National park babymoon!

 By September we were really feeling the impending...  everything that Baby Gray would bring! And on top of that, Labor Day weekend was approaching, so we both had a day off. What should we do?! It would be our last trip just the two of us, probably! Ryan thought we should knock another park off our list (which I am ALWAYS game for), so it became our official babymoon, because that's what people do now, right?

It had been years since I had been to the Grand Canyon, and the North Rim really wasn't that far from home. We decided to make our base in Kanab and take day trips to the North Rim when we wanted.
Also on the potential list:
- Go through St. George to hunt down some dinosaur tracks!
- Kolob Canyons in the northwest corner of Zion NP
- Eat some good food
- Cuddle & watch movies in bed (we both just see that as the highest level of luxury and laziness so obviously we had to do summa dat)

We started the drive down to Kanab on Saturday and spent the 4.5 hours talking and listening to podcasts. The sunset was beautiful, but nothing could compare to the stars we saw that night! As we drove through the middle of nowhere (like, really truly once you turn east off of I-15 onto Highway 20, it is the middle of nooowhere and it was so, so awesome), we could see the Milky Way!! I'm pretty sure the last time I saw the Milky Way was years ago while we were sailing in Canada. It was incredible and we actually ended up stopping twice just to get out of the car and look at it. It was absolutely some of the best stargazing I've ever experienced in my life! It was wonderful and romantic. ;) Thanks, Utah.

 We rolled into lovely little Kanab around 10pm and crashed in our illustrious Comfort Suites room. Okay, so side note here, Ryan and I had always kind of made fun of Kanab ever since we saw their billboards along I-15 ("Abra Kanabra!" 😂  Hehe.) But when we woke up and looked outside, we saw what all the fuss was about! It is really the cutest little town, surrounded by such pretty red rock cliffs and colorful desert. I was smitten pretty quick! 

(We stopped at a little pull-out in the middle of nowhere so Ryan could fly his drone around a little bit ;] )

We slept in and started our adventure later in the morning. The drive from Kanab to the North Rim was so interesting! We went through so many different landscapes as we changed elevation. Sage, to aspen, to fir trees, and back again. I loved it.

Oh hey there, you lovely park.

 The entrance was still quite a ways away from the canyon, so on we drove. Lucky for us, it was stinkin' pretty.

We had been bracing ourselves for serious crowds. Labor Day weekend is of course a zoooo at any national park. But as we pulled into the parking lot at the main lodge, we saw lots of empty spots and lots of no people! Once we parked, I got real excited and booked it as fast as my round body would walk in the direction of the canyon until we came to

 this!!! 😍
Which also turned out to be the perfect spot to eat lunch. Yes, that was the absolute first thing we did once we got to the Grand Canyon because #pregnant.

 Then it was time to hike. Hellooo, beautiful! Can you even wrap your mind around the 6 million years it took to make this thing?!

And there was n o b o d y there. It was just perfect. Quiet, peaceful gorgeousness.

Hiking out to Bright Angel Point.

Incredible. It is impossible to wrap your brain around it.

Next we decided to explore this building. ^^ The Grand Canyon Lodge.

Anyone else a fellow horse-crazy girl who was obsessed with Marguerite Henry in elementary school? (And much longer after that... maybe...) Look who it is!

Everywhere you looked, there were beautiful details.

Almost 100 years old and just so neat. This room was especially cool with the huge windows and comfy armchairs.

After all of this extremely strenuous activity ;) I just wanted to sit my pregnant self down, so we relaxed on a loveseat and people-watched. It was great. I ate some more food (that's just my life now), and Ryan even snoozed a little bit. After about an hour we decided (mostly I decided) that we weren't in the mood to do any of the hikes we had talked to the rangers about earlier, so we just went back out to the rim and took a path down to the basement area of the lodge. It was quiet and shady and lovely, and of course you just can't get sick of that view.

Hey baby belly.

I was pretty spent after this short day. Ha! Energy is hard to come by in your third trimester. :] So we grabbed some soft serve on our way to the car and decided to head back to Kanab. We still had other days to hike if we wanted to!

Okay, I can't quite remember on what night we did which thing for dinner. One night in Kanab, we went to this fabulous restaurant called Rocking V Cafe. It was crazy busy so we ate super late! Worth it in the end? Absolutely. Ryan got this deep-dish enchilada and I got steak (again, I craved it so much - even more than usual!). We were both so happy with our meals! We split a little chocolate mousse with berries for dessert, and left with very happy tummies.

The other night, I can't remember exactly what happened, but I know at some point I was starving and craving nothing else but chicken nuggets, so we found the Kanab Burger King and all was well. So, you know. We're cool.

When we woke up the next morning, one of the first things Ryan said was "Let's go to Zion today." So, we didn't go back to Grand Canyon (sorry, GC) again this trip. We hit up this place:

At around 3pm, that is. ;) We slept in, went to church (the chapel was right next-door to our hotel. I love Utah), walked around our cute little town, ate lunch at a very eclectic cafe (I'm talking walls painted sparkly gold and covered in paintings or figurines of dragons even though the menu was 1950s diner-style food. 'Twas an experience indeed.), and then hit the road late, hoping that maybe some of the crowds would have died down in one of America's most popular parks!

Luckily, we were right. Woo! (Also, coming into Zion from the east side is just so cool. I mean, both are just incredible, but the east side is so unique!) We passed endless lines of cars parked along the shoulders of the road from people who had come to the park early in the morning, but we found parking at the visitor center! Man, we just had miraculous luck this trip.

Gosh I l o v e this place. And it's even more special to us because the first time Ryan and I were here together, we had juuust started dating. :] Aw. Anyways, we decided to climb the Watchman Trail, a new hike for both of us.

I love the desert so, so much.

It was a mile and a half of pretty steady elevation gain, but my pregnant waddle finally brought us to the top. Can we talk about this view?! Ahh!!

Looking south toward the main entrance of the park.

Definitely a good choice! What a stunning perspective of the valley. This place is from another world.

By now I'm sure you've noticed I was kind of obsessed with these sandstone peaks. Sorry.

Ah. This was just a good, good day. :]

When we got to the bottom, I was hungry again (imagine that), and since all the restaurants were PACKED we just grabbed some chicken wraps & Tim's chips (oh Tim. You are perfection) from the grocery store and sat out under the stars. It was perfect. Warm enough for us to be comfortable sitting at our picnic table under a clear, gorgeous night sky, while we talked about our favorite memories through the past three years of us, and what we hoped for the future. I remember thinking that I never wanted to forget that night.

Thanks, Zion. You sure as heck deserve to be one of the busiest parks in the USA.

On Monday we had a choice to make - dinosaur tracks in St. George or Kolob Canyons. Ultimately, canyons won out (because canyons). We checked out of our hotel, said goodbye to our dear Kanab, and off we went to 'hie to Kolob.' I'd be joking if I said we didn't beat that joke to absolute death.

Little peeks of Zion every now and then. So cool.

Kolob Canyons is much less popular than Zion Canyon, so we barely saw anyone, despite it being a holiday! That's what I like to see, baby.

Can you believe this place is literally RIGHT off I-15? We fell in love right away. First things first, though - lunch in the shade. Bread and sun dried tomato spread! Then it was hike time.
We decided on the Taylor Creek Trail, which would take us three miles into one of the box canyons, along the creek, past a couple of old homestead cabins, and to the Double Arch Alcove.

It probably wouldn't be for someone else, but this hike was particularly brutal for me, haha! It was a about a three-hour hike, so a little longer than our other ones this trip, but it was also almost 100 degrees this day and the trail was pretty exposed to the sun. I was feelin mucho pregnant with all that goin' on! We took it slow and drank lots of water. Basically Ryan's encouragement and constant assurance that I was a total bad-a** pregnant lady is pretty much all that kept me going. :] (He's the best.)

The sandstone canyon walls on either side of us were un-be-liev-a-ble. SO TALL.

After about an hour and a half, we reached the alcove. Huzzah! I was ready for that.

It was shady, cool, HUGE, and pretty darn neat.

I remember we ran into a middle-aged couple from Texas here. We sat and chatted, the four of us enjoying the shade and rest, haha. We talked about pretty places in Utah and also babies because, you know, pregnant belly was pretty much big enough to be the fifth person in that conversation. Through the whole nine months, people were so nice to me during my pregnancy. It was cool. They would always make comments about how they were excited for me, how much they loved their families, and how they wished the best for us. These people were like that, too. Everyone just gets a little more friendly around pregnant bellies and babies. 

The hike back out - equally brutal. Haha. But I was thankful for a healthy body that could carry baby and I all that way!

Before heading (sadly) back out of the park and to Utah Valley, we made the scenic drive up to the Kolob Canyons Viewpoint (basically the end of the road in the park). It is indescribable!!

LOOK AT THOSE CANYONS. (LOOK AT THAT BELLY.) Also we realized that baby Gray had been to three national parks by now! Great Basin, Zion, and Grand Canyon. Good job, baby Gray.

The Kolob Canyons Viewpoint is probably one of the most incredible views my eyeballs have ever. seen. Go there. No matter what it takes. SOON.

Can one ever tire of that insanely red sandstone? No. No they cannot. Our planet is too rad.

That concluded our fabulous whirlwind national park babymoon. It was pure perfection, but everything is with this baby daddy of mine. We have no clue what we are doing by way of parenting and raising this little human, but we sure love each other and his little self already, so at least we have that down!

And holy moly I can't wait to show these places to that little munchkin. :] Life is good.