Island In the Sky Spring Break Wednesday

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The night before I had tossed, frozen diced bacon, frozen shredded hash browns, boxed egg whites and some shredded cheese in the crock pot and left it on low. After sleeping in I opened the lid and it smelled great.

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We wrapped up the mix in tortillas and ate it up.

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We had packed most of our stuff the night before so once fed and dressed we cleaned up a few things and loaded up the crock pot.

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Then we drove to the northern section of Canyonlands National Park called Islands in the sky.

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The kids worked on their Jr. Ranger booklets on the way.

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Our first stop was the visitor center for bathrooms and info, we watched a 15 minute video about the park, checked out a great view and then drove deep into the park.

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We went with the same plan to start as far back in the park as we could and work our way out. We drove to the end of the road at the Grand View Point Overlook. We hiked around the rim of the island in the sky looking out at amazing views. It was a great couple mile hike and everyone was in great moods.

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We all really enjoyed this hike and Bean decided to get a nap in.

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Once back at the car we tried to let her keep sleeping but she woke up.

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Then we drove north through the park stopping at all the overlooks and quick stops.

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We headed over to the Upheaval Dome. We ate lunch once there at a picknick area.

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It was high up and a cold wind was blowing through. Lunch was quick summer sausage and cheeses on crackers, yogurt, fruit and other snacks.

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Then we checked out the dome.

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It was this crazy green rock in a big crater and they have no idea where it came from. Well they had 2 ideas but not for sure how it got there.

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There were 2 little hikes here and 1 big one. We did both short hikes.

 IMG_9929 The first was easy but the view was just okay. The 2nd was really tough but exciting and the view was way cooler.

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We let Pumpkin and Bean down hike parts of this and they thought it was lots of fun.

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Everyone was pretty beat after this hike and we were torn between calling it a day and seeing the other things we really wanted to see. We picked the top 2 things to see and skipped the rest. The first stop was Aztec Butte. It was a place people a long long time ago stored grain. There was a shorter hike to it through lots of sand. We didn’t take any backpacks and let the kids tire themselves.

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Our last stop was actually out of the National Park and into the state park. We drove over to the other park and asked at the gate how much walking we would need to do, everyone’s feet, legs, backs and sholders were worn out. There was not much walking required so we went on it. The visitor center was about to close so we started there and checked out the view there, plus looked at some art and information.

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Then we drove a mile down the road to the point.

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I thought the view would be a little better but I was thinking of a different point. It was pretty impressive but we had been looking at amazing stuff for 2 days and we were hungry and tired.

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We headed back to the cabin. Once there we opened the barn like doors and were greeted by a great smell of chicken, potatoes and carrots that cooked all day.

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It was already late and getting dark and cold outside so we set up a little table in the cabin and dug in. I had planned for us to eat about half and save the rest for lunch the next day but we ate it all.

We broke into teams and got clean clothes and went off to take showers and brush teeth. We cleaned us up, washed the dishes and packed a few things for the morning. Everyone was pretty tired and went right to sleep. Heath and I whispered over maps and made our plan for hiking the next day before we went to sleep too.

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