Hiking with Mollee at Red Ciffs

Hiking with your family, especially with two little kids is a much different adventure then when I was in scouts or just out on a trip with friends. I used to see how fast I could hike to a destination, stopping just to see some of the really big sites and take a few pictures. On our anniversary trip a few weeks ago we went to St George for the weekend and decided to do a little hiking since Aimee and I love it so much. We found a nice trail at Red Cliffs recreation area that had no change in elevation and was only .75 miles long one way. We should be able to knock this out in an hour or so I thought as we drove up there.

I knew it would be more of an all afternoon adventure when Mollee discovered hundreds of little green furry caterpillars crawling everywhere in the parking lot. They were all over the ground, rocks, trees, and cars. Mollee wanted to catch every one of them and put them all on one big rock so they could all play with each other. It was fun to kinda slow things down and enjoy the hike from Mollee's perspective. After 15 minutes of caterpillar catching we decided to start our hike.

Mollee really enjoyed seeing more caterpillars as we started but got really excited about all the little things along the way. We saw lizards and birds and cactus and big huge rocks. She thought it was "pretty cool" that there were stairs out in the middle of the desert. Logan slept pretty much the whole hike so we kept him bundled up in a blanket so he wouldn't get sunburnt.

After a half mile we came across our first pool of water with a little mini waterfall. Mollee had a blast playing in the water even though it was "pretty cold". nothing like throwing rocks into the water. After hanging out for a little while we decided to head up to the end of the trail to see a bigger pool and waterfall.

We found this place at the end of the hike. You could go on but it was tricky with these little footholds carved out in the rock with a rope to hold onto. We decided slipping and falling in the water with kids wasn't a good option so we stopped and relaxed for a while.

It seems no matter where we go, Mollee always finds herself a good stick to play with. The stick usually finds its way back to our house to be added to the collection of sticks in the coat closet.

We thought it was a great hike, but then the entertainment arrived. Several families packing swimsuits and beer showed up at our little sanctuary and began some backwoods cliff diving for our entertainment. We we sat back and enjoyed the show!!

I really enjoyed slowing things down and hiking with the kids. Mollee was really cute and Aimee and I really enjoyed the hike