UTAZ Day 9: Page, AZ - Horseshoe Bend & Lower Antelope Canyon

Back to vacation recapping (also, I added reviews to the meals we've cooked so far on yesterday's menu plan because man our first two have been delicious!). On Day 9 we said a nearly tearful goodbye to our yurt. We LOVED our glamping home and its homemade breakfasts, comfortable style and space, and most of all the kids *loved* their loft (the second bedroom remained unused the whole stay 😂). Landon is now going to live in a yurt when he grows up and the girls look forward to visiting him.

We drove down Scenic Byway 12 one more time, waving at the parks we’ve visited so far and saying a happy hello to Arizona- a new state for the kids! The Navajo Nation reopened the Antelope Canyon tours one week before we arrived and we were thrilled to add a stop in Page on our way to the Grand Canyon. We arrived early due to some confusion about time zones (Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, but the Navajo Nation does, it's VERY CONFUSING as you cross back and forth in the same few miles), but that gave us time to run over and hike to the iconic Horseshoe Bend!

Parking is $10 and then it's a short half-mile walk to the Bend.

It's pretty crazy to see the river turn so tightly around the rock, though seeing the very teeny tiny kayakers below gave some perspective on the size of it all.

Pictures taken, we took our now sweaty selves back to the Navajo Nation tour location. There are only two operators with permission to enter Antelope Canyon from the elder matriarch- Ken's Tours and Dixie's Tours (fun fact: Ken and Dixie are brother and sister). The tribe was hit hard by Covid and our guide Stacy explained that August was a trial period to see if they could allow tours without putting themselves at too much risk. Masks were required at all times and the tour groups were kept very small.

Our group was just our five and Stacy and it was really an honor to get to walk through the canyon with her, hear her stories, and soak up her knowledge and history. The whole experience was one of my favorite parts of a trip full of favorites.

First you walk across flat land that makes you wonder where this giant slot canyon could actually be.

Then you walk down a long line of steep steps and BAM.

There it is.

The color, the movement, the light...

It was incredible.

Absolutely otherworldly in its shapes and motion and beauty.

The kids immediately declared it their new favorite moment of the trip and we all felt blessed to be shown through such a beautiful and sacred space.

Our guide pointed out so many fun shapes and images in the stone.

Like Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo.

And this woman with her long flowing hair.

Standing under the profile of an Indian chief.

And inside the teardrop.

I keep saying it, but my overall memory of this tour is just feeling so lucky to get to walk through this spectacular fissure in the earth.

It's an extraordinary place.

To be surrounded by this vibrant orange and look up to the bright blue far above you...

At the end, you climb back up a long ladder to the sun and flat earth all around.

From Page we pressed on to the Grand Canyon and checked in to our very classic motel room at Maswick Lodge inside the park. We were in Cottonwood, which incidentally was the same name as our yurt. This wasn't quite that fancy, but it was clean and serviceable and great to be less than a quarter-mile from the Rim, shuttles, restaurants, and hikes.

We walked to Bright Angel Lodge for our first view of the Grand Canyon (it is very big; like so big it's hard to wrap your head around the scale of it all), ate a tasty dinner at Fred Harvey Tavern, let everyone have ice cream for dessert, and set our alarms for 4:30 a.m. to see the sunrise because my family loves me and humors me so.

One more big day of our epic journey left to go!

UTAZ Day 8: Escalante - Lower Calf Creek Falls

The start of Day 8 was a lazy one.

We slept in. I woke up first, made my tea, and took my mug and my kindle out to the deck to read in the chilly morning air. It was still hazy from the wildfires, but still lovely to be anywhere outdoors in long sleeves and loose pants.

Eventually my family roused and we ate our yurt-provided breakfast of quiche and fresh fruit while the kids carefully divided the freshly baked muffins.

The kids played outside, James and I drove the 3 minutes into town to do laundry, we ate lunch at home. It was lovely and needed.

After lunch we packed up and headed out for our last hike in Escalante, Lower Calf Creek Falls. Described as a 6.4 mile out-and-back trail to a spring-fed waterfall and swimming hole, we thought that sounded perfect on a hot afternoon.

The difference in hiking through terrain near a water source was remarkable - trees, plants, reeds, greenery! Things we hadn’t yet seen! And still plenty of rocks and ledges for the kids to scramble over.

We made it the 3.2 miles to the waterfall in just over an hour and the kids tore off their clothes to run in. … and then immediately ran back out.

I could tell from the mist bouncing off the rock walls that it was FREEZING.

After much daring of one another James and the kids all got in.

I never even dipped a toe as cold water is no longer something that is welcome in my life.

Landon turned purple, James put on goggles and gave himself a swim practice, and the girls splashed and waded and repeatedly told me how cold it was.

When everyone was sufficiently frozen they got out, ate a snack, and we all started the 3.2 miles back to the car.

I made chili and had it simmering on the stove while the kids read in their loft and James and I sat on the deck. We roasted more marshmallows and went to bed one last time in our yurt.

Escalante was a great stop and we LOVED the slot canyons (and our yurt!), but we were off to the Grand Canyon in the morning with more adventures to come!

UTAZ Day 7: Escalante - Peek-a-Boo & Spooky Gulches, Devil's Garden

On Day 7 I woke up in our bed to see Landon’s disembodied head peering down at me from his spot in the loft, so that was a special Yurt experience.

We’d all gotten nearly 10 hours of sleep and my legs were almost no longer mad at me after our killer days at Zion. The kids ran around the property, gobbling up the delicious breakfast burritos the owners left in our fridge and discovering a new secret swing behind some trees. The sky was super hazy and when we asked the owner about it she said it was from the Northern California wildfires and they had never seen such a heavy haze in their area before. It lasted for two days and made me glad for the Yurt mix-up that had us hiking in Zion with its soaring views during a time of clear skies. It's scary how far the smoke can travel.

I’d read a lot about the slot canyons, or gulches, of Escalante and decided that Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Gulches were calling to us. 26 miles down a *very* bumpy dirt road, unable to go more than 20 mph, and the family was mildly skeptical of my plans, but maintained their faith in my pre-trip google skills. We parked at the isolated trailhead (Lower Fork Wash Trail; NOT Upper, if you want to do the most efficient loop) and hiked about 2 miles through high desert and down smooth rock into a dried-out riverbed and canyon.

We never saw another person, but suddenly there it was, the entrance to Peek-a-Boo gulch, with just a small 12 foot boulder climb to begin.

We managed it, with help from James, who had to get himself up at the end, and then we were off, squeezing and exclaiming through the narrow canyon and fun arches and crawl spaces that filled it.

It was a BLAST and totally worth the likely damage to our car’s suspension from the access road.

Peek-a-Boo was probably my favorite, with its crazy wavy walls and tight (but not too tight!) slots.

I think the Gulch itself was only about a half mile, if that, but it was an adventure the whole way - over, under, and through.

Once we climbed out of Peek-a-Boo Gulch we hiked a mile over to Spooky- so named because of the EXTREMELY tight squeezes and dark spaces. But first we ate lunch right outside the entrance, fueling back up with our PBJs, chips, and the last of our apples from the Capitol Reef orchards.

Refreshed and refueled, we climbed down into Spooky Gulch and it was AWESOME.

You have to climb down into the slot and then you are pretty well stuck down there until you get to the end. It would not be great if your claustrophobic, but all three kids declared it their favorite hike so far.

James and I lost a few layers of skin in some of the twists and turns.

At one point you had to tunnel under a boulder and use a fixed rope to climb up the smooth side wall to continue.

Our packs made us too wide for most of the gulch so James and I hiked while holding them overhead or out in front.

There were a few REALLY tight spots and all in all it was just SO fun.

When we finally emerged back to full daylight we hiked the 2 miles back to the car, sweaty and covered in orange dirt, and almost wished we could do it again.

On the way home, back up the 26 miles of “Hole in the Rock Road,” we pulled off to play in Devil’s Garden, a super fun collection of hoodoos and rock formations our never-ever-tired kids were thrilled to scramble over.

And by "kids" I also mean James who needed to jump from one smooth tall thing to another multiple times.

Like father, like son.

And daughter.

Cora and I found a semi-shady spot and waited them out.

After a while we forced the kids back in the car, stopped in town for a few groceries in a very (VERY!) tiny market, and headed to our home sweet yurt.

We grilled out dinner (hot dogs and steak), made a fire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores, watched the stars, and slept like the dead until Cora's floating head woke up me up the next morning.

On the last day of our trip I asked each kid which hike was their favorite and all three said the Gulches (as did James). It was pretty incredible to get to walk and wind our way through those fissures in the earth.

Sometimes I look back at the pictures and just can't believe we got to experience such wonders, but we definitely soaked them up as best we could!