State Parks Scavenger Hunt-Central Parks

Another summer weekend has come and gone.  This past weekend was our last state parks overnighter and we hit a record TEN state parks in two days: 6 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.  And yes, I know I am crazy.

Palisade

Can I just say how shocked I was when I saw how well this picture turned out?  1) She is sitting still.  2) She is looking at the camera. 3) She is smiling!  Now, if only the blasted wind hadn't been making her hair go crazy.  Oh well!  Still one of my new favorite pictures of her!

Daddy's little girl

Yuba Lake

One of the scavenger hunt tasks for this park was to enjoy their famous deep-fried Oreo dessert.  So how could we refuse?  The plate comes with like 5 deep-fried Oreos covered with ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup.  Yummy!

Horse-drawn compactor

Territorial Statehouse

My cute prisoners

Dancin' Fools

Fremont Indian
Right when we got to the park, the storm that we'd been travelling towards all day hit complete with pouring rain, thunder, and lightning.  We took refuge in the visitor center/museum and were pleased that they had a kids' discovery area that Leila could play around in.

Grinding corn

The fear of lightning kept us from doing one hike that was up along the cliff edge, but I still went and did this quick walk to the Cave of a Hundred Hands (praying that the clouds wouldn't unleash another downpour on me while I went).  You can't see it in the picture, but there are petrographs of hands all along the back of the cave wall.  I counted 28 full handprints with several smears, smudges, and partials around them.  Guess this was the spot to leave your mark back in the day!

Piute
Unfortunately the rain would stick with us for our last two parks of the day.  Thankfully it didn't disrupt us too much.  At Piute State Park I wrote our name using rocks along the shore while Jason picked up some trash.  All this was done while watching the lightning in the distance (in the direction of our next stop).

This was harder and more taxing than I had thought it would be.  I am so out of shape!

Jason showing off our completed project

Doing our part to keep the state park clean

Otter Creek
By this point we once again found ourselves in the pouring rain and didn't dare stay out too long because lightning was popping all around us.

Horseshoes in a lightning storm anyone?

You can't tell, but I am standing next to a replica of an Indian shelter

Goblin Valley

We stayed in a hotel in Green River Saturday night and then got up and going again the next morning.  Thankfully the skies were blue and there wasn't a bolt of lightning in sight!  Our first park of the day was Goblin Valley.

Of all the parks on our schedule for the weekend, this was the one I was most excited for.  We came here once as a family and I remembered having a blast (other than the fact that our car battery died and we had to wait there while it charged via the trailer's solar panels).  I remember us all on top of one of the hoodoos and my dad had his camera set up on a tripod below to take a family picture.  He had to scramble up the rock several times and get in place before the timer took the picture.  It was one of the many times we teased him about setting up a video camera to capture the behind the scenes of our family photos.  Unfortunately, I think the roll of film got exposed so we never even got the pictures.  Its a good memory though!

Conqueror

Leila loves sand and "bockos" (Leila speak for rocks)

The only way I could drag Leila away was to put her on my shoulders and let her pull on my hair.  Crazy, crazy girl.

Millsite
The scavenger hunt task for this park was to pack a picnic and enjoy it by the reservoir.  So we stopped at the little convenience store in the nearby town and loaded up with food before we went into the park.

Apparently we weren't getting her food fast enough

Huntington

I thought that this was going to be a pretty fast stop for this park since all we had to do was find a geocache.  I was wrong.  It probably took us an hour of walking back and forth through a bunch of burrs, gopher holes (one of which had a dead gopher in it), rabbits jumping out of bushes and startling me, and asking the ranger if he knew where it was before we finally found it.

Hot, sweaty, tired, but determined

Scofield
This was our last stop of the day and only and hour and half from home.  We were all anxious to be home at this point, so we only stayed long enough for me to get my feet wet and snap a picture or two.

I felt a twinge of despair as we were driving down Spanish Fork canyon and there was a touch of color to some of the leaves.  Don't get me wrong, I love fall and the cooler temperatures (we still reached a hundred last week).  It just doesn't last nearly long enough.  And then it will be winter.  Sighs...