Christmas Trip to Utah Part 4: Zions & Jacob Hamblin Home

This view in Zion's National Park

is Truly Spectacular

I give this View 5 STARS!

Fun little slot canyon.

I give it 3.5 Stars....very cute

This little slot canyon was very pretty and fun, but I was worried the whole time that it was going to tucker us out for the "real hike".....which it pretty much did..... it certainly was fun and pretty though.

The Mountain Goats stopped traffic in the canyon quite literally.

A little summary of our day:

We did a drive through the East tunnel and saw amazing views!  We pulled over and just explored, and found a little slot canyon hike.  

We then found that we had to take a shuttle to go North......So we did..... in order to see the north branch of the canyon.   We went to the top and hiked that little paved hike..... with a sea of tourists...... to the start of the Narrows.

We also discussed doing a short Emerald Pools hike on the way down too, but we had already done too much and the little kids were spent.

The shuttle experience was disappointing.  You can only see out the sides of the bus, not UP where the view is!  You do miss out on the view that was once accessible by car.  

I would not take the shuttle again unless I was just doing it to access Angel's Landing, or if I just needed it to get back from doing a canyoneering feat, and then needed to get back to the car.

Melissa recommended renting e-bikes and biking up the canyon.  That would have also been super spectacular.   Much more costly, but spectacular for sure.

We got to give the kids a quick taste of Zions anyway!  I hope they enjoyed what they saw.

The Narrows

... after a long shuttle ride with a bunch of people and no view.

We are all a bit tired...... and I had to use the restroom.....

and the bathrooms were CLOSED up there for some crazy reason - even with ALL those people!

Mom and Dad met us at the Jacob Hamblin Home on our way home from Zions!

Very interesting tour - It's fun to go and hear stories!

I then dropped Tim off at a stake dance at the Hidden Valley Stake Center.

He was so brave to go by himself and check out the "LDS Utah Scene" for New Years Eve

We stayed up and played games for New Years with Grandma and Grandpa!  It was really fun!!

HAPPY 2026!!!!!

Christmas Trip to Utah Part 3: St. George

 

Driving to St. George

We saw lots of temples on the way including.......Draper, Jordan River, Orem, Timpanogus, and Payson. 

We had some great times in St. George and amazing warm weather!

Shuffle Board

Web Hill

The Aachener Weihnachtsmarkt Puzzle

Mexican Train

Corn Hole with Brooklynn

Ladder

Grandma's Gift Exchange

Hiking the Dragon's Tail

Parkers Playing at Pioneer Park

The ping pong table makes a great big dinner table!

Brooklynn sporting her NYC Macy's Day Parage tote!

Almost the whole family -   We were missing you, Christa

Ping Pong

Mini Golf

Pickleball Round Robin Tournament

This is the Worldmark timeshare Scott and Melissa booked

Uncle Adam teaching us to expand our Palate with Thai Food

Sushi

We said goodbye to Scott, Melissa and Kent's families and had Grandma and Grandpa all to ourselves for a couple of days.  💗

Ping Pong before breakfast

Ollie lost a TOOTH!

Mom and Dad's only remaining "daily use" dish from their wedding

Isn't it cute??

Grandma ventured to a new trail with us.  Janice recommended it.  Fossil Slot Canyon

It was awesome!

We were expecting this kind of hiking throughout the canyon

But, it certainly did get a little hairy in places

So, grandma waited patiently for us to spider through these spots.

She did great joining us for the mile up to the slot canyon and back. 

The fossils were really neat

That night, we took a trip to the St. George Temple

Grandpa stayed home to rest.  Grandma took Ollie through the visitor's center, and the rest of us did a baptismal session for our ancestors.

Nativity scene

The St. George temple is the OLDEST operating LDS temple in the world

The history is very rich

We enjoyed the wonderful presentations at the visitor's center.

They are very touching, teaching about the importance of families & Jesus Christ's mission.