Month: April 2013

Five Reasons to Take Your Kids to Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

My tots and I loved our recent trip to Snow Canyon State Park, Utah.  Here are the top five reasons I would recommend it for your family:

1. Campground – The campground is well maintained, has sites for tents or campers and had the cleanest bathrooms I’ve ever seen when camping. Pull chain showers are also available to registered campers. The ranger station also includes a small book store and there’s a play area for kids. If possible, get your friends together and stay at the group site, it was self enclosed, had easy access to trails and bathrooms.

2. Short Hikes – Hiking with kids is never easy, but the great thing about Snow Canyon State Park is the multitude of short, but interesting hikes.  There’s lots to see and do, less than a mile from the main road.

3. Biking – Snow Canyon State Park is known as a great place for biking, in fact the ranger told me St. George holds their Ironman triathlon biking portion within the park.  The canyon is one long, paved downhill if you start at the top. If you’re averse to biking next to twenty five mile per hour traffic, there are two great bike trails as well.  The first, Whiptail, is paved and starts at the Upper Galoot Parking area.  It follows along the main road six miles down to the park entrance.  The second trail, West Canyon Road, is eight miles on a gravel access road that parallels the amazing rock formations in the park.

4. St. George, Utah – If you’re camping with kids, it’s always good to have access to a store in case of emergencies.  Whether you forgot a favorite toy, need a snack or just want a break, it’s nice to have access to the benefits of a city. We especially appreciated the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center and visiting a local park in St. George, as different activities from the daily hiking and biking.

5. Scenery – Snow Canyon State Park has a variety of rock formations from red sandstone to dark lava rock. Add to that the fact that the entire park is located within the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, a habitat conservation area whose purpose is to protect the endangered Mojave Desert Tortoise, and you can appreciate the wildlife, as well as the beauty.

Utah State Park Snow Canyon: Scout Cave

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah – Scout Cave hike

The longest hike that we attempted while on our trip to Snow Canyon State Park was the Scout Cave hike, via Johnson Canyon. This trail was well established and fairly flat, made of sand and rock. The trail head was just outside the southern park entrance on the west side of the road.

We started on the trail later than I would’ve liked, so the sun was hot early on. A half mile into the trail, we took a right turn since a gate closed the trail to the left, leading into the seasonally closed Johnson Canyon. This trail had no shade for the first two thirds, until we descended into a valley with a trickling stream from a natural spring.  There, a few cottonwood trees grew tall enough to offer some shade.
Because of hiking in the heat, not bringing snacks, and little g falling asleep on my back, I called it quits three, but most of our group continued on the trail another twenty minutes or so, to explore the interesting cave that gave the trail its name. This last part of the trail was within view of housing developments in St. George, so instead of looking at houses, Big E and I looked at tadpoles in the water and dug in the cool sand, while little g napped in the shade.
It was a good hike for kids, but at approximately three miles it was a little too long for my tots. The kids over eight and the teenagers in our group really enjoyed it, thanks to crossing a rare desert stream and finding cave at the end.

Clean Up Games for Kids

One thing I’ve learned in my time as a mom, is that kids make messes. I don’t know about you, but I HATE cleaning up the same mess over and over and over again. Since my tots are the reason for most messes, I try to make them clean up as much as possible. Here are some of my kids favorite Clean Up Games:  

1. Sing the Clean Up Song – Have a special song that you sing or listen to when it’s time to clean up. Ours is well known and goes like this: Clean Up Clean Up Everybody Everywhere, Clean Up Clean Up Everybody Do Your Share.

2. Have a Race – I literally race Big E around my living room, each of us picking up a toy along the way and then racing to put it where it belongs. You can also have a race to see who can get the most toys in the least amount of time.

3. Gobble it Up – With toys like blocks, where there’s lots of pieces, I take a bag or pillowcase, hold it open and pretend it’s a mouth that likes to gobble things up.
Little g and Big E love to drop the toys in, then pull their hand away quickly before the gobbler gets them too.

4. Singing Plinko – Similar to Gobble it Up, Singing Plinko is where you sing one note to a song for each toy dropped into the toy box.  If the tots want to hear Twinkle Twinkle Little Star without stopping after each word, they have to hurry and put more things away.

5. Bubble Machine – For little g’s first birthday I bought her a bubble machine and soon discovered that when left unchecked it left a wet soapy area on my kitchen floor. I decided to use that to my advantage and now put the bubble machine on whenever I mop the floor. Bubbles are soap, right?

6. Dust Buster – This is not a game per se, but you’d be surprised with how much time Big E can spend vacuuming the floor with the handheld vac. He loves machines anyway, and loves to do things by himself so he’ll often look extra messes to vacuum himself. We’ve also turned the dustpan, broom, toilet brush and vacuum attachments into toys to help us clean.

7. Find the Magic Toy – Sometimes I will have Big E search the room for the one magic toy that will make me sing a silly song.  Conveniently the toy is one of the last ones picked up.

8. Hot and Cold – If Big E walks closer to the item I’m thinking of, I tell him he’s getting hotter and hotter until finally when he picks it up.  Conversely, if he walks away from it, he gets colder and colder. He loves finding the secret toy, and I love that he’ll put it away before we play the next round.

9. Have Toys Help – Big E loves construction machines, so if I can find a way for his dump truck or excavator to help put socks in his drawer or toys in his toy box, I do it. Along with this, squirt guns make great watering cans and bathtub rinsers. You’d be surprised how useful some toys can be.

10. I Spy – Almost any tot knows the phrase, “I spy with my little eye…” It’s easy to play this game to choose items that need to be put away. For example: I spy with my little eye something that is blue, has wheels and drives around a track (a car).

11. Basketball – Get a laundry hamper or the toy box and plop it in the middle of the messy room.  Then walk to each toy and throw it into the hamper without moving your feet.

12. A Minute to Win It – In this game each family member must pick up and put away as many items as they can in one minute. We actually use a countdown timer from Scattergories or Catch Phrase because it makes a great countdown sound.

It should also be mentioned that positive reinforcement goes a long way.  Nothing makes Big E help out faster than me telling little g, “You’re such a good helper!”

So try out some of these clean up games for kids, and please let me know if you have any more. And thanks to the moms in my life who taught me some of these games in the first place.

Sand Hollow Aquatic Center, St. George Utah

 There’s nothing quite so nice as cooling off in the pool after a hot day of hiking. So, on our recent trip to Utah’s Snow Canyon State Park, we took an afternoon off to go play in the water. 
I was impressed with St. George’s swimming facility the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center.  In addition to multiple lap lanes, complete with handicap access, there was a separate play pool with a water slide, lily pad cross, tiny tot area, and whirl pool.

Big E and little g loved the spray toys and wading area, and I loved that they provided complimentary life jackets for children under three.
The admission price of $5.50 youth or $6.00 adult for non St. George residents was a little steep for a swimming pool, but once I saw all the different activities inside, I felt it was worth the cost.
 I was also impressed with the family locker area. As a mother of young kids I’m always looking for the easiest way to manage bathrooms in public, and often traditional women’s restrooms are just not as well equipped for the little ones. The showers in the family area were like walk in closets, with floor to ceiling opaque doors and hooks for towels and clothing.

You’d think with all that I could’ve kept little g from exposing herself, but I have to admit there were a few naked baby sightings that day.

We had a great afternoon at the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center in St. George, and if you’re planning a trip to St. George Utah with kids, it’s a great place to go.