Megan’s Take
Yesterday was a busy day in Zion. After the Watchman Trail, which Emilia did such a great job on, the kids and I turned in their Junior Ranger packet at the Zion visitor center, attended a ranger talk, went to the nature center, and walked down the Pa’rus trail and back. (I did the walking, pushing them in the stroller, and they eventually fell asleep.) They were worn out from the early morning and the day’s activities, though, so we kept today more low-key and fun for the kids. But it wasn’t all just fun for the kids. Our first stop of the day was Glitter Mountain, which is an active selenite mine claim. It’s down some dirt roads, but only 20 minutes or so from St. George, just across the Utah border in Arizona. It’s a fairly well-known spot, and it was relatively easy to get to. It was so cool! The ground is littered with selenite crystals everywhere, and the hill sides of the mine sparkle in the sunlight.
You can dig for larger pieces, or just collect the small fragments. Then you can send payment to the claim owner with Venmo ($2 for a handful or $20/gallon). We had fun digging and collecting selenite crystals to bring home.
After our off-the-beaten path adventure, we went to Pioneer Park in St. George and explored a bit. We thought that we were following a trail, but it wasn’t well marked. So we ended up scrambling on rocks until we circled back to the parking lot.
Our kids love rock scrambling. It makes me nervous, but I could tell that they are mentally and physically energized by climbing on rocks. While there, we saw a random dude riding his bike down the side of a rock hillside. It looked crazy to me, but he managed to do it without crashing. The kids were captivated. The video is sped up a bit because I took a time lapse instead of a video, but you can still see the crazy stunt.
We got ice cream again (yay vacation!) and went to the St. George Children’s museum. They had at least a dozen themed rooms (e.g., airport, farm, veterinarian, grocery store, dino land, desert).
It is very well done and has interesting exhibits/information for adults and older children. Emilia and Emmett ran around there for a couple hours until it was time to nap Emmett.
Then we did a scenic drive to the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park – beautiful views and much calmer/less crowded than the main canyon.
We ended the day with letting the kids play, play, play at the campground. They have had so much fun at the waterpark/jumping pad/playground at Zion Jellystone that it’ll be hard to say goodbye to this place. Tomorrow we move on to a new campground.
Phil’s Take
It was fun digging up crystals. I had a hammer in my toolbox, which made quick work of the very soft dirt these crystals were embedded in. We managed to collect quite a few sizeable ones. The kids were “finished” with it much earlier than we were, but I think they had fun.
I am sad that we’ll be leaving an area that has a Handel’s ice cream shop. I have seen where that chain of ice cream shops is listed as #1 and I completely agree, at least with every ice cream shop I have experienced.
The Kolob Canyons area was absolutely gorgeous. It wasn’t very big, but it is much more picturesque than even Zion in a way. You come around a corner and you just see these massive cliffs expand before you. I remember feeling like it just kept getting better and better until it was all in view. The best panorama I took is above, but you can see more of the individual shots in the gallery.
Although I’m not a fan of the water park, I will miss the joy it brought the kids, and I’m glad we stayed here as long as we did. On to our next adventure!
As always, here’s the detailed pictures we took today.
I am sure Megan was in rock heaven lol