Somewhere on the road of parenting we convinced our kids to go hiking with us. I actually don’t even remember when that was, but I’m sure there was a first time. And I can almost guarantee there was complaining. I’m sure there was probably enough complaining to warrant us never hiking again, but we went hiking again anyway. And then we hiked some more. I remember taking the kids to Zion for the first time when Briggs was a baby and he’s in every picture strapped to my chest, happy as can be.
Years later, we have kids that enjoy hiking (although there’s always a kid or two that would prefer to do something else the day we plan a family hike!). In fact, Hunter just said this week he would do Ridgeline for the third time next week if he could.
We found a new hike we enjoyed exploring: Hieroglyphics Trail, a total of almost three miles round trip. This was more difficult than we had planned for due to the amount of rocks on the trail and Briggs’ small legs. He took a couple spills and we were fortunate that when he did take a tumble he didn’t notice the small drip of blood that formed and rolled down his leg. He would have lost his mind if he thought he had been injured! (He noticed two hours later as we were eating dinner at home.)
We had received a lot of rain in the valley the previous week and we were counting on a waterfall at the end of the trail. We have had such a dry year and the lack of a waterfall was evidence of that. Despite the lack of water, the kids loved exploring. At the end of the trail, you come upon some boulder/rocky terrain where hieroglyphics can be seen. The kids jumped and climbed and explored. This was a dream come true for our three older boys.
Briggs wanted to be like the big kids and run and jump around but it was a little nerve racking having him walk around in that area so he was subject to holding his mom’s hand which was a total buzz kill for his adventure. The kids could have spent far more time exploring this mountainside, which just means we’ll need to come back!
