Travel Log: St. George, Utah

We've had a splendid weekend in Utah with Jud & Jill and their sons E & M. Each evening we got to stay up late sharing tasty beverages and good company. Each morning, Jud and Jill cooked us awesome breakfasts. They treated us like royalty. They should open a B&B!

The view from Jud's front yard.

Jumpin' Jacks
Saturday we went to Jumpin Jacks, and the boys had a ball. I'd never seen anyplace like this. It was like a huge warehouse filled with big inflatable bouncers and slides. The kids had a ball.

Jumpin' Jacks

Sweaty ES

I've created a monster...

When we started to discuss lunch options for after Jumpin Jacks, ES heard "In N Out" listed as an option and went nuts. He declared that In N Out has "the best fries in the UNIVERSE!" He threw a fit that we weren't having lunch there. You'd think he had been taking lessons from Loping Squid. We decided to have lunch at another old favorite of mine before leaving the southwest.

Dinosaur Discovery

After lunch, we went to the Dinosaur Discovery. Some guy was starting to clear this land for construction and discovered a bunch of dinosaur footprints.

These were the largest footprints.

It used to be the side of a lake, and the dinosaurs left their footprints in the mud.

Artist's impression of what the lakeside used to be like.

Big slab with lots of footprints.

Red Cliffs Desert Reserve

Sunday, Jud and I took the boys out on a 2.25 mile hike through Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.

YB and M at the trailhead.

It's a habitat for the desert tortoise, but Jud said they rarely see them. Lucky for us, we found one within about 5 minutes of starting our hike.

Desert Tortoise

The terrain was mostly hard sandstone with only periodic spots of loose sand.


The scenery was fantastic. Thank goodness for digital cameras. Electrons are free. I was going trigger-happy with my camera, and I would've burned through several rolls of regular film.

Four boys on a rock.

Cavemen.

Jud straddling "Fat Man's Misery."

ES and E squeeze through Fat Man's Misery.

E had been through Fat Man's Misery before, so Jud said it was okay to let the boys go down and we met them at the exit on the other side.

This is the where Fat Man's Misery ends.

I walked up inside the end of Fat Man's Misery and used the panorama feature on my camera to take this shot over my head.

The boys said this rock looked like a submarine.

The boys on top of the submarine rock.

We found four geocaches along the way during our hike today.

Another panorama shot of the scenery.

ES and E on the trail 2008.

Flashback: ES and E after Sea World, 2002.

Toward the end of our hike, we had snack time on top of the Sugar Loaf (more photos of Sugar Loaf below).

YB, me, and ES on top of the Sugar Loaf.

I am SO pleased with this picture. The boys NEVER cooperate with posing for a photo. I had to drag them together to ask Jud to take this picture, and they weren't looking at the camera until Jud said, "Look! My hair's on fire!" Then he snapped the picture at just the right instant.

Sugar Loaf from the car. I think it's about 50 feet tall.

Sugar Loaf is the large rock on the left side of this panorama.

Snapshot of the GPS Receiver and the 4 geocaches we found.

As a reward for doing so well on the hike today, we took the boys for one last trip to In-N-Out and then went to see the movie, Igor. It was okay. Nothing I'd rave about. The boys enjoyed it though.

Tomorrow we continue our trip across country. Up next: Grand Canyon!