Words of Wisdom: Spring Break, Part 4. . . The Desert Landscape

We decided to get up close and personal with the desert landscape today. We visited Snow Canyon (named after Lorenzo Snow and Erastus Snow). Snow Canyon highlights plants and animals from 3 different environments that collide in 1 diverse environment: the Colorado Plateau, the Mojave Desert, and the Great Basin Desert. We enjoyed the 1/2 mile hike to see pioneer names written in axle grease dating back to 1881. Finding the hidden pinyon pine on the Hidden Pinyon Trail was fun, too. It was really amazing to see the "varnished" rocks and the sandstone formations that used to be sand dunes millions of years ago. We saw lots of animal tracks in the sand, but the only animal we saw was a bluejay. The plants were interesting, but Jaret said the berry off the cactus really didn't taste very good.

Jesse and I had a good laugh when I told the kids some oak leaves they all touched were poisonous and they would start to itch within 5 minutes. I was just teasing, and we all had a good laugh when the kids reminded us of the poison oak that Uncle Stephen took them hiking through at the Yurts at Lake Cascade.

After Snow Canyon, we stopped at the Jacob Hamblin home in Santa Clara. I thought I had heard the name before, and probably that's because Jacob Hamblin was one of the first pioneers in Tooele County.

Lunch at The Pizza Factory in Ancestor Square (downtown St. George) was delicious. We enjoyed breadtwists ("These are much bigger than the ones you make, Mom," said Kaysen) and the Not on Sundae was a fun treat (chocolate chip cookie dough with 3 scoops of ice cream, whipped cream, and delicious caramel and chocolate sauce).