St. George Spring Break

I was going to title this post "Escape to St. George", but I'd used it already. I guess it's a theme.

Thursday morning we left gloomy, 39 degree Orem and arrived at Snow Canyon to play in shorts and t-shirts.

We scrambled around on the slickrock for a while.





Then biked down the paved trail.





The kids played at the sand dunes, while Jolene and I went for a bike ride up the west fork. Shh, don't tell her doctor.



Friday morning I left our hotel on St. George Boulevard and rode the Pioneer Rim trail. I didn't find the east end but got on it after a while. I took a non-standard way down to Red Hills Parkway, checked the map, found the trail head and started out City Creek trail, where I snapped this flower photo.



I took the alternate trail to the south up the stair-stepped rock then down and explored Owen's trail, which has some good technical stuff. I continued on City Creek which has sections of old double-track and some good single-track. Then took the paved trail along Bluff Street and city streets back to the hotel.

After late breakfast we saw a few historical sites: Brigham Young's summer home and the Tabernacle. These old buildings are impressive but the tours were too long.



The park by the Tabernacle has a wading area and a fountain the kids can play in. We decided to stay dry.



After lunch we drove out to Gunlock Reservoir just as something to do. We've been to St. George many times over the years and we're getting thin on new things to do. When I did the Cactus Hugger Century a few years ago I liked this area so we went to check it out. The water exiting Gunlock flows over orange sandstone in some nice falls. If I'd had my swimsuit I would have taken a dip in the pools.





We drove up to Veyo and had treats at Veyo Pies - I shared a slice of banana creme pie with Rachel.

That evening we went to the park and had a nice picnic. The temperature was perfect. The kids played while we talked.

Thanks to the magic of Facebook I learned that Mad Dog Keith was also in St. George so we got together for a ride Saturday morning. Keith was kind enough to show me a nice loop ride that he'd done most of the day before. We went out on Barrel (Cacti) Trail a ways then dropped off the rim and down to Stucki Springs then took a connector trail that connected us back to Stucki close to the Rim trails which we rode to the top where I took this photo.



Kieth and I rode back to Green Valley via the wash trail on the north side of the bluff.

We took the kids up to Pioneer Park, always a favorite, and squeezed up the crack and wandered around on the rocks a little while then ate lunch.

In the afternoon we did a family ride with Jolene's brother's family along the Virigin River. We all had fun cruising the paved trail watching people float by in canoes, kayaks and inflatables.



The kids crammed into the hot tub.



That evening the adults went out to eat while the kids watched movies at home.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed out. We stopped at Cover Fort. We've driven past it so many times, this time we stopped. We just wanted to look around but couldn't' without a tour guide, really? We got bored and said we had to get going.

Overall it was a good trip. The sunshine and warm weather were just what we needed.