Meandering.Mendezes

09/13/2023

Day 7: Sibling Adventures. We started out with a cold (freezing 🥶) hike through a stream in a slot canyon in Kanarraville. There were 4 waterfalls on our hike.

Next up was a quick stop at Culver’s before taking a beautifully scenic drive to Cedar Breaks National Monument. This was a new place for me.

We checked out the viewpoints and hiked the Alpine Lake Trail. It smelled absolutely incredible!! Fresh pine like Christmas.

We drove up to Brian Head point at 11,307 feet. Got to see some awesome views and marmots!

We also stopped in Springdale and then got Mexican food for dinner.

09/10/2023

Day 6 of Sibling High Adventure Camp:
We put in for the lottery to hike to The Subway (Left Fork bottom up) at Zion National Park. We picked up our wilderness permit and headed out on our adventure!

This hike is on an unmaintained wilderness trail. We spent 9 hours exploring, taking a dip, and hiking. It was an incredible journey but at times a challenging hike. We started with a steep downhill. It included scrambling, climbing over boulders and downed trees, as well as wading in the river.

We saw a few people. We also saw lizards, frogs, toads, trout, tadpoles, minnows, and a tarantula.

Overall, after our 9 hour day, we hiked about 10.5 miles. We enjoyed a dinner at River Rock Roasters and some cookies from Nom Nom.

09/09/2023

Day 5 was dubbed the Death March in the Desert. When we described to one of the park rangers where she went, she said “Oh, you were in a quest!” 😂 We followed a rough “trail” into back country at Zion National Park. This 8 hour trek included lots of ups and downs. The landscape was like being in on another planet.

It was a rough one! We enjoyed an overlook to the river below at our lunch spot. We didn’t quite make it to the end, but we still enjoyed so much solitude. We saw absolutely no one while hiking!

Mileage today: 10.5

09/08/2023

Day 4 of or Sibling Shenanigans: Today was absolutely action packed. We woke up at 4:15 am, had breakfast and were off to Zion for our Angel’s Landing hike. We actually arrived just as the sun started to peek out.

This was my second time hiking to Angel’s Landing. It’s a 5.4 mile hike with almost 1,500 feet of elevation gain. It was a windy journey. Absolutely worth the hike to experience the views.

As if that wasn’t enough, after lunch we decided to hike the Narrows. There was a lot more water than the last time I was here. It actually reached chest level for me! Loved exploring here together.

Hike totals were around 13.5 miles. We ate at the Thunderbird Cafe and enjoyed some Ho-made Pies!

09/06/2023

Day 2 of our Super Sibling Trip: We started our day with a canyoneering trip. We rappelled down into a slot canyon. With recent rain, this also meant we got wet. We slid down rocks and scrambled up others. Certainly a new adventure!

Next up, we visited the sand caves. We hiked up to them and did some wandering. We also made a short stop at the Belly of the Dragon.

After an early dinner, we headed out for a sunset hike at Observation Point. Such an incredible view. We saw (and I recorded) a couple getting engaged.

Our hike included some trekking in the dark and admiring the stars on the way back. We logged just over 13 miles.

09/04/2023

We had a super adventurous day on Sunday. We visited Bryce Canyon. The weather was great, cool to start out and then warmed up to the mid 80s.

The rain has really caused damage on some areas of the trail. It was super muddy in some areas. We hiked from Bryce Point to Sunset Point.

We stopped at Red Rock Canyon, part of the Dixie National Forest, just outside of Bryce Canyon City. Took a shorter hike there.

Last stop was Red Hollow Slot Canyon. This one got pretty “squeezey”. Totaled out the day with some where just over 10 miles of hiking.

09/03/2023

Guess where we are? Yup, Zion National Park. I’m currently enjoying an incredible sibling trip with my sister and brother.

We arrived yesterday. Flew from Milwaukee to Phoenix to St. George.

There’s been a good deal of rain in the last few weeks in Zion. We were able to get out and hike the Canyon Overlook Trail. It was amazing! I wasn’t able to hike this while we were here last year as it was closed for improvements.

So many adventures to come!

08/25/2023

So it’s been a while! We’ve been back to Wisconsin for about 6 weeks already! Time flies.

What have we been up to?

We stayed our first week at Richard B**g State Recreation Area (so many beautiful wildflowers blooming). We moved on to our current location at Base Camp with our gracious hosts.

We finally got to meet our grandbaby Felicity and celebrate her first birthday at the end of July.

We’ve been busy catching up with family. I’ll be sharing more updates soon, including some travel adventures!

07/25/2023

We headed out on an incredible adventure one year ago today. I’ll be updating more this week with what we have been up to.

Check out our highlights:

Check out this Animated Social Media Graphic designed by Colleen Mendez.

07/08/2023

We made a stop in Albert Lea, Minnesota on our way back toward Wisconsin. Just a quick 2 nighter.

We stayed at Myre-Big Island State Park. The campsites were nice and spread out.

We enjoyed the bike trail and so many hiking trails.

We made sure to stop at the Spam Museum! We were here in 2013 on our trip out West, but Isaiah doesn’t remember. Was funny that we kept saying we didn’t remember the parking being how it was…found out the museum changed location since we visited. 😂

On Wisconsin next! We will be visiting family and my grandpa.

07/08/2023

Last full day in South Dakota.

We snuck over to Minnesota to see Pipestone National Monument. The courthouse was in town. We were slightly overrun by a day camp field trip at the monument but survived.

Pipestone NM has an interesting story to it. It is where Native Americans can quarry for a particular rock (pipestone). Found out it can take 5 years to receive a permit to quarry and a year to get down to the stone used in carving.

Afterwards we explored Palisades State Park. We hiked the Balanced Rock Trail and South Wall. As we were leaving, we watched a train moving slowly across the park. While after we left, it had stopped completely, so we got to sit and wait…not a lot of roads to detour. 🤷🏼‍♀️😂

Heading to Minnesota next. One stop there and then on Wisconsin!

07/07/2023

Our last stop in SD=Sioux Falls. We stayed at Big Sioux Recreation Area. It’s a beautiful state park located just outside of Sioux Falls. Great hiking and biking trails.

It was a long travel day to arrive. We stopped 3 times! At one rest area, we found a wallet. We knew the person was traveling east on I-90, so we went about trying to find the owner.

Next stop was in Chamberlain to see the statue of Sacagawea. We also got gas before hitting the road again.

Arrived at our destination and got set up. Used Facebook to locate the wallet owner and thankfully met up with her at the state park. She had double backed trying to locate it while I was attempting to message her. So glad it all worked out.

First full day, we explored Sioux Falls by taking the sculpture walk. Then we stopped at Falls Park. We also took a bike ride.