Call us crazy, but we took our kids up one of the most strenuous hikes at Zions. We hiked 5 1/2 miles up to Angel's Landing. I really didn't think we would make it to the end, but we did! It took us 6 hours to finish. That is a long time for 3-6 year old kids!
The others had yet another SLOW start to the day so I took the 4 youngest kids and got a head start on the trail. Here we are chipper and cool at the beginning.
Taking a break before the trail started getting crazy.
Here we are on the switch backs. My mom was quite the trooper to help me carry an extra bag or Tucker.
Here is how we traveled on the switch backs... I made everyone try to go single file and hand to the wall. I felt like that was my repeat saying of the day... "hand to the wall!" I didn't want those kiddos getting anywhere near the cliff drop offs.
At the end of the first set of switch backs was a nice little shaded sand area that we stopped and let the kids play in for awhile.
After that, it was really fun for about a full mile, it was relatively flat and had a lot of fun rocks and caves for the kids to crawl into.
I love this picture! Probably one of my favorite from the trip.
We had to boost each other up a mini drop off to get everyone up here, but the kids loved the climbing and we were willing to do whatever made it fun for them and kept them going!
Tucker and Ivy were like magnets to the sand. They stopped and had to play in it constantly!
Our final set of switch backs. I really didn't think we were going to make it at this point, but my mom kept saying we were almost there....
...and then we turned the final corner to find this! millions of tiny switch backs. (Walter's Wiggles) It felt like I'd stepped back in time and we were all little Inca workers climbing the steep cliffs!!
I took lots of pictures to encourage and distract the kids from this huge task!
Mom and Mark... very patient grandparents!
VICTORY! I'm proud to have this picture to prove I made it to the top without Victor's help... just me and the kiddos!
and here is a glimpse downward of just how high these cliffs were. It was insane and scary for me to look down this edge so my kids didn't get to come look. I kept them as close to the middle as I could. They desperately wanted to run around and explore at the top, but I wouldn't let them leave my side. I enjoyed the top, but it felt really stressful to try to keep the kids all together at all times. I'm not sure if the stress or the journey wore me out more!
All of our group, but me.
And now all of us together at the top in front of Angel's Landing... kids or no kids with me, there is no way I'd tempt fate and climb that thing after several people have fallen off and died!!
My kids were SO done after we got to the top, but we had to come back down! ...so we took a few more pictures to distract them. :)
... and lucky me, I wound up with my favorite picture of the trip just trying to distract the kids! The rocks are so beautiful that they look fake!
By the time we got to the end all of us were exhausted! Our group had split in two as Tucker was crazy slow and tired and I was slow when I was carrying him. My mom hiked ahead with Tommy and left his brand new Camelback at the shuttle station. I didn't know until we got down to the bottom so instead of being to get home and eat at 7pm (which is late for us!), we had to ride the shuttle all the way back up the canyon and find his backpack and then back down. We were so tired, cold, and hungry by the time we got back!!!
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