The Glory and Peace of Zion

Zion National Park...there's something peaceful and glorious about this place.I was in awe of the majestic mountains and the beauty of the landscape. I really could just sit in anywhere in the National Park and be at peace. This is definitely a special place to come back and visit. We took the shuttle through the main area of the park, because that's the only way to get to different parts of the park. The key is to get to the park early so you can find parking at the visitor center parking lot. There are campgrounds within the park but I've heard it's really hard to get a reservation because it's so popular!

It was nice to have the shuttles because we didn't have to worry about driving and parking within the park. The shuttles would come every 15 minutes to multiple stopping points. One of the most famous hikes in Zion is the Angels Landing hike. This hike is pretty long and somewhat difficult hike. I've heard if you're afraid of heights, then this hike is not for you. You literally hike on the edge of the mountain while holding onto the chain on the side of the mountain but the ending point is literally a landing at the top overlooking the Zion valley and you really feel like an angel looking down around you. The views I hear are breathtaking all along the hike. We decided not to do this hike this time around because the girls are too little and it would be too dangerous.

Hikes that we were able to do with the kids:
Weeping Rock
Riverside Walk

Hikes we would love to do in the future:
Angels Landing
The Narrows

If you're interested in what other hikes there are what the shuttle system looks like, click here for the link to their Zion National Park's Hiking Guide.

Since we traveled with our trailer, we stayed at Zion River RV Resort just right outside of the park which was about a 10 minute drive into the park. We like having full hookups when traveling but if you like to boondock (which means camping in your trailer/RV without water, sewer, and electrical hookups), then trying to get a campground within the park is best.

Simplicity in Sunsets

Living in Silicon Valley and the hustle and bustle of just regular life in the Bay can be exhilarating and exciting at times. However, there have been more moments as I get older and having lived in the Bay for a long time, it’s hard to step out of the “Bay Bubble” and slow down. When you’re running and going at such a fast pace, it’s hard to notice and enjoy the little things that God has placed in your life. When you’re in an environment where it’s so easy to “control” every little aspect of your life, it’s hard to let go and let God into your life. I know that this perspective or reflection may not be true for everyone but I wonder if it resonates with some people. 

Having been out on the road for awhile now and out of the environment that we live in, I have come to realize how important it is to intentionally make time to slow down. I don’t mean just waiting for the weekends or vacation times but purposely carving out time in each day to slow down. When I say “slow down”, I don’t mean spending time on my phone, TV or on the computer browsing my good ole favorites of Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, watching “This is Us” or even online shopping or reading blogs (just saying these are my crutches ya’ll). What I mean is finding things that give me life and that fills my soul. 

Being out here on the road and in the midst of God’s creation has made me slow down and take a deep breath. It’s slowly helped me see the beauty in the little things such as sunsets. Living in the Bay, it’s hard to notice and enjoy the sunsets because I’m either in a car, inside a place, or in the house making dinner. But out here in the wilderness of His creation, in the vast open sky, the sunset captures your attention. The colors, the beauty, and the time it takes for the sun to set is just amazing. Sitting to enjoy the sunset has been and is one of the things that gives me life and fills my soul. It slows me down because in that moment, all I am doing is watching the sun set in the sky. Such simplicity. 

Loving Lake Powell

This by far was my favorite campground in our entire trip. We stayed at Lake Powell - Wahweap Campground. Our RV site was big and spacious with lots of room for the girls to run around, ride their bikes and scooters. The entire campground was clean and we had a view of the lake. There was fire pit and the best part was that it was quiet and relaxing just sitting outside. You could even see the jack rabbits hopping around the campground and hear the coyotes at night. Loved this spot and so glad that we spent 4 nights here. The best part of this location was how decently close everything was. From this location, we were able to visit Horseshoe Bend, take tours of Antelope Canyon, take the tour of the Carl Hayden Dam, go into the town of Page for groceries and to eat, 2 hour drive to Monument Valley, and much more that we didn’t realize was so close to us until we left.  We met a family who we met at our Zion RV resort and just happened to stay at Lake Powell too at the same time we were!. They told us they rented a boat in Lake Powell and that you could drive the boat yourself to wherever you wanted to go. How cool is that? 

Lake Powell gave us a lot of time to just really sit and relax and hangout as a family. I just loved sitting outside in the sun and looking at the view of the lake. The girls loved going down to the beach and playing in the sand and water. The most epic thing at this campsite was the moon rising behind Navajo Mountain in the distance. It was literally an epic moment and experience to see it. We were just in awe of what we were seeing. Truly an amazing experience to see the moon so big, full, and glorious rising slowly from behind Navajo Mountain. The colors and the glow of the moon, I can’t even begin to describe the majestic nature of it. It was just epic. Here’s a short video of the moon beginning to rise. 

 I am so thankful for these majestic moments out here because it’s such a great reminder of how blessed we are to live in His creation and that God has created all of this for us to enjoy and be reminded of how majestic He is. I can’t say that enough because it’s a good reminder for me to be thankful for the life He has blessed me with despite whatever trials and tribulations that life is thrown my way.

Amazing Wonders

Every place that we have traveled, I continue to be amazed by the grandeur and beauty that I see. Seriously, being in God’s creation is not just relaxing and brings peace to my soul but it gives me a greater sense of how majestic God is to have created all this for us to enjoy. Spending 5 days in the Lake Powell/Page area was so worth it. Let’s begin with Horseshoe Bend. 

Horseshoe Bend

It’s a short hike in and down to the cliff where you literally stand (there’s no railing whatsoever!) on the edge of the cliff that surrounds Horseshoe Bend and you look down! I mean look at how close you can get to the edge! I definitely was scared of falling over so I literally sat down and scooted myself to as close as I could without falling. There were quite a few people lying on their stomachs. Dave and I took turns walking up to the edge of the cliff so that one of us could watch girls because you know for sure I wasn’t going to let the girls run around near that cliff! Right before we left, we each held the girls and walked them to a point where they could see the Horseshoe Bend. I highly recommend coming here to see this if you’re in the area or even if you’re at Grand Canyon (it’s only a 2 hour drive from Grand Canyon to Horseshoe Bend). 

Lower Antelope Canyon

The next amazing place and number one of my list in this area is taking a tour of Lower Antelope Canyon. There’s also tours for the Upper Antelope Canyon which takes you into the canyon where most people are familiar with based on photographs you’ve seen. The Upper Antelope Canyons is definitely much more expensive like $50/person and they drive you in from the town of Page. Dave and I of course wanted a less expensive experience and found out about the Lower Antelope Canyon tour which was only $25/person! It’s a steeper climb down into the canyon but just as beautiful! It’s a 1.5 hour tour where a guide walks you through the canyon pointing out different features of the canyon that look like certain images, like a dragon, or an animal, etc. I highly recommend taking Ken’s Tour of the lower antelope canyon. We definitely want to come back when the girls are old enough to make the steep climb down the stairs into the canyon. Dave and I did this tour separately so that one of us was watching the girls while the other one enjoyed their time in the canyon. Seriously, I was in awe the entire time in the canyon. AMAZING!

Monument Valley

Second favorite place in this area, well 2 hours away from the town of Page is Monument Valley.  We didn’t plan on going here at all because it seemed out of the way but thanks to David’s spontaneity, we decided at 3pm in the afternoon to make the drive out to Monument Valley. Best spontaneous decision of the trip. If you don’t know about Monument Valley, think about the old John Wayne western movies; that scenery in the background is Monument Valley. We were lucky enough to get there in time to drive the off-roading loop in the valley. We had a grand time off-roading with our trusty Odyssey, well mostly, I had a great time driving the dusty dirt roads. Here’s a little video clip of us off-roading in the valley. The most amazing scenery was watching the sunset set across Monument Valley. The colors were so beautiful and it was breathtaking. 

Carl Hayden Visitor Center and Glen Canyon Dam

If you’re ever in the Page area, I would recommend stopping by the Carl Hayden Visitor Center and take a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam. The visitor center was a fun place also for the kids to explore  but the tour itself was also pretty neat. We were able to go inside the Dam and hear about the history and purpose of the Dam. 

Grand Canyon Adventure Day 2

It's been awhile since I've blogged because I'm backlogged in blogging! Sorry about that guys! It's been hard to blog on the spot because of the lack of wifi at the places we are at. If you would like to see more updates real-time, you can follow us on Instagram @embracingourlifejourney.

Our second day at the grand canyon started off to a slow start which was totally fine by me. If you can’t tell by now through my blog, I love slow mornings. We decided by the recommendation of our RV neighbor Butch to eat an early lunch at the El Tovar restaurant at the nicest lodge in Grand Canyon. So, we went for an early lunch which was a great tip from Butch because we got seated right away and it was crowded at all! It was a nice break from eating in the trailer or even at just regular restaurants because El Tovar was a pretty fancy restaurant that was decorated like an old lodge. We ordered ourselves some yummy food and then we went on our way to Desert View Watch Tower which was about 30-40minutes drive. 

Desert View Watch Tower is a great stop at the Grand Canyon National Park because it gives you a different perspective of the canyon and you get see how the canyon slowly changes into the desert view, hence the name “Desert View Watch Tower”. We told the girls we were going to see a castle because the watch tower kinda looks like a castle. They loved climbing up the stairs to the very top of the tower which was pretty cool. I really loved the little porthole windows at each level of the tower.

The biggest surprise and find of the day was this verse that was placed against one of the rock walls on one of the outside levels of the watch tower. 

 On the drive back to Trailer Village, of course we run into some Elk just walking down the road! Check out this video! This Elk literally walked right beside our van and then in front of it! Can you tell I’m still jazzed that we saw Elk so close! I’ve literally blogged about 3 times I think.  We ended the day with enjoying our last Grand Canyon sunset. 

Grand Canyon Adventures!

We spent several days in Grand Canyon (on the South Rim) and it was a wonderful experience for us! We got lucky and was able to get an RV campsite at the Trailer Village inside Grand Canyon National Park. Trailer Village was super convenient because there was a shuttle stop right at the entrance of the village and it was close to the huge general store and the Yavapai Lodge which also had a cafeteria and a small restaurant. The best part of staying in Trailer Village was seeing the Elk roam freely around the campground, which I blogged about earlier. Dave got to ride his bike twice in the morning which was life-giving for him and a good exercise as well!

The first day, we spent our entire day on taking the shuttle bus from our campground to Hermit's Rest. The total bus ride takes about 40 minutes but there are 8 stops along the way where you can get off and take pictures and enjoy the scenery. It was a nice way to see the Grand Canyon from a different point of view. Plus, the girls loved riding the shuttle.

 The one thing that really made me nervous was the big openings in the railings at the edges or even no railings. Most definitely I was holding onto the girls' hands super tight till my knuckles turned white! The shuttle would come every 10 minutes so we never had to wait very long for the next shuttle. We even met a young couple who rented bikes and rode the same route, which is also a fun way to see the canyon. 

No railings behind Mae! Eek!

That's as far as Joi could go. Still made me nervous though.

Several places, there were some rocks for the girls to climb that were far enough away from the edge of the canyon and at one stop they found a pile of rocks that they made into a stage and began to sing for everyone to hear. It was a pretty precious moment to see.

We ended up at Hermit's Rest which is the last stop on the shuttle line. It had a cute little gift shop and a little place that had snacks, sandwiches, drinks, and ice cream to buy. So, we bought some ice cream sandwiches to share with the girls as a treat and checked out the gift shop. On our way back to the shuttle, we met a couple who literally live a couple blocks away from us in the same town! How funny that we would meet them in the Grand Canyon at Hermit's Rest! It was fun chatting with them while we rode the shuttle back to our starting point. 

We ended our day, playing outside in our campground, riding our scooter and bikes. But the best part of the end of the day was seeing elk roaming around our campground and watching them with our RV neighbors Butch and Ryan. Plus Pedro spent the afternoon just basking in the sun in his new camp chair. We discovered early on in the trip that he loves sitting by the campfire and just basking in the sun. So, we went to Walmart and bought him his own camp chair that has a pattern of bears on it! We ended our first day taking Pedro to see the sunset at Mather Point, which is one of the scenic points at the canyon. 

Yes, that kid camp chair is Pedro's. ;)

Look at that elk! That was one of group of 5 that was roaming around the campground!

Sunset from Mather Point

Pedro at Mather Point during sunset!