Bryce was beautiful, but it was cold in March. And snowy. Like two feet snowy - so our adventures were more in the lines of creating Olaf statues on all the poles so that he was everywhere.
ZIon, on the other hand, was lovely. We at first read up on Zion, kid friendly hikes. We knew that we had to have our key factors included in our one day, let's do ZION adventure. One of the Emerald Pools hikes looked doable and there was water at the end. Emerald Pools, right. Well, the hike was crowded, and it was only March. I am not complaining at all. We had a blast with our walking sticks, stopping to see plants and rocks. The other more serious hikers, they may not have agreed.
We got to the pools, couldn't go in them. Super bummed. But, we had something even more special up our sleeve We went back to the car. We drove to just a random place. Pulled off, hiking boots on, and let's go. We just walked. We found these wavy red and orange rocks, followed them into a dry wash and just explored. We climbed on fallen trees, found rocks and spelled our names, built rock castles and just laid on the hill, looking up at the blue skies and described the clouds. (I found a lobster - always thinking of food) It was simply amazing. The wonder in the park itself - unbelievable. The amount of joy my daughter got from exploring with nature was priceless. And at the end of the day, after a quick dip in the Virgin River, we were all wet, dirty, smelly, scraped, bruised and smiling from ear to ear. Does it get any better? I am not sure. But we will seek it out!!!