Day 19 - Sand Hollow State Park, UT - An unexpected, relaxing day at the lake

We woke up a bit late this morning, at least for us.  The sun was starting to beat down on the camper and we knew we were in for a warm day.  But then again, what can you expect when you head into the desert in late June?!!

We had planned to do a short-ish hike in Zion before enjoying the reservoir so we had some breakfast and then drove over to the park.  Unfortunately, when we got into the park, it was clear that the crowds had beaten us there.  There wasn’t a parking spot available at the visitor center.  While there are free shuttles from the neighboring town, given that we were only going to hike for about an hour, we were suddenly looking at ~2 hours of shuttle rides to do one mile of hiking.  Given that we had ridden the shuttle yesterday and sort of seen the park, we decided that the ratio of 2:1 travel to hiking just wasn’t worth it so we decided to do a day at the lake and just relax.


It took us a bit of time to get back to the lake, but when we did, we switched into swim gear and were quickly in the water.  We started at one spot, but later moved over into a more quiet/protected cove which worked out for us for the rest of the day.  









The water was a nearly ideal temperature - especially in the shallow, calm cove where the sun could warm it up so the boys splashed around and did some serious sand digging.  I was reminded a coupld of times that their best day so far was the day we didn’t go to a national park or hike.  OK guys, I get it.


In truth, I had a pretty great time just watching them play in the water and eating snacks.  Eventually we saw a number of bass swimming around (the water was CLEAR) and so I went back to camp to get the fishing pole.  Fishing there was almost like fly fishing.  Watch where the fish are going, throw it just in front of them and then start reeling!  It was fun - each boy caught one!  We lost Sebastian’s back to the water before we could get a picture, but Robinson held his on his own (another first!).  





After the sun started to go down, we wandered back to camp for a casual dinner and early evening.  While there was still a party going on at some of the other sites, we wouldn’t have known it - we were sound asleep quickly!





Total miles travelled - 4,000

# States (Provinces) - 10

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