Tallulah Gorge Sliding Rock Trail (Tallulah Gorge State Park - GA)

Hike Date: 07/28/2013

On Sunday, July 28th, we went hiking (Paige, Ashley, and I).  Scott was out of town for work and we wanted to do something outside so we decided we would go on a hike.  We went to Tallulah Gorge State Park (in NE GA) to do the Sliding Rock Trail.  They only give out 100 passes per day starting at 8 AM and they do not give out passes if there is a chance of rain.  There was only a 20% chance of rain when we woke up so we went ahead and made the hour drive and luckily they still had passes left!  We were on our way after a quick overview and safety class.  Yes, they tried to scare us away in the safety class!

The first adventure is going down 600+ stairs to get to the gorge floor and then you have to jump or climb across giant boulders to get to the other side.  I bruised up my arm pretty bad on one jump but we all three made it to the other side.  There was definitely strategy involved in making it, as you can see below.

There really is NO trail and there is no room for a trail because you are basically just beside the water and making your own way down.  We all brought tennis shoes (actually hiking/trail shoes) and water shoes.  We quickly changed into the water shoes in the beginning because most of the trail was wading through the water.  We all had packs on and fell or slid into the water a few times.  It was rough!  There was even a section where you literally had to crab crawl across a giant rock to get to the other side BUT it wasn’t that easy because it was slippery so it kept pushing us down towards the water so we were constantly trying to crab crawl and avoid being pushed into the water!

We finally made it to the sliding rock and had to make silly faces, of course!

The sliding rock was a blast (video below) but it was a pain to get back out of the water.  Our video didn’t take the first time so we had to go down twice.  It was so slippery I think we probably burned 200 calories swimming and sliding and climbing rocks to get back out!

After we finished swimming we had to make our way back out of the gorge.  That meant go back the way we came (no thank you!) or take another route which consisted of climbing rocks at a steep incline.  All I can say is that I am glad that my choice of cardio is walking at a 15 incline!  It was a blast!

We had a great girls hiking trip and burned over 1,000 calories!

Have you ever done the Sliding Rock Trail at Tallulah Gorge?

Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon National Park

Trip Date: September 2012

Ever since our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park we have been so excited to go to more National Parks!  This was a very fast-paced trip from Vegas to Utah.  We woke up early each day to start hiking so we could see as much of each park as possible since we only had one day in each park.  It would have been perfect if we would have been able to spend two days in each park but we still had a blast!

We hiked a total of 30 miles in two days (after spending three days in Vegas) so we were pretty exhausted when we got home!

I had my own heart rate monitor for this trip so I was able to track our calories.  However, this hiking was a little different than what we are used to so I don’t know how accurate it was going down hill (because my heart rate was low but it was still very difficult).  Our hikes are normally hiking straight up a mountain but this was a lot of up and down.

Note: A lot of people have been asking me about my heart rate monitor (watch)…here is a link to it.  I purchased mine on Amazon (this is an affiliate link).  There are a lot of monitors out there but I chose this one because it was affordable and does exactly what I need (monitors my heart rate and calories)…oh, and it was available in pink.  

Zion National Park

Saturday

We woke up around 6 AM, took the shuttle to the Vegas airport, picked up the rental car and headed to Zion.  We forgot to plan for the time change so we actually starting hiking an hour later than we had planned.

We did three different hikes in Zion (Observation Point, hiked to the Narrows, and Emerald Pools).  We really wanted to actually hike the Narrows but we didn’t have time.  I definitely want to go back just to hike the Narrows.  Everything we saw in Zion was beautiful except for the tarantula!  Yuck – It reminded me of Home Alone!

We hiked a total of 14 miles and burned 2,523 calories in Zion!

After hiking all day in Zion we drove towards Bryce Canyon.  We stayed in a small motel in a VERY small town called Hatch (population 127).  There is literally NOTHING on the way to Bryce Canyon from Zion but it is absolutely beautiful!

Bryce Canyon National Park

Sunday

We woke up around 6:30 AM and drove to Bryce Canyon.  We also did three hikes in Bryce (Figure 8 Loop (plus some), Fairyland, and Sunset Point into the canyon to watch the sunset and full moon rise).  There are no words to describe Bryce Canyon.  It is truly breathtaking.  I literally kept telling Scott “I don’t know what to say about this place.”  If you have never been, you MUST go there!  The hikes we did in Bryce were KILLER!  Strenuous is an understatement!

We hiked a total of 16 miles and burned over 2,672 calories!

After watching the full moon rise we drove 2.5 hours to St. George (back through Zion) so that we wouldn’t have too far to drive to the airport on Monday morning.

Monday

We were going to get up early and drive through Valley of Fire State Park on the way to the airport but we were exhausted and slept in instead.  We will hit that one next time!  We got to the airport and flew to our first stop, Phoenix.  While waiting to board the plane to Atlanta we were told the flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to take a flight home the next day.  They were offering to pay us via an airline voucher and cover our lodging in Phoenix (my favorite city), so needless to say, we were the first in line to sign up!  We were both looking forward to staying in Phoenix for the night and driving out to Scottsdale to hike Camelback.  However, at the last minute two passengers didn’t show up so we had to get on our original flight and go back home as planned.  We got home very late but thankfully we both had the next day off!

NUTRITION:

Since we were literally running from one hike to the next and trying to squeeze in as many hikes as possible we didn’t have much time to actually eat real meals.  We ate protein bars, granola, trail mix, nuts, etc on our hikes.  We ate two real meals: dinner at Zion Pizza & Noodle (delicious!) and lunch at Bryce Canyon Lodge (not recommended).

Which National Parks have you visited?  What was your favorite hike?

Shenandoah National Park + Washington D.C.

Trip Dates: July 3-8, 2014

Scott had to go to Annapolis, MD for work so we, of course, went early to do a little sightseeing! I’ve never been to D.C. before and Scott hasn’t been since he was a kid so we flew into D.C. and stayed in Fairfax, VA Thursday-Saturday. Saturday we had to check into the hotel in Annapolis where Scott would be working but we still spent Saturday and Sunday in D.C.! We also used the opportunity to cross another National Park off our list (I have now officially completed that from my “30 Before 30” – even before our fall hiking trip)!

Thursday (July 3, 2014)

Our plane departed from Atlanta at 6:40 Thursday morning. We got to the airport in what we thought would be plenty of time until we saw the line at the counter where you check your bags. On the Thursday before a holiday Southwest only had 3-4 people working the check in counter. We waited almost 50 minutes in the line – I have NEVER waited that long. Then it was like Home Alone running through the airport to get to security. Luckily, the security line wasn’t too bad – it still took about 20 minutes. The entire time my head was racing and I kept thinking”We aren’t going to make it!”. They even put a “late check in” tag on our luggage and said they wouldn’t guarantee it would be on our plane. I wasn’t really concerned about the luggage – I just wanted to get to D.C. but the cost of a ticket change kept going through my head – it was so stressful! We made it through security and THANKFULLY we weren’t pulled to the side to be searched. We then ran like we were in Home Along again to get to the terminal. We ran up the escalator and when I got to the top I thought my legs were going to die. We didn’t even have time to put anything back in or on (computers, belts, etc.) after security and I had just worked legs the day before. We ran up to the counter, frazzled, and the worker said “Well, keep on running!” We made it with 2 minutes to spare! We were afraid we wouldn’t have seats together since Southwest doesn’t have assigned seating. Well, we get on the plane and we are 2 of 16 passengers! It all worked out great and we basically had the entire plane to ourselves! I took a short nap across the row I was sitting in.

As soon as we landed in D.C. (thankfully our bags arrived with us) we picked up the rental car and headed straight to Arlington National Cemetery. I was so moved by the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. It was humbling and amazing to watch.

After Arlington we went to Old Town Alexandria to eat lunch before Mount Vernon. Old Town Alexandra was so neat! I loved it there. After eating lunch, we went to Mount Vernon and walked around (and bought “limited edition” George Washington whiskey – which is for sale if you want it!) for a little while before our tour started. The tour was of George Washington’s mansion. We also were able to tour the gristmill and distillery. It started raining at the end of our mansion tour so we left and headed to the hotel to check in.

On a side note, I have recently started to wear a pedometer because I was NOT moving nearly enough and wearing it helps keep me on track. In our rush at the airport I thought I lost mine during security and I was SO BUMMED. I didn’t get to wear it the first day but we went that night in Fairfax and bought me a new one and wouldn’t you know…the next day Scott finds it in his bag!

Friday (July 4, 2014)

We aren’t too big on crowds so we knew we didn’t want to spend the day, Independence Day, in D.C. with a million other people so what did we do? We planned a hike! We woke up early and drove to Shenandoah National Park. The drive there was absolutely gorgeous. We did Old Rag Mountain which is more of a rock scramble than a hike. It reminded me a lot of the Tallulah Gorge hike I did last year in Georgia. Parts of it were pretty scary! We did the 9.5 mile hike and then headed back to the hotel.

Hiking Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park

Hiking Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park

Hiking Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park

Hiking Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park

We left to go to D.C. around 5:30 PM. Our first stop was The White House. Then we just walked around and stayed at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial to watch the fireworks.

Total Steps: 27,895

Saturday (July 5, 2014)

Scott and I are not really museum people but we wanted to go to a few of the Smithsonian Museums. We rode the Metro into town and first went to get tickets to the Holocaust Museum. After getting our tickets we went to a few of the memorials before our tour of The Capitol at 12:30 PM. The Capitol was pretty awesome but so unnecessarily extravagant in my opinion.  After The Capitol we headed back to the Holocaust Museum. Scott really wanted to rent bikes but I wouldn’t because I was still scared of them since I broke my leg when I was little! So after another long day in D.C. we headed to Annapolis, Maryland to check into our new hotel.

Total Steps: 25,856

Sunday (July 6, 2014)

Sunday we still had the Natural History Museum that we wanted to see and some of the monuments on the other side of The Mall. I finally caved into renting the bikes so that we could do everything much faster since we were going to the Nationals vs Cubs game that afternoon. Well, we rode the bikes everywhere! We ended up taking the Metro to the game but then rented bikes after the game to get back to the city. We stayed on the bikes for another few hours riding around The Mall and back to The White House. So now I have a new obsession!  I’m all about bike riding now! The Cubs lost but it was fun going to a new stadium (and checking another stadium off of our list!).

Total Steps: 18,188

Monday (July 7, 2014)

Scott had to work Monday afternoon and evening so we decided we would check out Annapolis for a few hours before he had to be at the golf course. It was a very pretty city but also pretty crowded for me…there were cars parked everywhere with very narrow streets so it kind of freaked me out. We didn’t spend much time there before we had to head back to the hotel.

Scott left for work and I decided it would be a good idea to run to Target. Not such a good idea. It was a little over 2 miles round trip, which was fine, but the heat index was over 100 degrees! Once I got back from my running adventure I went to the hotel gym for about 20 minutes to do a few upper body moves. Then I worked the rest of the day into the night. 

Tuesday (July 8, 2014)

Scott had to work Tuesday morning and our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:40 that night. I went to the hotel gym again and attempted to do lower body but I was still sore from all the walking and hiking so that didn’t last long! I instead just came up with this hotel room workout!

When Scott got back we headed towards D.C. We got to the baggage counter around 4:30 PM and was told our flight was delayed an hour. Well, an hour turned into 4 hours. We didn’t leave until 10:30 PM, so we didn’t get home until around 2 AM. So much for taking an earlier flight so we had time to get back in the groove at home! Not only did we have a 4 hour delay but our bags were soaking wet because one of the workers decided that she would only put 1/2 of them under cover and just leave the others out in the rain. Luckily, the airline responded and has “corrected” the issue. 

Oh, and we ate at the same restaurant 4 times in D.C. It was called The Protein Bar and their food was TO DIE FOR. We even got a little punch card after going there twice. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fill it up because we had to leave town but I gave it to someone in the restaurant and it MADE THEIR DAY. They now get a free meal after only having to buy one more! We also didn’t use all of the money we had on our metro cards so we gave them to other riders. It’s very easy to brighten someones day with something even that small. Always think about how you can help others!

So, that was our trip in a nutshell.

Have you ever been to DC? What was your favorite part?