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