St George: Dunes, Hard and Soft

We stayed at a rental house outside of St. George for a few days at the end of June. We knew it was going to be HOT (I miss the days when we could travel at off-times instead of full summer, but it's okay) but our rental house had a swimming pool, so we thought we could bear it. And we had such a good time! It was fun to be fairly close to home, yet have everything feel different and new.

We chose St. George because in all these years I have never been to Snow Canyon, but Seb and Malachi went there with their grandma and some cousins at Thanksgiving last year, and they really wanted to go back and show us all the fun things to do. I also wanted to go to the St. George temple before it closes for remodeling!

We tried to start our day at Snow Canyon early enough that the heat wouldn't be TOO bad. And it was bearable. We loved the Petrified Dunes hike. Junie was in juniper-tree heaven!

Baby juniper

Middle-sized juniper

But by far the HAPPIEST hiker was this little sweetie. He felt so grown-up (I guess?) just setting off along the rocks, hiking where he wished. He kept chortling with glee and saying "Hiking up! Little-boy hike! Dunes!"

It's nice because the rocks are very gently sloped. It's really just walking uphill, with not much clambering, and there are natural terraces and steps that make it easier. But it still feels satisfying to reach the top and see how high you've climbed!

Teddy was pretty pleased with himself. He wanted to walk "all by himself" most of the time—of course—though he consented to hold hands every now and then.

Ziggy was quite content to walk along holding someone's hand, and the older siblings were falling all over themselves to be the ones who got that privilege.

Our shadows—so far away!

The top terraces of some of the petrified dunes were covered with these little rocks that had weathered out of the larger surfaces. They were so round—like little ball bearings! You had to walk on them carefully.

Ziggy was VERY HAPPY with these rocks. He kept picking them up and handing them to Malachi and then waiting expectantly. Malachi, not sure what was required of him, pretended to eat them, which was apparently quite satisfactory…

…because Ziggy kept bringing more rocks to share.

They were so cute together!

After the Petrified Dunes, we hurried to the actual sand dunes before the sun got too high in the sky. When we got there, they were half in shade and the cool sand felt SO GOOD on our feet and legs! We enjoyed that for half an hour or so before the sun reached us. But even after that, the sand underneath the top layer stayed pretty cool. 

Sand dunes are always fun. The sand was really soft and fine (perhaps not quite as fine as at White Sands, but nothing is) We liked looking for animal tracks in the sand, and making some of our own.

Hmm, I wonder what strange creature left this footprint behind?

There were various jumping contests.

Daisy and Junie made themselves beautiful orange ball gowns. :)

Teddy and Ziggy found an ant, which they dripped sand onto and then watched with endless fascination as it speedily dug its way to the surface again and again. Poor ant.

Ziggy didn't mind the sand as some children have. He liked it, in fact. And got almost unbelieveably dirty, as babies always do. (You haven't forgotten the swimming pool back at the house, have you? I had it constantly in my mind at this juncture.)

Seb dug the deepest hole human hand has ever dug. Well, any of OUR human hands, anyway.

Then he got even more ambitious and dug two holes, connected by an arched tunnel. We couldn't believe the tunnel was strong enough to hold his weight!

There are really quite a lot of us, when you come right down to it. I think this is the only picture I made everyone stand together in. I rarely attempt that anymore.

After the sand dunes, we had one more hike—and then headed home to the glorious swimming pool. I have never felt so relieved as after everyone had showered off and I saw CLEAN HEADS AND HANDS AND TOES swimming around in that cool water! :)