Southern Utah is one of my favorite places. Like ever. The red rocks are unreal and there are piles out of outdoor activities that could keep an sane person busy for a lifetime. Mountain biking runs a close competition to skiing as my favorite sport, so naturally as snow season wound down we started planning a spring trip to warmer, dryer climates.

To make re-entry in full travel a little easier, we decided to head right back to where we left off last spring: Hurricane, Utah. The camping is free, the trails are incredible, and if we get bored Zion National Park is a quick 30 minute drive. Not too shabby, right?

JEM Mountain Bike Trails

We were able to camp right along Sheep Bridge road (Campendium Link) in the middle of the JEM trail system. It was perfect for intermediate enthusiasts that we are. Enough uphill to give our lungs a work out, and some sweet rolling downhill to bring on the fun. Our oldest two kids had a blast, and we would switch up who rode with who. Andrew and I did a loop together up Dead Ringer to the top of the Mesa, Sam & Rachel took a spin, and Cara & and I had some one on one time on the easiest trail we could find. At one point Andrew said to me, “Mom, if we came here every year then I could see how much better I’m getting by the trails I ride.” Wise words, my boy, wise words.

For deets on the trails, we love the Trail Forks app (Apple, Google). I love the GPS dot that shows my location and its easy to plan a ride that loops back the way we want. My favorite loop was up Dead Ringer to More Cowbell, down JEM, down Goosebumps, and then back up Dead Ringer. Pretty sweet ride. Cara loved the little green loop we did on JEM from the Gould South parking lot.

Cool off in the Virgin River

Since the temps were flirting with the high 90’s (a little too hot for us actually!) we spent a great deal of time cooling off in the Virgin River. Our Airstream friends, the Ericksons, were camped inside Zion so one afternoon we drove in for a potluck and a swim.

Another evening we met up with Arika from Zion Adventure Photography (she took our photos back in December of 2016 and we LOVE them) and Shanti from Hike it Baby and their families for pizza and a dip in the secret spot with the swing. Totally fun meeting up with these ladies and the kids all had a blast swimming in the river. We ate at River Rock Roasting Company and I wish I could eat there everyday. We had an assortment of pizza, sandwiches, and salad and it was all delicious. Also ordered a cinnamon roll to go and secretly ate it with Sam after the kids were in bed so I didn’t have to share. 🙂

Hike the Narrows

We hiked a small portion of the Narrows back in 2015 when our kids were super little. Although we knew we didn’t have the gear (or the desire) to hike the entire thing this year either, we decided to hike up as far as we wanted and then turn around. We jumped on the shuttle around 3pm at the main Visitor Center and started hiking about 45 minutes later.

The water was cold, but not completely freezing, and we managed okay in just our Chaco sandals & swimsuits. The trail in from the shuttle stop is about a mile along a paved path, and then we hiked for about another mile through the water until we came to a swimming hole. The kids were brave and took turns jumping in, then we found a quiet spot to eat our picnic dinner and headed back.

Someday I think we’ll hike the distance (and rent dry suits!) but for now we just needed to cool off and this totally did the trick!

Relax

Most importantly we dove right back in to traveling life. There’s been some adjusting, but mostly I feel like we picked up right where we left off. The weather was a tad windy, but we did manage to have some good outside relax time while we were at it!