Thursday, February 13, 2014

Presidents Day Weekend Ideas


It is supposed to be in the fifties in Utah County this weekend.  
Here are some ideas for Utah County, and a few places within two to four hour’s drive of Utah County:


Utah County:
Hiking:
It has been raining so plan on mud.  Wear rubber boots or old tennies and have a blast!
Y mountain is a great one if you are craving an elevated heart rate.
Rock Canyon if avalanche danger is clear.
Hobble Creek bike path in Springville, beginning just past the gun range.


Biking or walking:
Dust off the bikes and ride the Provo River Trail (be prepared for huge puddles.  Heck, make them part of the memories and go prepared to splash!)


Snow fun:
If you want to stay with the whole “winter” theme, and take advantage of loads of new, albeit wet snow, check out
for some great deals around the state.  

Springville City has a great little tubing hill/cross country ski track perfect for beginners, may be rained out though.



If you choose to go snowshoeing or cross country skiing on your own, be double safe about avalanches...check an outdoor store for avalanche info, go somewhere really flat and don’t cross any canyons or chutes.  I want you to be around for more of my amazing posts.  =)



Want to stay indoors?  
Try out Provo’s new Recreation Center;
Check out the Spanish Fork Water Gardens Theater where the tickets are three dollars and the treats 1-2 dollars. There is a family concert at BYU
BYU has a family concert at 11 am.  http://arts.byu.edu/2013/10/free-sorenson-family-concert-series-to-begin-oct-19-at-byu/

Have a Seven Peaks pass?  Town Cinemas in AF is free.



Moab
I, personally, want to head to Moab.  Delicate Arch and some of the of the out and back hikes that I haven’t been to in years are calling me.  Temps are supposed to be in the high fifties, low sixties, and wind low, and I found a two star hotel for fifty bucks, still available as of Thursday night.



I have heard different responses to the Delicate Arch with kids.  My three youngest hiked it happily until we got to the drop in bowl where the Arch is.  I have one very cautious daughter and she refused to even enter the bowl at first.  
However, the conditions were dry, and she took it one


step at a time and made it to the arch.  Her response now:  
“It was a little bit scary but once I realized I wasn’t going to fall down a big cliff it was fun.”



If you have time and the conditions are dry, my kids enjoyed a stopover at the dinosaur tracks between Green River and Moab.  Here is a website with some info on them.


Moab is a quick two and half to three hour drive from Provo.  One Saturday afternoon my husband and I took off around four, drove to Delicate Arch before dark, had a nice mexican food dinner and drove home.  We were home by eleven, one of my favorite dates ever.


Capitol Reef
One more trip that I can’t leave out and that we have done in spring/fall conditions, is the Capitol Reef/Goblin Valley/Little Wild Horse Canyon trip.  
About a three hour drive from Utah County, The Days Inn in Torrey is affordable and has an indoor pool.  NOT fancy.  Period.  But affordable (fifty bucks this weekend) and usually clean. (The whole town closes at six pm too, be prepared.) They also have two queens and a sofabed in many if not all the rooms and at least a few of the rooms are oversized.  We took three kids and the only complaint was about the nasty biscuits for breakfast..which has gone down in our history as a favorite family story.


We  hiked the Hickman Bridge trail, stopping to view the picto/petroglyphs on the way (Madi, age 9, took a journal and documented the hikes as we went). We then visited the Capitol Reef park campground and bought a pie at the general store (might be closed for the season) and drove down to the short hike to the pioneer autographs. One more night swimming at the Day’s Inn, then we drove to Goblin Valley, where the kids almost refused to get out of the car.  They didn’t feel like looking at another canyon.  We bargained with them that if they would just go out and and walk down by the hoodoos (which they could not yet see), we would leave.  Two hours later I was begging them to get off the hoodoos so we would have time to hike Little Wild Horse Canyon.


Our guide book warned us that the trail head for Little Wild Horse would be a little obscure, hard to find.  Evidently things have changed since its publication because the trail head and all possible parking spots, plus a few illegal ones, were taken.  There must have been six scout trailers there, and who knows how many families.  While this scenario can equate to a crowded trail, once we got into the canyon, things calmed down and we were happy to greet, pass or be passed by , and chit chat with the various families and groups we got to share the canyon with.


Keeping the kiddos happy:


My trick for keeping the kids happy was to take a yummy lunch and lots of treats.  I watched the kids and as I sensed boredom or an approaching complaint, I would call out “snack break!”  and we would have a fruit snack or fruit rollup, a drink of water, or a peanut m&m.  
The end of Little Wild Horse opens up where more adventurous canyoneerers venture on to a seven mile loop hike thru Bell Canyon. This makes a great lunch time turnaround for those of us trying to keep it steady and maintain good relations with our kids.  
There were many families with babies in backpacks, dogs, and toddlers.  This is a great kid trip.


Yurts?
I have noticed also that Goblin Valley has “Yurts” now.  Round, soft sided platform tents with solar power, a futon, and bunk beds inside (shared bathrooms with  hot showers).  They cost around 80 dollars per night and reservations fill up fast, so dont’ count on one this weekend, but maybe for the future…



And...at the risk of abusing you with “too much too soon” I have to add that most of Utah and Salt Lake Counties go to St. George and Mesquite on Presidents Day weekend.  St. George got it right when it came to pumping up their economy by capitalizing on their great weather.  They have soccer, baseball, swim, gymnastics, and who knows how many other special invitation club team tournaments every weekend until the temps get too hot to bear.  


That being said, the weatherman says the highs in St. George will be in the 70s all weekend, who wouldn’t want to bask in sunny 70 degree weather, surrounded by soul warming red cliffs, in spite of the sold out show in town.  If you have family or friends there or don’t mind sleeping in your car, St. George could be the place for you.
We went last Presidents day weekend and there were people everywhere.  Red Cliffs BLM campground has a great little one ish mile hike up through a smooth red canyon with multiple waterfalls.  The hike is easy and fun for little ones, though the water is not warm yet.  
Of course, Emerald Pools in Zion National Park is a great hike with kids.  There is a little bit of an elevation gain but the pools break it up nicely and make for a worthwhile payoff at the end.  
The Gap and Pioneer Park overlook the city and offer rock scrambling, a quick, tight squeeze slot canyon (my young kids liked it, but I didn’t try it).
http://www.stateparks.utah.gov/park/goblin-valley-state-park

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