HooDoos and Cliffs and Waterfalls, oh my!
We arrived in Glendale the day before Halloween. The decision to stay in this particular town was in part due to proximity to Bryce, but also due to the fact that all the RV parks closer to Bryce close down Oct 31st due to freezing weather. In fact, even our spot was vacated by management, but still allowed RVs to stay and pay on the honor system. The town itself is the smallest town we’ve stayed in yet, one of those places where you drive through and think “was that a town?” One of the towns that the grocer and the hardware store are one and the same. We were here for a long 8 nights - through Covid Halloween and the Election. Thankfully it was a quiet place next to an apple orchard, and the kids could run about safely and the weather was lovely during the day.
Covid Halloween was a weird thing. They got dressed in their costumes at the start of the day. We were not going to trick or treat, with covid and compounded by being in this small unfamiliar town, but of course the kids wanted to get candy. I set up a huge scavenger hunt for them, with clues leading them to their next treat. It was definitely different from what they usually experience but they really had fun.
The next day we went to Escalantes National Monument and completed what was our most challenging family hike yet. Nearly 7 miles and much of the trail through deep soft sand. It was a there and back trail through the large picturesque canyon that ended in a grotto with a large waterfall. I was the only one who could keep my feet in the frigid water, it just felt so good to make them go numb and get the swelling down a bit. The walk itself was interesting and varied - along cliff sides, up and down the the curves of the canyon, through tall reeds, and eventually alongside the river. When we left here we raced the sunset to make it to Devil’s Garden to play among the hoo doos. I wish we had more days that we could have explored this Escalantes.
Our next adventure here was the fourth of Utah’s Big 5: Bryce Canyon. This canyon is special not just because of its depth, which is impressive, but also because of the thousands of hoodoos that have formed as time and erosion has its way with the landscape. Most of the hikes in this park did not fit our family’s needs (more specifically, my need to avoid heights that trigger my vertigo), but we found a couple of smaller ones and were able to do the scenic drive that runs along the spine of the mesa.
Right in the town of Glendale there was a short hike that I found on my All Trails app that went into a slot canyon. This was such a memorable little hike. Most slot canyon hikes involved words like “cliff” and “repelling” and “flash flood warnings.” This one did not, and there was absolutely no other souls on the hike, we had the whole place to ourselves. We were able to experience the scrambling and squeezing between tight spaces, giving us at least a taste of the slot canyon experience.
