4 Wheels 4 Girls

On April 25th, we went on a hike to Calf Creek Falls. It was in the Calf Creef Canyon in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. We put on warm clothes, filled our waterbottles, and started our six mile hike. When we got going, my dad took a wrong turn; it let to the wrong side of the creek. We got turned around, and my mom teased my dad about making a wrong turn.

Once we got on the real trail, we started our hike to the waterfall. We walked on sand. My dad spotted a mini-arch.

This may be the smallest arch we have seen so far

Stella spotted a small cave. We all ran to see what it looked like inside. There was a window in the side of the wall. It was sort of cold in there and we saw a wall inside. We thought maybe some people have stayed in there.

A small cave with a window. Can you see everyone inside?

We came to a sage forest–it smelled so good when we walked through. Greta spotted a fish in the creek as it swam under the bank. The rest of us couldn’t see it because it was hiding.

We saw a plant with little holly leaves. Stella says it is called a Datura. It made us miss our Aunt Holly.

Thinking of you, Aunt Holly!

We walked for a long time until we heard a huge sound of rushing water. We ran to see what was making so much noise. When we got there, we saw a huge waterfall in a big opening in the canyon. We also saw some plants clutching the rocks in the water on the cliffs. Dad says they were ferns.

The Calf Creek Falls, or at least the bottom of them. They fall from way high up.

Me and Ana got sticks and dropped them in the pool and let them flow downstream. We had a snack at the waterfall. We had sausages, almonds, apples, oranges, and crackers.

Then we headed back up the trail and out of the canyon. On the way back, we all saw a few fish. They were gray with orange fins. Dad says they were trout of some kind.

After the hike, we went to Escalante, Utah, where we got our first Junior Scientist badge at one of the Grand Staircase visitor centers. Greta says it was a Junior Scientist badge instead of a Junior Ranger badge because Grand Staircase is managed by the Bureau of Land Management instead of the National Park Service. We did the whole Junior Scientist booklet to get some extra stuff. It turns out the extra stuff was some plastic cards about canyoneering and hiking safety. I thought we should have gotten something better than plastic cards.

This is one big collared lizard at the Grand Staircase-Escalante visitor center

We drove through a very nice little town called Boulder, and then down into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, headed for Calf Creek Canyon where we would hike the next morning. The road down was basically a controlled fall out of the sky, weaving down the top of a thin ridge between two canyons. The views on both sides were stunning.

When we reached the mouth of the Calf Creek Canyon, we were informed that we could not stay overnight at the trailhead campground, and the nearest place to camp for us was eight miles back up the road, on top of the ridge. Sigh.

So we turned around and drove back up the 14% grade to camp at the top. The bright side of this story is that we got to experience the beautiful views all over again the next morning, driving down the ridge into the canyon a second time.

Looking down into Calf Creek Canyon from the ridge above

April 24, we drove through Dixie National Forest. We were on our way from Capitol Reef to the Grand Staircase National Monument. Me, Greta, and Ellie were hanging out on Greta’s bed. We stopped at the top of a mountain and Jean said, “Girls come out, it’s time for dinner.” I came out and asked, “Are we at our campground?,” but looked outside and didn’t need an answer. I had been watching out the window along the drive and saw patches of snow on the ground. But, I didn’t realize that it was actually snowing. Hard. It was kinda cool, because it felt like were eating in a blizzard. Which we kinda were.

Aspen trees in the snow

I felt so safe inside the RV. The view was amazing. There were white, snowy mountains with tall evergreen trees. It felt like we could see all the world below us. Dad said it made him feel so small. Down below and across the world, it seemed, stood the Capitol Dome. It looked so tiny and far away, when just that morning it towered over us.

The only thing better would be if there were bighorn sheep.

Dad on the hill where we ate dinner, but after it snowed. Capitol Reef is down below him on the left.

One day Daddy left his big pitcher of tea on the side of the counter when Mommy started to drive down a bumpy road. We know that if it falls, it makes a huge mess. It has fallen twice before. Ellie and I realized it was going to fall again. She ran up and caught it just in time. Then Daddy said he was so grateful that the next time we have ice cream she could have half of his ice cream as well as hers.

That pitcher is in a dangerous spot

On Easter we went to Capitol Reef National Park. At Capitol Reef we hiked to a natural bridge. Me and Ellie were playing horses. Along the way, Mama spotted a little natural bridge. I didn’t see it, so she had to point it out to me. It had three bridges over where water runs when it rains, and we could stand on it and under it.

This natural bridge was easy to go under and walk over

Once we got to the big natural bridge, Stella took a picture of it. She was the only one to take a picture.

This picture looks lopsided, but actually the world is lopsided.

On the way back, me and Ellie found a rock that we could sit inside. It looked sort of like an arch. Someday, maybe it will become an arch.

This rock looked like an arch

At Capitol Reef we drove through an orchard. In a flash we were at the Visitor Center. We got our junior ranger packets as usual and filled them in. We had a ranger talk with Ranger Crystal. She was very nice. She told us what trees are in the orchard and what animals live here and how Capitol Reef got its name. One reason Capitol Reef got its name is because there is a mountainish thing that looks like the Capitol building. Ranger Crystal told us that the old schoolhouse was never bigger for all its life; it was always small.

Capitol Dome at Capitol Reef National Park

We checked out our junior ranger packets with Ranger Rick. He was very nice. He asked me a lot of questions and he told us about a lot of things. I liked his stories because he told us about the kids in the old schoolhouse.