Either Zion or Capitol Reef.
Zion was at the start of the trip, and we still had two full weeks ahead of us, so we were all in a great place mentally. The adventure was just beginning. There were some good hikes and that's also where we did a horse ride. Spectacular scenery. But very crowded, even after we had hiked in for an hour from the trail heads. Hard to get a picture of anything without having other people in it. But I liked Zion a lot.
Capitol Reef was very intimate. Almost nobody goes there, so we had the trails totally to ourselves. It's a smaller scale than the other places, but the rock formations are much more interesting close up, and the kids can climb all over the place. The rangers were much more friendly and relaxed than at the bigger parks, where they have hundreds of people a day to talk to. It's a really special place. That "texture" picture pretty much sums it up.
Bryce was nice, but way too crowded. The stars were the best thing about Bryce. We hiked into the rock formations one day, and that was pretty cool, but again, it was too crowded.
Grand Canyon was as spectacular as always, but I decided I like the South Rim better. The North Rim doesn't have the mind blowing view. You can only see like a third of the canyon from the North Rim. But it's still the Grand Canyon, and very impressive.
We came across a neat place called Pipe Spings National Monument. It was just a fort in the middle of the desert, but it was fun to explore, and the Rangers there were really laid back too. Happy to see you. We stopped there on a fluke, and I'm very glad we did.
Basically, the more popular the park, the less fun it was. Except for Zion. Zion was popular, but they do a good job managing the crowds.
Public pictures on Facebook for anyone who's interested:
Zion
Bryce
Capitol Reef
Hope to post the Grand Canyon ones tonight. I took a LOT of pictures and it takes time to go through them.
