Summer and Cedar Breaks

Summer has been seemingly so full of activities, the end of the break kind of snuck up on me. 

We visited the aquarium and lots of trampoline parks with our Get Out pass.

We went on a road trip in July and made a stop off at the one and only Historic Cove Fort. We took advantage of their lovely picnic area for lunch and then did a little self-guided tour. The kids actually really liked it, which was I wasn't expecting.

Paul and Laszlo were desperate be good at the ole pioneer hoop rolling game and they really wanted me to catch their hooping on video. That would require them being able to keep that sucker rolling for more than 3 seconds, however, and that proved to be pretty tricky.

We made it to Duck Creek Village in the late afternoon, where we did some caving. There is a series of lava tubes (sometimes called Mammoth Caves) that, with some flashlights and a willingness to get pretty dirty, is fun to explore. Some of the tubes are tall enough to stand and walk in, others require crawling, unless you are Arthur of course! If you're Arthur you just charge forward with your little flashlight, completely ignoring your mom calling you to come back before you get stuck in mud.

I think every tube we explored did end up requiring crawling to get through the exit. Sure, we could turn around and go out the way we came in, but instead we squeezed ourselves through some very tight spots, getting covered in mud and dirt. 

We found a local place to get dinner and then met up with my brother and his family. They were going to a big reunion and had some extra space in their rental, so we borrowed that extra space to go on our own little vacation.

We got up sorta bright and sorta early the next morning to go to our main destination: Cedar Breaks.

We stopped by the visitor center to get junior ranger books and we got to hear a very interesting geology talk by one of the park rangers. Once she said the word "rock," Arthur just kept echoing it throughout the whole talk. I only heard part of the talk because Arthur wanted to be chased, so we had to take turns catching him and bringing him back.

From Sunset Point Overlook we got a great view of the canyon and then went on a short walk to a picnic area to have lunch.

It was a little windy on the rim, so the kids were complaining about the cold. Clearly, it's been summer for too long if they can't handle temperatures in the 60's. It's my favorite kind of hiking weather when it's cool and breezy, so I couldn't agree with their assessment.

There were so many wildflowers blooming, it made for a particularly beautiful walk through the woods.

After lunch and a walk we drove to Chessman Ridge and did our main hike to Alpine Lake. It's more a pond than a lake, but still beautiful.

I think this hike is particularly nice because it is shady with all the pine trees, but you still get some good glimpses of the amphitheater along the way.

We had Paul and Laszlo working on not one, but two junior ranger badges, Cedar Breaks has a regular badge and a badge for learning about wildfires and the effect they have on the ecosystem. Laszlo is an avid badge collector, as am I, Paul only liked the one badge this time because it was "gold". In other words, not a cool laser cut wood, but a plastic badge.

Cedar Breaks is a great summer destination to beat the heat. It's a bit like Bryce Canyon and a bit like the Grand Canyon, but less crowded that both and with cooler temperatures. I'd recommend giving it a visit, just be cautious about hiking at that elevation if you aren't used to it. Take it easy, the air is pretty thin up there!