Grandgirl Southern Utah Adventure - Day 3

Day 1 of our Southern Utah adventure is here and day 2 or our Southern Utah adventure is here. 

The morning of day 3, Monday, we went to the lobby of the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Kanab for breakfast. They had bacon and hot chocolate, among other things. Lots of people were eating breakfast, including a number of people right near us speaking Chinese. {Squirrel: "We just ate breakfast at the hotel."} [Bug: "We just ate breakfast and left the hotel."]

Prior research revealed that a good place to see bighorn sheep was the vicinity of the east entrance to Zion's National Park. One on-line post suggested stopping at pullouts and slowly looking around on the canyon walls for bighorn sheep. Another suggested taking the one mile round trip Canyon Overlook Trail as a good place to find them. {Squirrel: "Now we are going to Zions bank, I mean Zions park. After that, we will head home. I am soo sad!"} [Bug: "No we are off to Zions park."]

It was about 34 miles from Kanab to the east entrance to Zion's. We got off by about 8:00 p.m. Not too far in to Zions we saw a couple walking near the side of the road on our right side and looking up.I looked back and saw a bighorn sheep. I pulled into the nearest pullout, grabbed my camera, and went back and got some photos. The girls lost interest after awhile and went back to the vehicle. {Squirrel: "We are almost in, and we saw 3 dear and 10 horses! 12 more Horsas! Now we saw signs of big horn sheep! Yay! We Just saw 5 big horn Sheep!"} [Bug: "we saw a ton of big horn sheep."]

We know they must be around - look at the sign.

Yes, they are!

After a bunch of photos I got back to the vehicle and we went a little more distance until cars starting lining up along the road and I figured it must be the Canyon Overlook Trail, a very popular hike. We pulled over and prepared ourselves for the hike. It is a great trail with metal railings on precarious parts (with large drop-offs), in one place a wooden platform underneath an overhang which would otherwise be just air, a small ledge along a weeping seep, and a fabulous vista at the end into the main canyon, with a very steep drop-off. 

Squirrel came back to me quite bent out of shape because a man told her she was getting too close to the edge. People and ledges are interesting things. I climbed Mt. Whitney with a guy that was afraid of heights and literally crawled on his hands and knees along a window with a drop-off on both sides, but a width of probably 15 feet to walk on. Having been with scouts and other young people, I generally try to restrain my impulses to pull them back, as long as they are being careful and thoughtful (of course if they are horsing around, that is a different matter - but I haven't seen horsing around as a problem near steep cliffs). {Squirrel: "[T]his weird guy told me to not sit next to the edge of the clif. He is just a explorer, and he can't tell me what to say. I wish I were to say: 'you can't tell me what to do.' But, I didn't."}

We asked a man to take a picture of the three of us together, then started back. The girls were up ahead doing a great job. No overt fear of heights which I think is a good thing, as long as there is respect for the situation. {Squirrel: "We just went on a hike, and I loved it!"} [Bug: "we went on this super awesome hike."]

From the Canyon Overlook Trail the road goes through a long tunnel down into Zion's Canyon. I decided to turn back the way we'd come and go back a less crowded route. On our way back we found the spot where the bighorn sheep had been spotted. No one was looking and the bighorn sheep weren't obviously there. But I got out and walked up the hill a ways and found them. They were kind of bedded down behind bushes. I inched closer and got quite close, perhaps 15 or 20 yards from a couple of sheep, then I just stood and watched. After a while, more sheep began to appear and basically ignored me. I watched them about 30 minutes and got fantastic views of some ewes and their young ones. The girls spent most of that time in the car doing other things, but did catch glimpses. I guess it takes age (and interest) to appreciate how rare that kind of a sighting is. {Squirrel: "There is a ton of baby Sheep up on the mountain! They are sooo cute! On the hike, we saw very cool bighorn sheep..."}

We stopped further along to take a horse ride, but the timing wasn't right. We got to the east end of Hwy 9 and turned left (north) onto Hwy 89 at Mt. Carmel Junction. Before long we got to Orderville. We'd talked about Orderville as a place where the Mormons practiced the law of consecration (the United Order) and held everything in common. It didn't work very well and before long they abandoned the practice. We passed the rock places we'd stopped at on the way down and then turned off to visit the cemetery in Orderville, something we did with our kids when they were very young. We read some headstones and found many colorful yellow ones that were mostly for infants only a year or two old when they died. Some of the headstones were quite decorative, with angels.

Then we stopped at the German bakery that had not been open on our way down, Forscher. We got some pastries and a sandwich. It was okay, not great. {Squirrel: "I just went to the Forscher bakery! it was so fun! I had a Buter chocolate Crasant!"} [Bug: "Then we went to a german bakery. I got a really gross cheese cak."]

We continued north past the junction with Hwy 12 which we'd taken from Bryce, and continued on through Panguitch, Circleville, Junction, Marysvale, and Joseph. [Bug: "then we went for a while on the rode and we went through towns and got to a gasstation papa got gas and I went in side the gas station. I was trying to find some food. they didn't have any sandwiches wich are my favorit. so, I got a bag of Ruffles chips, and a slim Jim."]

We spent part of the long drive talking about our Cannon ancestors. We learned that their fourth great grandfather, Captain George Cannon, was the captain of a ship that picked up slaves in Africa and sold the slaves in the Caribbean. Not something we approve of or are proud of, but the world was much different then. His daughter, Leonora, moved to Canada and met and married a young Methodist minister named John Taylor. They were converted to Mormonism and moved to the U.S. where John met Joseph Smith and became an apostle. When Joseph sent the apostles to England on a mission, Leonora sent a letter with John to her brother, George Cannon, who by that time lived in Liverpool. John stayed with the Cannons in Liverpool while he did missionary work and George's family also converted to Mormonism. Then they decided to emigrate to Nauvoo. George Cannon's wife, Ann, died at sea and was buried at sea just before arriving in New Orleans. Then George and his children, including his son, George Q. Cannon, took a steamship up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo where they were met by John and Leonora Taylor and Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was assassinated at Carthage Jail and John Taylor was with him at the time. In fact, a watch he had in his breast pocked prevented a bullet from killing him. George Cannon built the drag to carry Joseph's and Hyrum Smith's bodies back to Nauvoo and George also made the death masks for Joseph and Hyrum that are used today to really understand what Joseph and Hyrum looked like. George Q. went to live with his uncle, John Taylor, and crossed the plains to Utah with John Taylor's family in a wagon. John Taylor taught George Q. how to write and set type and he eventually started his own publishing company and published the Deseret News. George Q. became a counselor to Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and Lorenzo Snow and died just before Lorenzo Snow did, otherwise he would have been president of the church (Squirrel knows all of the church presidents). We went into quite a bit more detail, but this is the flavor of it. The girls wanted to know if George Q. had a George, and he did, and I'm sure that George has had generations of George after that. {Squirrel: "So, Papa is talking in the car about captain Cannon. He had a son named George, and George had a son named George, and George number 2 had a son named George, and George number 3 probably had a son named George. Wow!"} [Bug: "papa talked alot about ancesters...papa talked about camptain cannon it was so cool. Captain cannon captured slaves and sold them."]

We eventually got on the I-70 for a ways before getting off near Salina where we returned to Mom's Cafe for dinner. I was really impressed with Mom's Cafe the first time around and thought it merited another visit. The girls got cheese burgers and I got fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and a small buffet dinner salad. We shared a slice of coconut cream pie which was quite thick. {Squirrel: "We are going to Salina to eat at moms cafe! We loved it so much, that we decided to go there again! So, it was really good! I got a burger, and fries! So yummy!"} [Bug: "then we went on the road again. We were going to salina to get dinner. and can you guess were pap and I wanted to eat, Mom's Cafe!!! we finished eating it was so good...I ate a cheeseburger and fries, that was a good meal."]

There it is - Mom's Cafe - again!

We retraced the route we'd taken on the way down, up Hwy 50 to Scipio to stop at the petting zoo. It wasn't open. Again. {Squirrel: "Now, we are headed to the petting zoo. We are going to see lots of animals there! Well, turns out, they are still closed. Yay. Well, we are going home!"} [Bug: "then we went to Scipio we went to the petting zoo again but it was closed again now were on our way home."]

So we got in the adventure-mobile and drove to the girls' home in Utah Valley, following the I-15. {Squirrel: "We will be there in 30 minutes! I am so sad our Journey had to end! I learnd that next to mount Nebo is Nephi! On the trail, a long time ago, it was really pretty!...We see 350 cows on the side of the road! They are so cute! I see mount timpanogas! I see beauty! I see resturants! I see...home. noooo! Now I have to end the journal. This trip was awesome! Bye!"} [Bug: "there was about 400 cows we saw, on the way home."]

These three days were a blast. I loved being with the girls. They were great company, were interested in many, diverse things, and I got to share with them some of the things I love: the outdoors, animals, hiking, travel, family history and history.

I remember back to my own limited time with my own grandparents and how little I remember about them. I realize the girls will be quite young when I finally leave the earth. I'm hoping there are some memories of this trip that will stay with them and these blog posts are part of that determination that they will!