Family trip to Duck Creek - Part 1

Every few years my parents take my entire family on a vacation. The last trip that we took was to Yellowstone three years ago. This year we talked about a few different places but my parents has heard of this place in Southern Utah called Duck Creek. It was between Bryce Canyon and Zions, near Ceder Breaks, Brian head, Ceder City. Sounded like fun. Then we had to find a time that worked for everyone. That's hard when you are trying to figure out a time that works for 21 people. We narrowed it down to May or August because that was when the people who were in college had breaks. Then upon further discussion we decided it might be too cold in May so we decided to plan for August. It was good that we did. With the VERY wet winter that we had in Utah this year there was still a significant amount of snow in Duck Creek in May (It's at 8400 ft so it had snow pretty late into the year).

The plan was for people to come and go as they could but we would have the ATV on Saturday and figure it out as we went along.



We drove down on Thursday, August 4. It was a beautiful drive down. We drove through Brian head and Ceder Breaks. We decided to stop in Ceder Breaks to get out and take a look at the landscape. It was amazing.





Thursday night everyone that was there went to dinner together at the diner at the resort we were staying at. We were all starving and we didn't see a lot of options so we decided it looked good. I think our crowd was a little much for their one cook. It took so long to get our dinner. By the time dinner was over it was time to wrestle 2 boys into their pajamas and get them to bed.

Friday morning we decided that we were all going to go to Bryce Canyon together. We needed to run to the store, Janeene needed to too so we decided to head out because Hudson really needed a nap then we would meet up with the others along the way. Janeene's car said it had low tire pressure so we told her that we would follow them so that if they had a problem we would be behind them. We compared routes then got on our way. Spencer said several times that Bryce was East and we were going West but we kept going...until we ended up in Ceder City. We checked the maps once we were there and from there it was almost 2 hours to Bryce. We called the others and told them not to wait for us and we decided while we were in Ceder to do a little grocery shopping. We stocked up then got on our way back to Duck Creek. On the way back we did stop at a pullout to admire the view. Once back at the resort we asked Janeene if Roman could play with their kids and as we put Hudson down for his afternoon nap we also took a very much needed nap. It was so nice to just spend a day and relax. That's why we were on vacation anyway!



Saturday my parents had rented a big 6 seat ATV and we were taking turns riding it for 1 hour blocks of time. We were the first to go with Brenda and Dave. We had planned to take Hudson on a short ride but there wasn't a helmet small enough for him to wear. Hudson was NOT happy about us leaving him. AT ALL. It didn't help that both of the times that we had the ATV were Hudson's nap times.



Dave drove first and after a while we got to a puddle. As we were leaving they were giving us driving instructions and had said that they thought it was pretty dry. So we went through the first mud puddle and came to a bigger puddle but Dave went through it slow and it wasn't really a big deal either. Then we got to a HUGE puddle. We decided to stop there. Except Spencer. He didn't want to stop there. So we all got out and let Spencer go through the big puddle. The first time he went through it he didn't even really get wet. The water was spraying off to the sides and he had such a great time he wanted to go back through it. So we got out cameras and phones to get pictures/videos of him going back through the puddle. It was so funny, he got out after he had gone back through it and he was SOAKED. So wet he had to borrow my sweatshirt (that he had given me a hard time for wearing) to warm back up.

I don't know if you can really tell in this picture but his clothes are dripping.

After Spencer was done playing in the puddle I got a turn to drive and it was a lot of fun.

Becky's family on the ATV.

Mom, Dad, Chris and Melissa.

Just down the road from where we were staying there was a coral that offered horse rides. We walked down and they were full right then but we were able to get on the list to take Roman for a horse ride right after lunch. So while we were between turns on the ATV we did that. Roman was so funny. He had never been on a horse ride other then pony rides where they are tethered to the walker. He had a million questions. How do you make it go? How do you make it stop? How do you make it turn? Where's the navigation? He had a million questions for our guide too. I think the guide was probably glad that we were only going on a 30 minute ride, not 1 or 2 hours.

As soon as we were back from the horse ride, Roman was ready to go on the ATV.

He wanted to be right up front so he rode up front with Brenda and Dave while Brenda was driving. We were on our way to the pond and we knew how to get there but the directions we had were "go down this road until you get to TrueValue the turn between the two orange poles." Brenda is looking at the map trying to figure out where in the heck we were so I decided it was a good time to get a picture. We did finally find the poles. Roman wanted to get in the back with me and Spencer so we were cruising along and he told us what we had feared...he was getting motion sick. So we hurried and pulled over and got him out (fast!) then he didn't want to get back on the ATV. We were almost to the pond so I walked the rest of the way with Roman and Brenda, Dave, and Spencer went up ahead. Brenda had a tiny signal on her cell phone so after about 3 phone calls with the phone cutting out they were able to get a hold of Becky and had her come pick Roman and Spencer up at the pond and I got to drive back. They said we were going to be late getting back because of all the time we took trying to get Roman taken care of...I made sure we weren't late. We got back RIGHT on time. I drove fast, and it was so.much.fun!

Saturday night after dinner we decided to go back to Ceder Breaks. There was a place called Sunset point that we decided we wanted to go back to to watch the sunset. Roman was so tired from everything we had done that he fell asleep on the way and was too tired to even wake up when we got there.

We went straight to sunset point, waited for about 1/2 an hour then decided it was going to be a while before the sun actually set so we would go check out a few of the other areas while we were waiting.

We got back to Sunset Point right as the sun was setting and it was spectacular. The view was breathtaking. I wish a picture could capture just how spectacular it was but it was amazing all around. Behind us the sky was purple and pink, the rocks were illuminated, it was definitely worth the wait! (And Roman slept through it all.)