, has become terrified of her bike… not good timing as there is a lot of bike riding to do here. We had her get on it and she rides but screams and cries the entire time so Daddy has to ride his bike and hold her onto hers at the same time. Not fun for him. Hopefully we can get some more practice in but it is a little embarrassing when you are riding through the campground and your child is riding but crying hysterically and screaming that she can't turn… you all know Leah, it was drama! At the visitors center we got the Jr. Ranger books and looked at some hikes we want to do. We went back to camp and the kids worked on their Jr. Ranger books which were so great, it actually got Noah excited which had not happened all day! The next thing I know we were all asleep. Leah and I fell asleep on the couch, Tim in bed and Noah and Megan actually tucked themselves in they were so tired. When we camp it is usually early to bed, early to rise and today was no different!