Category: travel

This past weekend we made the drive up north to visit Bear Lake. Sliced just about symmetrically by the Utah/Idaho border, the lake is nestled in the mountains, offering up sandy beaches, gorgeous views and unbelievably bright blue-green aqua water.

The photo above does not accurately capture the brilliance, beauty and vibrant colors of the lake water.

We stayed in a dinky, miniature cabin (and I use that term loosely), at the KOA camp grounds at Bear Lake.

The place was wayyy too small for 2 adults and 2 toddlers. Sardine life FTL! Tera guesstimated it at about 200 square feet.

Thankfully the KOA grounds do offer many family friendly amenities such as a jumping pillow, a playground, pools, etc. We got settled in on Friday and then hung out at the playground and pool whilst sipping on a few brewskis. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the pool while wearing their life jackets. The boys enjoyed floating, bobbing, spinning, swimming, splashing and playing with us.

Day 2

On our second day, we drove up to the North beach area to meet our friends who were RV’ing it up.

It was a cold, windy, drizzly day, but we still had a good time hanging with friends by the campfire, letting the boys play at the beach with Jozie and spending some time in the hot springs pool, directly adjacent to our friends’ camp site.

After hanging at the camp for a bit, we were off to the beach for some play time!

The boys found a sand castle and immediately stomped down the towers. We built a couple more towers, which were then promptly destroyed, naturally. After that, wet sand balls were harvested and tossed into the puddles for a half hour of fun.

If you couldn’t tell, I was thoroughly impressed by the beauty of Bear lake and I would like to return when it’s warmer, and not stay at the KOA.

Thank you to LaDawn, Dave and family for inviting us out!

While in Springdale, we consulted with the locals and were advised that the Riverwalk trail inside Zion would be the most appropriate hike for toddlers.

The 2 mile, round trip, paved trail, runs alongside a river within a canyon, with mellow ups and downs. We rolled the stroller along with us, in case the boys got tired, but it definitely wasn’t necessary. I’m sure the boys would have preferred to walk run the entire time, but since it was pretty cold at first, the stroller allowed us to bundle them up with a blanket.

The hike was a very easy one, although it was a bit straining to push the fully loaded double stroller up a few of the hills on the way down the trail.

It was a gorgeous stroll, with awe inspiring views of the looming canyon walls, with the serene sound of water flowing along beside us.

At the end of the path, we took the stairs down to the river bed area, where the boys jumped around on the rocks and sand.

There were tons of unique stone benches, rock seats and other spots to pause for a rest and a view along the trail.

Zion was an utterly amazing natural wonder. I hope to get the chance to trek up some of the more advanced trails there in the future.