More Fun Things To Do in St. George

 We love going to St. George, Utah. It's warmer, which in the winter is great! We went down on Christmas Day and took our bikes to ride on their amazing city bike trail system. The kids suggested where to go--to the "Physics Park," their nickname for the more commonly known as Cottonwood Cove Park. The playground has a bunch of unique features we haven't seen in any other playgrounds, and many of them use physics to make them work (like in the photo above).

It was about 4.5-mile ride each way, easy-peasy on a nice bike trail. Except that it started to drizzle. And then rain. And we got soaked through. The kids didn't care, but I got pretty cold. Fortunately my husband had packed an extra jacket. The kids played for awhile and then we headed back to where we were staying.

The next day we explored some more urban bike trails, this time in nearby Washington, UT. Somehow I forgot my phone, so didn't get any photos.

Later we went to the Washington Aquatic Center. For some reason it was almost empty. The big water slide was great and we had a good time.

Also in the same building was a climbing wall, which we could do at no additional cost. Since we wanted to do some real rock climbing in a few days, I figured this would be a great warmup. Off they went! There were easy and more difficult routes.

On the way out, we noticed this bulletin board. It really got the kids' attention. "How much sugar are you drinking?" Even the fruit juices and smoothies have more sugar than you might think, and since they're pasteurized, not so many of the nutrients.

We don't have a tennis court anymore in our small community, but I thought the kids might enjoy this activity. We bought some fresh tennis balls (the one we found in our yard wasn't so bouncy!), took our thrift-store tennis rackets, and went to a nearby court. We were terrible, but it was a lot of fun.


My brother Ed was with us and he loves to mountain bike. We wanted to ride Gooseberry Mesa, but found it too cold. So we headed back down in elevation and found some nice trails by Quail Creek State Park.  I learned that Desert Boy is like his dad and makes singletrack look easy. I tried to keep up.

The next day we had a permit for Bloomington Cave, a gated cave near St. George. But due to the government shutdown, we couldn't pick up the permit and get the gate code. 

So Plan B was to go rock climbing. We bought a climbing guide book by Todd Goss at the Desert Rat and went to Green Valley Gap. It took us a little time, but we eventually found the very easy 5.3 (Brazilian Ninja) and 5.4 (Texas Jug) climbs I wanted the kids to start on (they're not on the website, but are in the guidebook). Those are super easy and helped them gain confidence.

Then we proceeded to nearby 5.6 (The Offering) and 5.7 (Hairy Virgin) climbs. The kids did well on those, too. My brother and I enjoyed them as well, dusting off some rusty climbing skills. I used to do this a lot more and would like to get back into it.

Then it was off to the Santa Clara Aquatic Center for more swimming. While I was with the kids, Ed discovered the newly created Sand Hollow Bicycle Skills Park out back. We went to take a look, and even though the sun had already set, we couldn't resist riding some more! This was built starting in May 2018.

The bike park was amazing, with a variety of obstacles, hills, and curves. We all loved it.

We still haven't gotten through our original list of things to do in St. George and are already adding more. Hopefully this gives you a few ideas if you're heading in that direction!