Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

July 4, 2013: I am in our tent during a big thunder and lightning storm, mother nature's fire works for us this year. We are bundled up at over 10,000 feet at Cedar Breaks National Monument right now. Here is what we've been up to for the past few days. On July 2nd we woke at Bryce and had a slow morning at the campsite as we ate and packed up. At 10:30 we took the kids to a Ranger program about maps and compass use. The kids had to participate in a ranger program to get their badges so we went for it. One of the park rangers, who is not destined to be a teacher, gave a terrible 10 minute talk on maps, true north vs magnetic north, and compass use. Then our group, about 20 of us headed out to test our new skills and try to find 10 flags around the area using our map and compass. We were eager to get on the road but the kids learned a little something. Casey picked up the most but Julia also could follow a path set out by her heading. Badges secured we headed out to Escalante, a town about an hour East. We went to the visitors center to make a plan and ill out a back country camping permit. This area is not a national park and thus has very few amenities, not even paved roads. Our first stop was the escalante river. A slow, peaceful river the kids swam and played in. We then drove to an amazing plateau and cooked hot dogs for dinner. Then we drove on the "Hole in the rock road" for 26 brain scrambling miles. This is a dirt road that is wash boarded and we bounced for an hour. We were rewarded with a beautiful place to camp at the trailhead to Dry Fork Gulch. Late at night two guys came and camped there too making a big racket at night and again in the morning but karma got them in the end as they came back from the hike with one of them limping with an ankle all wrapped up. Anyways, we were there to explore more slot canyons and this is what the area is known for. We had seen that beautiful one outside of Page, AZ called Antelope canyon but that is highly touristy. These are for the adventurous and we were excited. We hiked for about 4 1/2 hours total and explored two slots. The first was called peekaboo. It is a hanging canyon which meant we had to climb up 12 feet to get into it. But is was so cool and beautiful and exciting all at the same time. It was a tight narrow slot with lots of neat features and beautiful colors. At the end we limbed out and walked above ground to the end of Spooky Canyon. This one was great too. It was so tight in parts we could barely fit you had to slither sideways. The kids loved it and so did we. As we exited Spooky we saw a baby rattlesnake. We were all exhausted and it felt long and hot getting back to the car but it was so worthwhile. We had planned to see more slots but we felt like we couldn't possibly top the two we had just explored, coupled with it getting to be old news for the kids, and James and I both were not feeling 100% and it is so hard on us to carry Molly and Julia when we are exhausted ourselves. So we came out and went to that great river swimming hole again and relaxed for a few hours. Then we drove to a secluded camp site at the Willis Creek tail head. We set up next to a river, ate some dinner and turned in. We've been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the kids at night and they love it. I woke this morning to the sound of a humming bird buzzing around our tent. We did a fun easy hike that the kids really enjoyed. Willis Creek is a flowing creek thru a canyon. It's not as exciting and beautiful as the slots the day before but it was still cool. It was 2 miles down and 2 miles back. The kids loved walking thru the stream the whole time. Afterwards we had lunch and debated our next move. The plan had originally been to head towards Zion but it is so hot there apparently that we headed here, to Cedar Breaks. We chose it because it is relatively close and high up to beat the heat. Well, now we are shivering! But it's nice to be chilly. We set up as the rain was catching us and cooked dinner in the tent.  We finally took showers after a long stretch with only swims. We had a campfire, drank hot chocolate and then read more Willy Wonka during another round of thunder and lightning. We'll see what tomorrow brings.