Bryce Canyon Adventure

This past weekend was the annual Rogers family trip. This year we ventured down to southern Utah to experience some outdoor fun. We rented a beautiful cabin in a small town called Duck Creek Village about 40 miles away from Bryce Canyon National Park. There was a lot of fun things to do....
Our first day we ventured into Bryce Canyon. Our first hike was the Navajo Loop Trail. It was amazing. You begin on the canyon rim and descend 550 feet down to the bottom surrounded by rock walls. It is a total of about 1.3 miles. I was ambitious enough to tackle this baby at 33 weeks pregnant! I was pretty impressed with myself. I started to get pretty tired on the way up. There are a lot of switchbacks, but I did it!
Our next hike was a pretty easy one. It was the Mossy Cave trail. It led up to a small little waterfall that all the kids loved. My brother-in-law even decided to bathe in it.

Breathtaking Bryce Canyon

Hiking down Wall Street in Navajo Loop

Douglas Fir reaching to the sun

Tree huggers

33 weeks pregnant and hiking

Throwing rocks on the Mossy Cave trail

Beautiful Hoodoos

 On our second day we all took it pretty easy. Unfortunately, some people came down with a stomach bug and were down for a little while. The lucky ones who were feeling good went to a lava shoot cave nearby and climbed around. It was called Mammoth Cave. It was really neat. You climb down into a hole in the ground and just explore these caves that lava flow carved out thousands of years ago.  We had to go in with headlamps. At one point we all turned off our lights. You couldn't even see your hand in front of you. Harrison was hoping to see some bats, luckily we didn't. I am not a huge fan.
That night we went back into Bryce Canyon for the Night Sky program. The rangers set up high powered telescopes in the parking lot. Bryce Canyon is the ultimate place to look at stars and planets. We were able to see Saturn, it's moons and the nearest star, Vega. It was really cool. Harrison loved it.

The entrance to a lava shoot near Duck Creek Village 

Inside the lava cave. 

 The next day we took a cool hike to Cascade Falls, a waterfall that comes out of a rock. The hike had some amazing views. Beautiful trees, red hoodoos and perhaps the most unique was the polygamist family who had their children riding on ponies. It made me nervous because there were some pretty narrow parts with a big drop off on the side. It was a really neat hike. By the end, I think I had used up all of my energy for the trip. I was so tired.

Stunning hike to Cascade Falls

Cascade Falls- unique waterfall that comes out of the rock