Valley of the Sun

Savana at dinner Friday night

We have been having such a great time in Phoenix so far!!! I have missed everyone and it's been so great to catch up.

We woke up bright and early today to hike Camelback. What a great way to spend the morning. We then went over to La Grande Orange for their homemade english muffins and a piece of red velvet cake. We spend the afternoon hanging out by the pool, I guess it's good that Phoenix is expecting above average temperatures. We spent Friday night with Mike and the girls. I can't believe how they are both like little ladies now and not little girls. We had such a fun time with them. We also got to visit Uncle Ernie in the rehab center. Hopefully the physical therapy will help to heal his back quickly and he can be up and moving soon.

Brian and Jen's Dog - Pedals

Brian and Jen's dog - Velo

We did another hike Saturday morning on South Mountain. We met Jerry and his dog Macie. It was a great time catching up with him and hiking a new trail. We spent Saturday afternoon with Mike and the girls again hanging out at the pool at Mike's condo. Shawn, Erin, Jen, and Jason all came over. We had a fun afternoon. After hanging out at the pool Jen, the girls and I all went to see The Lion King in 3D and then to Jo-Ann Fabric to buy craft things to make purses. It was so much fun and the girls were very excited as they picked out fabric and obliques for their purses. Unfortunately, we got home too late to actually start putting them together so we have a project to look forward to tomorrow. The guys and Erin all went to watch the UFC fight.

Sunday morning we headed over to Mike's again so that the girls and I could start the purses and paint nails. Kailey had swim practice so Scott and I headed back to Ahwatukee to watch the Bears game at a local bar. Mike and Kelly also met us. It was so much fun!! We then went back to Brian and Jen's for their incredible crab legs and to watch the Sunday night game. What a great Sunday.

Miles and Pedals - Lazy day

We had a lazy day on Monday and just hung out at Brian and Jen's all day. Scott and I made a good dinner of grilled steaks and couscous. It was delicious!

Phoenix

We drove nine hours today.

From Farmington we headed for Alpine, Arizona. We have property for sale there and about six months ago Arizona had the largest wildfire on record less than a mile from our property so we thought that we should head up there to check out the property and to see what the surrounding mountains looked like. We were very happy when we arrived in town to see that there were still plenty of forests and that the whole area did not burn. We also stopped in to talk with our real estate agent to find out what the market has been like and if there's anything we can do to have our property sell sooner. It was a good and productive visit.

We then headed to Phoenix. I was a little worried because it was looking like we would get there right during rush hour, but thankfully we were able to take advantage of the carpool lanes!

We're staying with Brian and Jen for the next week and it should be a good one. I can't wait to see my nieces tomorrow night and then spend the weekend with them; we're going to have a good time.

I won't be blogging everyday that we're here; most likely it will be every few days. Coming back to Phoenix is like home to me and it's going to be fun seeing a bunch of friends and places that I haven't seen in a few years. We're planning on hiking Camelback mountain in the morning and then going poolside for the afternoon.

Autumn is in the Air

I was up at the crack of dawn today (6am that is). That's impressive for me for those of you who don't know me well. I was ready to get moving and start exploring new places...unfortunately Scott was still tired and wanted more sleep. That doesn't happen too often where I'm ready to start the day and he wants to sleep; although he says it was just too cold to get out of his sleeping bag. I finally got him moving at about 8am. The tent was covered in frost, apparently it was cold last night, I was nice and toasty with my many layers of clothes, blankets, and sleeping bag.

Fall Colors

We left for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park through the Rocky Mountains and wow, was the entire drive today beautiful. All of the aspen trees and oak bushes are in the process of changing colors. The drive was beautiful and I can only imagine how much nicer it will be a week from now. Even today we saw yellows and reds! I LOVE the fall.

Huge Canyon

Rapids

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was beautiful. Essentially, it was a huge canyon approximately 140 miles long and over 2000 feet deep. We only saw the south end but we are told the north end is even more spectacular. We didn't do a hike today but even on the rim, 2000 feet above the rushing water, we could hear the rapids. The views were spectacular and Scott is already planning our next trip back to this canyon for a few days of backpacking.

After Gunnison we headed for Durango. This portion of the drive may be Scott's and my favorite of the trip. We passed through two very charming mountain towns, Ouray and Silverton. The entire drive felt like we were going through an amazing gorge/canyon the entire 60 miles. Some portions of the ride were very stressful because there was not a railing and about one foot from the road was a steep drop off. I was thankful we were behind a semi truck that way Scott had to go the speed limit. Other portions of the drive were on green and yellow plateaus and then before we knew it we were headed either up or down another mountain. We also passed through mining towns along the way. It was an incredible drive with all of the trees and plant life changing colors, the crystal clear streams/rivers and some streams that looked yellow, the huge pine trees, and the bare granite peaks with snow. The scenery and drive were breathtaking!

After Durango we headed to Farmington, NM for the night. Tonight we are just doing a quick stop over and then we're hitting the road hopefully bright and early in the morning. When we arrived in Farmington tonight the temperature was 83, I think this is the warmest weather we've seen for over a week. It's only supposed to get down to the 50's tonight!

In Loving Memory of Grandma Ruth

My grandmother passed away this morning peacefully with her family by her side. She was 90 years old. She was loved and will be missed by many. Now she is able to see her son and be with her siblings in heaven. Thankfully I was able to talk with her one last time last night. Love you grandma and see you again someday. 

Colorado Springs Day 2

Crags Trail Hike

Today started off as an exciting day of exploring a new town. We decided to first drive around to the different parts of town and then head to the mountains for a hike.

We spent two hours driving around town and never really got a good feeling. We enjoyed the downtown area yesterday but in general Colorado Springs feels old, not young and vibrant. We did find a really cool mountain park named Palmer in the middle of town that we drove through and walked around. This park had a ton of hiking, biking, and horse trails. Definitely a cool feature, but everything around the park felt old. One kind of funny thing that we saw in a neighborhood were three deer in the front yard eating newly planted trees and shrubs. I guess this was funny to us, not so much to the homeowner.

Garden of the Gods - National Natural Landmark

We also drove through the Garden of the Gods Park (a registered national natural landmark). This park consists of hiking, biking, and horse trails and can be seen from most areas of the city. The park has red rock formations throughout. It was a neat drive.

We then headed back up into the Rockies. We had wanted to drive up Pikes Peak, a 14,000+ foot granite peak, but the National Forest Service charged $12 per person and we decided not to. We did however drive over to Woodland Park, a city in the mountains. It was a very cool town of approximately 7600 people, surrounded by pine trees, with views of Pikes Peak. This is definitely a place where I could live because it's only a 20 minute drive to downtown Colorado Springs.

Aspen and Blue Spruce

Granite Peak

We also did a five mile hike (Crags Trail) today and it was beautiful! The hike started at 10,000 feet so I was a little nervous but it ended up being perfect. We hiked alongside a creek for the beginning of the hike, then through aspen tree groves, blue spruces, and huge boulder fields and granite peaks. The aspen trees were beautiful because they were already turning yellow. The creek was crystal clear and all that I could think about was how Mati and Jackson would have loved to run through the water and stop for drinks. The pine trees that we saw were awesome. I've never seen so many blue spruce trees together. At the end of the trail we had an incredible view of three lakes in the valley below. The hike was incredible.

As we were finishing up dinner at the campsite tonight a red fox thought he would check us out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving and sure enough, it was a fox. He ran right through our site and then walked across to another one...apparently the hotdogs and sausages that Scott grilled tonight were appetizing to the fox also.

Overall, today has been kind of a bummer day for Scott. He was very excited, (as excited as he ever gets), when we pulled into town yesterday and today Colorado Springs did not live up to his expectations. The hike was awesome though so thankfully we did that today.

I'm not sure where we're headed tomorrow; I guess we'll see once we stop!

Colorado Springs

Thank you again Mike and Jaimee for letting us crash with you guys.

We woke up today knowing that we would be leaving Denver but didn't really have a plan. We left the house around 10am and headed to breakfast, Starbucks (to post the previous four days and update pictures on the blog) and the grocery store. While we were at Starbucks we received an email that we had to sign all of the closing documents on our house. Well that entailed printing them, finding a notary, and then next day shipping. Thankfully, we hadn't left Denver yet so we called Mike to see if we could go back to the house to print the documents. We then went to Wells Fargo for the notary and then went next door to UPS. It was now 3pm and we were finally on our way!

A little north of Colorado Springs things started looking up. The mountains seemed a lot closer and there were pines trees all around us. We were happy and wishing that Denver had been similar. We decided that it wouldn't hurt to take a quick drive through town to see what we thought. I think if it were up to Scott we would be staying. Colorado Springs seems to be Scott's number one place so far...let the compromising begin! We spent the afternoon driving around town and into the mountains southwest of the city. We were both very impressed with what we saw. We're going to plan on spending a couple nights here.

So we thought we would do the usual KOA and when we drove up to it we were not impressed. It looked like we would be camping on gravel, not fun. So, we spent the next hour driving around to different campgrounds...unfortunately most of them were mainly for RVs. Thankfully, my phone has a cool app and we found a nice little campground in the mountains in a cool town called Cascade. Now, I could see us living here! Tree covered mountains surrounding us and a quick 20 minutes drive into town. It is beautiful here. We also saw a red fox, he was so cool and really close.

Tomorrow we plan on doing a nice little hike and checking out Colorado Springs and the surrounding towns more.

It's supposed to get down into the mid-40's tonight. Hopefully staying the last week at Mike and Jaimee's hasn't made me soft so that I freeze all night. It will be sweats, long sleeves, and wool socks for me.

I think we've found another potential place to live! Yay!

Washington Park

Mandy and Aralyn

We missed the first weekend of football so we decided to stay an extra day in Denver to hang out with Mike and Jaimee and to watch at least one game.  Yay!

Jaimee and Aralyn were up early today for a 5k and tot trot and Scott and I were lazy and slept in.  Once we were up we headed back to Denver to the Washington Park area.  I love Wash Park, it's awesome and by far a place where I could see Scott and me living.  The Washington Park area is just Southeast of downtown Denver but still close enough to walk/bike to town.  For the most part the homes are older bungalow styles with a few new homes scattered throughout.  The area was very charming!  Also, in Washington Park there is a huge park so Mike, Scott and I all hung out in the park playing frisbee, catch, and paddle ball.  After the race Jaimee and Aralyn met us at the park.  Scott and I also set-up our slack line and had some fun on that while Aralyn played in the kiddie area. 

One awesome thing about Denver and the surrounding areas is that everything is connected by urban trails.  These trails go all throughout the city, into the surrounding suburbs, and into the mountains.  Definitely a cool factor!

When we got home from the park we watched the Bears game, it was fun but unfortunately, the Bears lost...bummer.

Mike and Jaimee had another BBQ and Tom and Karine (their neighbors) came back over.  We ate good food and played a few rounds of corn hole.  It was a fun evening. 

We've had a great time hanging out with Mike, Jaimee, and Aralyn!  Thanks for letting us crash, it's been great fun!

Red Rocks and Downtown Denver

Mike, Jaimee, Aralyn, Scott and I all spent the day together.

We headed to Red Rocks which is a hiking area and outdoor concert amphitheater built into massive red rock boulders. It is a very cool venue that is open to the public when events are not booked. It's a great people watching place because many of the people are running steps or the rows of the theatre. It was fun!

We then headed to downtown Denver. The first stop was the flagship REI store. It was huge and awesome. I'm stoked because I finally got a new pair of hiking boots!

We then headed to the 16th St Mall. One of the first things Scott mentioned about downtown was that it seemed very clean. The mall is a huge area that is pedestrian friendly with shopping, restaurants and bars. The only vehicles in the mall area are the buses that are free. They are electric busses and run from one end of the mall to the other. It's a popular place during the week for people who work downtown to get a bite to eat and popular all of the time with tourists. It was definitely a cool area.

We had a lazy evening last night with Scott and me hitting the sack early. 

Estes Park

The Stanley Hotel - Estes Park

Today we headed up to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Estes Park is an awesome mountain town. It's very touristy with the main street lined with shops and restaurants with the backdrop as snow covered mountains! The town is beautiful! We had a good time walking around and ate at a good deli for lunch. The Stanley hotel is also in Estes Park. The hotel in the movie The Shinning was replicated after The Stanley.

After Estes Park we had also planned on heading to Rocky Mountain National Park, however we forgot our National Parks pass in the truck at the house so we decided not to go because we didn't want to pay the entrance fee.

Later that night Mike and Jaimee had friends over for a BBQ and then we all had planned to head downtown. The BBQ was a blast and their neighbors are hysterical! Instead of heading downtown we ended up relaxing on the back deck for the night.

Boulder, Golden, and the Kerrs

It's cloudy again with a chance of rain today. Thankfully we don't have much planned.

We headed up to Boulder and Golden this morning. Scott and I had high expectations for both places.

Boulder was definitely a cool place but not one where I see Scott or me settling. It's very expensive. Downtown Boulder is very pedestrian friendly and has many blocks designated for pedestrians only for walking past the shops and restaurants. One thing that we noticed was there are no dogs allowed in these pedestrian areas. That's a huge turn off for us since we like to take our dogs everywhere.

The views were beautiful in Boulder though. Boulder is right up against the Rockies.

Golden was a very nice town as well. Golden is located in the foothills of the Rockies, so definitely more of what we're looking for. Housing is expensive in Golden as well because the town is landlocked and cannot expand anymore.

After our tour in Boulder and Golden we headed to Arvada to meet up with cousins of mine that I haven't seen in years. Scott and I had such a great time catching up with Ellen and Ed. They we're telling us about a bunch of places to check out while we're here in Colorado. Ed also showed us his incredible garden. The pumpkins were the best ones I've seen! The four of us then met Caroline and Sean out to dinner at a delicious local Italian restaurant. We got a pizza and it was so good. We had a fun night catching up with Sean and Caroline also. After dinner we headed back to Ellen and Ed's house for homemade peach pie. The pie was so good! Ellen also sent us home with a loaf of zucchini bread; I guess I know what's for breakfast tomorrow. Hopefully we all see each other again and don't wait another 15 years.

Gray clouds and a chance of rain



Scott and Mike at Deer Creek Canyon

Everything we always hear about Colorado is that they get more sunny days than Miami and that it doesn't rain much. We woke up to complete cloud covered skies and an 80% chance of rain today. It actually turned out nice because we got to relax a bit.

Mike took us to do a great hike in Deer Creek Canyon about 15 minutes from where he lives. The hike ended up taking about 3 hours. We hiked along the side of a mountain and then to the top. We started in high desert, brushy landscape and before too long we were in the pines. The views of the foothills and mountain homes were great and on a clear day we could have seen all of Denver. Thankfully it didn't rain and the weather ended up being perfect for a hike. While we were hiking we saw an australian shepherd and a border collie, definitely makes me miss my dogs.

Scott's been craving a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks so we headed to
Starbucks for drinks and to get our recent pics downloaded and update the blog. As we were sitting there it started to pour down rain. I guess this means that we are not going to grill out dinner like we had wanted to. On to plan B.

Scott and I ended up making dinner tonight. We made a dill, orange, salmon filet, spicy mac and cheese, and roasted zucchini. It turned out delish. We ended up having another relaxing evening with everyone.

Fort Collins, Colorado

We slept in way too late today, but it felt great. We got up, had a couple pieces of toast and started our day. On our agenda was to check out Fort Collins and also stop by to see a friend of ours that we haven't seen in years.

Today we finally returned that tent we bought at the beginning of our trip in Illinois. When the tent broke there were no stores until Denver, so it felt good to make a little space in the truck.

Fort Collins was an okay town. It's home to Colorado State. There are a few cool streets with restaurants, bars and little local shops. Mike happened to be working up in the area so we got to meet him for lunch and hang out with him the remainder of the day.

Mike took us over to Poudre Canyon to check out the views and this cool little outdoor concert bar type of place. Unfortunately, the Bar was closed but it was a very scenic view through the canyon. We stopped at a camp ground on the Poudre river and headed down to the shore for a while. Being there sure gave Scott the fly fishing bug.

We then headed to Horsetooth Reservoir. Very cool scenery!

After the reservoir we headed to Loveland to see Ryan, a guy we met through a good friend of ours in Phoenix. We met him at his gym and it was great to see him and catch up.

We finally got back to Mike and Jaimee's a little after 8. Jaimee and I did some talking while the guys watched tv. We had a good relaxing night!

Hanging Lake

Hanging Lake

We're headed to Denver today, with two nice new shiny tires!

The drive between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs was uneventful, mostly drove through high dessert following the Colorado river. Once we got near Glenwood Springs the drive changed from dessert landscapes to mountains with pine trees.

Hanging Lake

Our friend Mike Reed who lives in Denver recommended that we do a hike about seven miles west of Glenwood Springs called Hanging Lake. It was a relatively short hike, about two miles round trip, but it was beautiful and difficult. The trail went up a canyon and crisscrossed a stream several times and went over huge boulders and rocks. It was beautiful! Once we got to the top of hanging lake it was breathtaking. There were two waterfalls into the very small lake and the water was crystal clear. The colors of the lake, the vegetation, and the canyon walls were beautiful. The hike was fantastic.

Crystal Clear

We had originally planned on heading to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, but the Hanging Lake hike was so highly recommended that we bi-passed the park. We may check it out when we leave CO.

The remainder of the drive to Denver was great. We went through the ski town of Vail and it was beautiful. We also drove over a 10,000+ foot pass. For the most part we were in the pines for the majority of the drive. Right before reaching Denver we came out of the mountains and through the foothills for a while. The views here are awesome!

For the next week we're staying with the Reeds just south of Denver. We're looking forward to some great hiking and checking out as much of the area as possible. We had a great night catching up with Mike and Jaimee and meeting their daughter Aralyn. It's been way to long since we've seen them! They gave us all kinds of information about the area and things that we need to check out while we're here. Sounds like it's going to be a busy week!

Flat Tire Colorado

Landscape Arch

What another beautiful day in the desert. We had sunshine today as we packed our campsite and headed into town for breakfast. Today we opted for bagel sandwiches. There is no shortage of food in Moab.

Arches National Park

We then headed back to Arches National Park to check out a couple more arches and a quick hike. One of the arches we saw today was huge! Back on sept 1, 1991 a huge 60 foot chunk fell from the bottom of the arch and amazingly, the arch still stands today. The largest arch that we saw today was called Landscape Arch and it was as big as a football field.

"Park Street", Arches National Park

After Arches we headed for Colorado. We had planned to do an awesome, but very strenuous hike today but we'll be saving that for tomorrow. We got a flat tire about 13 miles outside of Grand Junction, CO (where we had planned to stop to get two new tires...). A nice highway patrol man stopped and parked behind us, so that gave us some comfort while Scott changed the tire on the side of highway 70. Poor Scott, of course we got the flat under a huge gray cloud and it spit rain the entire time he changed the tire.

Flat Tire

We decided to stay the night in Grand Junction, so we did it up right and got a hotel room and ate dinner at Outback. When we got back to the hotel we headed straight for the hot tub, yay!

Tomorrow we will be heading to Discount Tire first thing.

2 for 1



View from our campsite, LaSal Mountain range

After a very nice night of sleep on our new air mattress we headed out to breakfast and then for a mountain bike ride. One thing that Scott has been looking forward to doing on this whole trip is to ride Moab's slick rock. For those of you who mountain bike probably already know this, but the slick rock that Moab has to offer is a definite must do if you ride.

Scott's Happy, Slickrock Baby!

Thanks to Poison Spider Bicycles for recommending perfect trails for us. We had an awesome ride today and I'm still alive to talk about it! The slick rock was phenomenal as well as the other trails that we rode (Bar M/Lazy EZ/Rockin' A trails).

Delicate Arch

Petroglyths from the Ute/Paiute Cultures

After our ride we decided to check out Arches National Park. The great thing with Staying in Moab is that you are within 30 miles of Canyonlands, Arches, mountain biking as well as a plethora of other outdoor activities. Arches National Park has over 2000 documented arches. We saw a few today and hiked to Delicate Arch; the most popular and probably the most familiar as it is pictured on the Utah license plate. The hike was about three miles long and the majority was on slick rock. The park is filled with tons of beautiful red sandstone. We also saw many huge formations and crazy rocks balancing on what seems like nothing. After our hike though, we were done and decided to head back to the campground. On our way out of town tomorrow we are going to check out a few more things in the park.

Strawberry shortcake anyone?

The weather was beautiful here tonight, thankfully not like last night. We ate an awesome grilled steak dinner with veggies and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I will post pictures in the next couple days.

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Today we got up bright and early...at least the early part. Our air mattress lost most of the air last night and both Scott and I woke up on the ground. Let's just say the last half of the night was filled with tossing and turning on both of our sides trying to get comfy with half our bodies on the ground and the other half on what was left in the air filled mattress.

We headed out for a quick breakfast in town, it was good, we both got breakfast burritos.

Road into the canyon.

Canyonlands was very similar to The Grand Canyon, but not nearly as scenic. Like The Grand Canyon, Canyonlands was formed by water and wind. The Greene and Colorado rivers flow thru the park. We opted not to hike today instead just short walks out to a couple different lookout points. The unique thing about Canyonlands is that you can drive down into the canyon. Driving down was awesome, however I was so nervous. You need 4-wheel drive and the road you take to get into the canyon is narrow, on the edge of the canyon, and has many steep switchbacks. We went about 6 miles into the canyon and didn't even reach the bottom. The canyon was beautiful once we were down inside. We did get to see the Colorado River while we were in the canyon.

Colorado River

View from in the canyon.

When we returned to Moab we bought a new air mattress and decided that we would grill out dinner, so we headed to the store and bought veggies, halibut, and steak for the next couple nights. Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn't agree and we had lightning, rain, and wind. Instead of grilling we cooked the halibut and half of the veggies on our Coleman grill and also made some pesto pasta, it was delish! Hopefully we can grill out the steak and remainder of the veggies tomorrow.

Go figure, we've been on the road for over a month now and the two places we've had bad weather is one day of rain in Vegas and here in Moab, two dessert towns!

We've got a busy next couple of days; it was nice to have a low key day today.

Capitol Reef National Park and Southeast Utah

Capitol Reef NP

Quote of the day - "Why does Utah have to be so conservative...." from Scott...apparently he would like to move to Utah...too bad it's not in the cards for us!

Quote of the trip to date - "It's so beautiful here!" from Mandy. Scott said if we had a dime for every time I've said this we would be rich.

So today we packed up and headed to Capitol Reef National Park. I wasn't sure what to expect since Bryce Canyon was so unreal yesterday, but of course, this National Park was beautiful. Instead of the hoodoos like Bryce, this national park had enormous rock formations. We saw reds, oranges, purples, and just about every other color possible. The park is beautiful. We did a short hike along a wash through a canyon (Grand Wash Trail). There were cliff walls on either side of the wash extending to the sky for what appeared to be at least a hundred feet. We also drove a 10 mile scenic road which ended into a dirt road. Since we have 4WD we figured we'd keep going a while. Each and every turn left us speechless. Some of the rocks looked as smooth as butter while other rocks looked bumpy and mean. The colors for me though were the amazing part.

Since we've gotten into Utah the drive has been scenic and beautiful. We've taken a National Scenic Byway (Utah 12), which is a 124-mile route. We've been lucky enough to drive the entire route. The Federal Highway Administration designated this route as an "All American Road" and I wouldn't argue it. We've passed through amazing canyons, tall mountains, and flat plateaus and never once have we been bored. Today we drove over a mountain and it was awesome seeing all of the pockets of aspen trees. The bark looked like paper to where you could walk up to the tree and rip it off in sheets. In one section we also drove on top of a ridge, it was awesome. On both sides of the road there was a drop off, but the scenery was unbelievable.

We're camping in Moab for the next three nights. I can't wait to check out the town, Canyonlands and Arches National Parks as well as do some incredible mountain biking. The next three days should be some of the best days on this trip. Hopefully the weather holds out and we don't get the slight chance of rain that they're calling for...or the hot temps.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Wow! I don't even think there's words to describe this park. Amazing! When you enter Bryce Canyon National Park you don't think it's much because you enter on the rim and all you see is pine forests. The scenery is actually below the rim.

Scott and I opted to hike a 6.5 mile loop right through the amphitheater, or where all of the rock "hoodoo" formations are located (The Figure 8 - Queens Garden/Peekaboo/Navajo Conbination Trails). It was beautiful! It seems like Bryce is a canyon, but is actually a sinking basin. The scenery consisted of red rock hoodoos, pink and white rocks, and rock formations all layered on each other with pine and pinyon trees mixed throughout to create some of the most amazing scenery I've ever seen. Unfortunately, the pictures we took do not depict the beauty.

Our hike consisted of hiking through, around, and over these amazing rock formations. At the very end of the hike we went up steep switchbacks for about a half mile through a gulch to get back to the rim. It was breathtaking. By far this was the most strenuous hike of the trip, and it doesn't help that we had just spend five glutenous days in Vegas!

Tree trunk

Both Scott and I were sad to leave this park because of the beauty.

When we got back to our camp we hung two hammocks and had a relaxing evening in the hammocks and by the campfire.

I will post pictures in the next few days, we don't have a great Internet connection.

Zion National Park and Southern Utah

After a fantastic Labor Day weekend hanging out with old friends and making new friends in Vegas, it's time to continue on our trip.

We left Vegas this morning and headed to Zion National Park with a plan to camp outside of Bryce Canyon National Park. We made it through Zion and decided to camp just before Bryce in the National Forest.

The drive between Las Vegas and Zion was filled with desert scenery and desert mountains. The rock formations and colors that we saw were beautiful. The drive reminded me of Phoenix and the scenery I have missed living out East for the last few years. I forgot the beauty of the desert, however I do think Arizona's desert is more spectacular because Arizona has saguaro cactus. Driving into Zion National Park is cool because you can see it from a distance and the mountains and rock formations become neater and neater the closer we get to the park.

A couple miles outside the park we went through a town called Rockville. It was a nice little touristy town and there were American Flags about every 10 yards on both sides along the road for at least a mile. The sight made both Scott and me proud.

Zion National Park is BEAUTIFUL! The colors were deep reds, oranges, and everything in-between. Zion has desert terrain, canyons, and pine trees. One cool thing about Zion is that in some places the trees and vegetation grow right out of the side of the mountains; Zion calls it hanging gardens. It's amazing because it doesn't seem like anything could grow on the steep, sheer cliff walls, but sure enough nature finds a way. They are cool! We also saw another Ram hanging out on a rock ledge. He was chilling with the red rocks behind him.

Zion National Park

After we left Zion we were back in the pines; awesome. The drive was great between the pine trees and huge meadows. It didn't feel like we were in Utah. It was strange because we had just left this national park with huge rock formations with red and orange colors and now we were driving through deep green pines and meadows. It was such a contrast.

View from out campsite

The location of our campground cannot be beat. We are in a valley surrounded by beautiful red rock formations. Pictures do not even do it justice. The weather is beautiful, most of today we were driving in the high 90's and when we got to our campsite it was in the high 60's. A perfect way to continue our road trip and camping.

What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas

We're headed to Vegas today through Monday September 5th. I won't be blogging for the next couple of days unless something Epic happens.

This is an annual trip that we take every year over Labor Day weekend with friends that we've met from all over.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend everyone!