Last spring I went with a couple friends down Bluejohn Canyon and out Horseshoe Canyon , and we passed by the Great Gallery, one of the world's best pictograph panels. I decided then and there to drag my family back one day. This weekend, that day came! We couldn't do the full Bluejohn route, which is many miles and includes rappels, but there's a great down-and-back hike into Horseshoe Canyon, and we set our sights on that. I'd originally hoped to do the hike in late February, thinking the weather would cooperate, but Utah has been cold and wet and miserable since January, so we postponed until mid-April. We invited a family from our neighborhood along - Chad and Lisa and their three kids - and also Bri and Mason, and Friday afternoon hit the road for the Super 8 in Green River. Our first stop was the Wendy's in Price, and when we got there we discovered that Asa had brought a friend along: a ball of ice he'd made out of the hail falling at our house when w...

It was a preposterously long time ago, but better late, right? In April we took our second Canyon Country trip. The first was back in 2013 , when me, Addison, and Dad took a trip around southern Utah and northern Arizona, and we've been meaning to do another one ever since. We finally set a date in April and tacked a four-day, three-night trip onto the end of our family vacation to Capitol Reef . Besides the original three participants, we added Bryn and Dayson to the mix, and we had a great time. The first evening we headed up Boulder Mountain, checked out the lookout down into Capitol Reef and the Circle Cliffs and the Burr Trail, where we would be the next day. We stayed in a great little house in Boulder for the first two nights. It was in the same yard as a family house, with toys and a little playground in the yard. The next morning (Friday), we headed down the Burr Trail. Spirits were high. The road heads through Long Canyon first, and we...