Labor Day Weekend 2017: Sand Hollow

Sean, Tayler, Casadee Bartlett, Luke Parker

Sean, Tayler, Cali, Luke Parker, Simone Parker, Casadee Bartlett

Me, Cali, Brynn, Crystal Bartlett, Taylee

Circus Adventure: Toquerville Falls.

We've recently decided that with all our visits down south to Sand Hollow and St. George, it's about time we actually start exploring the area and seeing some new things.  There are so many places we haven't discovered yet.

So when I got word that such a thing as Toquerville Falls existed, I knew it had to be added to our Labor Day Weekend trip to Sand Hollow (here).

{pic source here}

We found directions to find the falls on THIS post.  My only correction would be the street you turn on is actually Spring Dr. not Spring St.  A small detail, but one that made us question if we were going the right way.

Be fair warned that you do need a vehicle with higher clearance.  My brother drove a Subaru car up and he scraped a few times.

I would highly suggest find this place.  Being as we visited it on Labor Day Weekend, it was crowded with a lot of people.  But I know others who have visited and had the entire place to themselves.  I'm keeping this puppy on my to do list for the next time we head south so we can check it out and play on it when it's not crowded.  Also, the water in the bottom pool was stirred up when we were there.  I'd like to visit it when we can see the bottom better.

Regardless, we had fun.  

Everyone jumped off the bottom fall, including our dog, Milo.  Now that was a sight to see.  I wish he would have told me he was planning on doing that so I could have caught it on camera.  As it is I only have him checking it out behind West as West jumped...

West (and Strider and Milo)

And then in the water after West pulled him out from under the falling water.  I think Milo got a little disoriented with the water falling all around him and he didn't seem to know what to do.  West had to grab him and pull him out.

Milo, West, Sean

After that people kept asking if we could make our dog jump again.  Truth be told, we're not sure he even did it on purpose the first time.

Please keep in mind, when jumping from a waterfall, it's important to wear a frog floatie.

Cali

Safety first.

Jayme

Tayler

Cali jumping with cousin Brenna.

Casidee

Sean

Brynn

Sean

This would be the trip that Casidee cut open the bottom of her foot.  But not from jumping.  She simply cut it by standing there.  Well, on a sharp rock.  So take note, as I would suggest with any publicly known adventure, take water shoes of some sort.  If the rocks don't get you, the broken glass will.  Generally speaking, not necessarily here at Toquerville Falls.

I think next time we go I'm going to spend a little more time on the upper part of the falls.  I like the view from up there.

Tayler

 And of course we drug all our family and friends with us.  When you go on an adventure with us, you can't miss out on any of it.

Hanging with Grandma Julie.

Circus Adventure: Sand Hollow. Always.

If you haven't discovered the beauty that is Sand Hollow yet, all I have to ask is why not?

The beaches are soft and red.

The water is clear and warm.  In the fall, that is.  In the spring they're clear and cold.

This reservoir sits in the dessert in Hurricane, Utah.  Pronounced: "Hurrikin."

I know, it doesn't make any sense, but I didn't make the rules, I just follow them.

We've been visiting Sand Hollow at least once (but usually twice) a summer for several years now.  It doesn't matter if we're camping right on the beach, or parked in a paved camping spot with hookups.  It doesn't matter if we've brought the rzr's for riding, or the jet skies for pulling people on tubes and knee boards, or if we've brought or scuba gear for diving, or if we've just simply brought swimsuits and sand toys.

We love this place.

I think that's the part of the beauty of this place. How accommodating it is to different outdoor hobbies.  The Man likes to ride his rzr.  Great.  Sand Hollow has it's own mini sand dunes set aside for just that.  As well as several trails just outside the park and rocks for climbing around in.

Papa Mike likes to take his jet skies out.  Great.  You can do that here.

Grandpa Brent is all about scuba diving.  Great.  There's a section of the lake buoyed off limits for boats specifically for scuba diving.  They've even planted an airplane, a VW bus, a toilet, as well as platforms, tubes, and different shapes for swimming around in.  We even found an old missile.  And the canyons that are made by the natural rock formations are amazing.  The lake isn't very deep.  We only hit 40 feet at our deepest, and generally stayed around 30 feet, but that just means we're open to dive all day long if we so desire, and if we have the air left to do it.

The Circus likes to swim from rock island to rock island and jump into the water from the higher tips.  Great.  There isn't anything too high that it makes me nervous for them to be doing that, and the rock islands are inside the scuba diving area, so there aren't any boats around while my kids are out swimming and jumping.  The area is good for them to practice their snorkeling as well.

(My camera got fogged up with moisture on this picture, but it shows how Cali spent the whole weekend so I included it anyway)

I generally like to sit on the beach with my feet in the water, reading a good book, enjoying the sun, and hanging out with my kids.  Great.  The beaches are incredible.

This trip we loved have Grandpa Brent and Grandma Julie hanging out with us.  We also had my good friend and her kids join us as well.  Plus, we let Sean bring a friend on this trip in lieu of a birthday party.

 But even if we have to go it alone, we think Sand Hollow is a pretty great place to land for a few days.

The Circus Takes On Moab

I thought today was Wednesday. I was geared up in my head to be half way done with the week, that I'd have to dress up just one more day after today and then I can wear jeans (woot woot for casual Friday) and then it just hit me.

Hello sluggish morning brain.  It's Thursday.

I don't know if I'm more excited that I just lost a day and am one day closer to the weekend than I thought or if today is the last day of the week that I have to pull on slacks instead of jeans... it might be a toss up.

Last weekend, for Labor Day weekend we decided to try something new.

Moab.

Which was actually on my 2012 bucket list (here).

I love it when I get to actually cross things off of my bucket list, it's so exciting and fulfilling.

Neither of us had ever been to Moab before and I was excited.  The number one thing I wanted to do was hike to Delicate Arch.

The Man wanted to watch some jeeps do some of the crazy spots like Mickey's hot tub and Potato Salad hill.

We never saw anyone on Potato Salad Hill, but he did get to see some jeeps in the hot tubs.

The Man gets antsy when we have a trip to take.  If we plan to leave Friday, and have our reservations starting on Friday, he's ready to go Thursday night.

Every time.

But, Babe, we don't have a spot reserved for Thursday night.

It doesn't matter.

Every time.

Have you ever noticed that Wal-Marts seem to always have campers and trailers set up in their parking lots?  The Wal-Mart by us has the same trailer sitting there, jacks down, satellite set up outside, all summer long.

Who does that?

On that Thursday night, we did.

But in our defense we didn't unhook from the truck, let alone set up jacks and we don't even own a satellite dish for our trailer...

That makes it better, right?

The next morning we drove to a rest stop with a "view" and ate our cereal.

It was a pretty good view.

Not far from Moab the cargo trailer got a flat.
We pulled over and let The Circus climb while The Man changed the tire.  Luckily we had a spare so it was no big deal.

Ten minutes later we were back on the road and driving into Moab.

 

The first thing we did was hit the information building for maps.

Then we checked into the KAO,where I believe they have a bit of confusion:

 

 

 

 and without much of a plan we decided to hit a hike.

 

The Man hates hiking.  And it was mid afternoon and hot.

I don't know what we were thinking.

 



This tree reminded The Man of Jammie, his grandma, so The Circus picked the beans and had sword fights in her memory.

The Circus were drawn to the water, which we told them to stay out of until we were on the way down.  We didn't want them to complain about wet shoes. 

This, we found, would be a mistake on our part.

We found a bat in a spider web.
That had to be a seriously strong spider web. 

I had no desire whatsoever to find the spider that made that web.

We almost made it to the Morning Glory Bridge at the end of that hike.  We were so close.
But everyone was super hot.  And we had run out of water.
Tayler's face was bright red and she was silently crying because of a headache.
West noticed her signs of heat stroke and declared the hike to be over, it didn't matter how close to the end we were, we needed to take care of Tayler.

So we turned around and at the first sign of water near the trail we told the kids to jump in and cool off.

Tayler felt and looked immediately better after that.
I guess we should have let them been playing in the water all the way  up.  Then they would have stayed cool. 

Lesson learned.

Also, I think I just need to invest in tevas for everyone for these types of trips.  Then it won't matter if feet get wet while hiking.

 

 

The Circus discovered little crawdads in the water.  The kept yelling that they were getting pinched by crawdads and The Man and I weren't sure we believed them... until The Man investigated and found, sure enough, there they were.

 

 

The Circus were such troopers, even when Tayler was beyond hot and not feeling at all well she never complained.

We decided a treat was in order.

A treat that would serve double duty and get some hydration in them too.

 



We couldn't eat those puppies fast enough.

Really.

The brain freezes wouldn't let us.

Lion's Back

 

Another bucket list item of mine has been to see Dead Horse State Park.

I didn't realize it was so close to Moab, so when I noticed it sitting right there on the map next to the dot for Moab I got super excited.

 

The Man loves me enough to drive the 45 minutes it took out to see the place on Saturday.

 

It was breathtaking.

 

I'm glad I got to see it in a day trip and not have to camp at it though.

 

But man alive, that place was amazing.

 



I'm still giddy that I got to see that place face to face.

What was it with spider webs on this trip?
It must be that Halloween is coming.

 

We let the kids cool off in the pool at the KAO, while I sat nearby and did homework.

We checked in at Potato Salad Hill to see if we could find any action.

We couldn't.

But we found a cool man made waterfall and stream that was perfect for swimming.

And The Man created his own action on Potato Salad Hill.

Even getting in a precarious enough spot that he had me gasping for him.
All four wheels on the ground please!
I didn't get any cool pictures of him because I was too busy freaking out.
Gah, next time I'll be better.

We ate dinner in town that night with Papa Mike who had joined us, (bringing us a new spare tire for the drive home).
The sunset that night reached over the entire town and was simply gorgeous.

 



On Sunday we hit Arches National Park, were finally, I would get to see the Delicate Arch.

We saw people standing in this hole in the rock (above) and thought to check it out too.
I had no idea why they were there, it just looked fun so I copied.
When I climbed into that hole and saw this view:

I was surprised.  I hadn't been expecting the arch to be there, and to be so close!

So we rounded the corner of that rock wall and again I found myself just giddy.

Tell you what, if you want to feel small and insignificant in this universe, go stand beneath that arch.
It kind of puts things into perspective.

It was so... humbling.
There was a constant flow of people coming and going from that place, but there was a strong sense of awe in the atmosphere.

Almost reverential.

People, including me, would just sit and take it in.

It was so magnificent.

We couldn't resist more pictures in the hole with the arch in the background on the way out. 
West, Jayme, and Sean had climbed down below the arch to retrieve a dropped Gatorade bottle and met us later down the trail.

On our way out of Arches National Park, we stopped and got a picture of the Balanced Rock.

 

The Circus spent their free time in the pool, and we played a lot of Fluxx.

And I mean a lot.

 



We have big plans to go again soon.
I need to find a hiking partner and The Man needs to find a riding partner (we have very different tastes and opinions on what it is we want to see and do in Moab).

So hopefully we can find some Moab partners to go with us.
Otherwise, I suppose we'll just have to put up with each other ;).