We stayed in a small town between Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, and visited both national parks over four days after Arizona. It was amazing that Bryce Canyon and Zion are only 1.5 hours away by car, but they are completely different.

We paid Bryce Canyon two visits in the first two days, and then it started to snow, with the lowest temperature at night dropping down to -2°F! Not knowing if it was a good idea to go and what we would encounter, we drove up to Zion the next day in an on and off snowstorm.

When we arrived, oh my, I could not believe my eyes. The beautiful scenes were in EVERY corner. I could not help stepping out the car in every lookout despite the wet and icy road.

Our toddler, however, only cared about his leaf branch discovery. He held this in his hand all the way till the end of our Riverside Trail hike. It was true love and real treasure! What can I say, it doesn't take a lot to make a toddler happy. The world must be a much better and happier place if we were all like toddlers!

Here’s another example. This is what happened when I unleashed our 2 yo on the Riverside Trail. Yep the puddle jumper! He literally dashed to every puddle he saw and jumped right in. That was not enough. He would turn around and do it again.

Did I mention the highest temperature was 32°F (or zero celsius)? That didn’t seem to be a factor for a toddler! After a few incidents, we knew we could not control the situation, and the shoes were probably wet already - so why bother to stand in his way and ruin the fun!

This is the sunset on the bridge across Virgin River with Watchman Tower as the backdrop. I can't get enough of the golden glow over the red rocks. This was my first sunset in Zion, and surely won't be the last!

It was beautiful and sunny the following day. We visited Zion again and did a small hike at Grotto trail to see wild animals.

We saw only one deer but that’s already enough to lure our old one out of the car - he refused to step out of the car in Bryce Canyon and on our first day in Zion.