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?

Think Before You Drink! Holiday Beverages That Can Wreck Your Diet

When you think about December, does it makes you think about chocolate, candy canes and eggnog? Us, too! We love holiday treats, and love some of the fabulous drink and beverage options that the season brings, but not the calories! Use the infographic below to think before you drink your favorite holiday drinks.