We woke up inside Zion National Park again at site B46 in the Watchman Campground. We had a yummy breakfast of waffles, Jen found the tiniest waffle maker that was easy to justify making room for in one of our upper cabinets.
We cleaned up, put away the bedding and prepared us and the van for road travel. As we pulled out of the campground, we took the opportunity to fill up our water tanks and then made the short drive to the visitor center. The kids jumped out with Jen to stamp our national parks passport book and spend some of their money on trinkets from the park. I stayed in the van to participate in a planning call for a conference I’ll be attending in September.
We set out from the visitor center towards Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The drive out of the East side of Zion takes you through the over mile long tunnel that cuts through the mountain and brings you out on the East side of the park which was more covered in snow.
We made our way out of the park and drove the couple hours to the Toadstool Trailhead where we hiked in to see the Toadstool formations and wander around a little bit.
After our hike we hustled to the Big Water Visitor center to complete the Jr. Ranger program for the national monument and to explore the cool dinosaur exhibits on display.
After getting their badges, these ones were circular which are unique to the others they’ve already received.
A quick drive East from the visitor center is the pull off for Lone Rock Beach which was our destination for the night. We pulled through the pay station, and weaved our way towards the beach. We were creeping along trying to pick a spot when all of the sudden we were no longer moving…. Ugh!
I made several attempts to dig out a path for the van to climb up to the top of the sand, but neither my hand digging nor the snow shovel were making much progress. Then I heard a voice ask if we were stuck, yes, yes we are. Andrew was cruising along the beach in front of us and must have seen me digging. He got out of his loaded Jeep and came over to help. He mentioned that he had been stuck in snow recently and another person stopped to help him get out, so he was returning the favor. He backed up his Jeep close enough to put on a tow strap and in four wheel drive he pulled our heavy van out.
Now unstuck, Jen could breathe and I could rebalance my confidence and humility. We drove a little further without incident and pulled up broadside along a sand dune overlooking Lake Powell. The kids played as Jen made dinner and the rest of the evening was like most of those before it.
Gotta love those angels in disguise!