Red Cliffs hike

On the way home from my half marathon in St. George a couple weeks ago we took a detour to check out the Red Cliffs Rec Area. It's a gorgeous place - like Zion's Nat Park, but smaller and without any tourists. It's about 15 miles north of St. George, near Quail Lake. We just wandered around for a couple hours. Brianna loved it, though it was pretty muddy so we had to do a lot of hand-holding. Going to places like this makes me wish I had a decent camera. And camera skills. Oh well - memories are more important, right? I also wish we had brought the toddler hiking backpack along, but this excursion wasn't planned at all. I thought I'd be wasted after the half, but I took it really slow and easy so it wasn't any different than my usual Saturday long runs. Except that I totally forgot to bring my sports bra. It was one of the few times in my life that I was extremely grateful to be small chested. TMI, sorry. Running the race slowly was annoying - I kept seeing other runners ahead I knew I could beat (judgmental and snotty, I know) and had to remind myself I'm running for 3. Brian was so supportive - he never has once complained about having to give up his Saturday mornings for me to run. Love him. So when he suggested stopping for the hike, I initially protested because Brianna really needed to get home to nap, but I'm glad I decided not be uptight for the afternoon. Though stuffing an overtired overstimulated child back into the car after running around for hours was NOT fun. My favorite parts were the little waterfalls we kept running into and the caves everywhere. It'd be fun to go back without the kid(s) and explore more. Then again, it's even more fun seeing Brianna's eyes light up as she pointed out different bugs and rocks and ponds.
Here are a couple pictures of this place taken by people who actually know how to use a camera well:
Falling in love with Southern Utah!