Southwest Road Trip

RT 0056

As I have said I like to keep my blog very wedding-centric, but this needs to be posted.  The first week & a half of June, my friend Owen and I took a trip to the Southwest.  We started in Vegas, rented a convertible, and drove. 700 miles in 9 days.  First stop was the Grand Canyon, followed by Page, Arizona, then to Zion National Park and then back to Vegas.  The trip was seriously unbelievable.  We hiked something like 40 miles, camped out, risked our lives for insane views more than once, and took a ton of photos.  I'm going to go into more detail further down the post about specific locations, if you feel like skipping those parts and just looking at photos, feel free.  So, here are some of my favorite photos, and believe me, there are a TON more. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a coffee table book from these.  So, folks, do yourself a favor, take a week or two, grab a friend & take a road trip.

As I said, first stop was the Grand Canyon, as well as some photos along the way.  One of those things you just have to see at least once in your life.

RT 0001RT 0016RT 0015RT 0014RT 0013RT 0012RT 0011RT 0010RT 0009RT 0008RT 0007RT 0006RT 0005RT 0004RT 0003RT 0002RT 0021RT 0020RT 0019RT 0018RT 0017

From there We drove a couple hours to Page Arizona, and the Lake Powell area.  A couple things I needed to see were the slot Canyons in Page, and Horseshoe Bend just outside of town.RT 0022RT 0045

I wanted to include the following behind the scenes photo.  This is where I had my tripod set up.  You see it's only a few inches from the edge, just over that edge is 1000 ft straight down.  One of the scariest photos I have ever taken... well it was, till I got to Zion

RT 0044RT 0043RT 0042RT 0041RT 0040RT 0039RT 0038RT 0037RT 0036RT 0035RT 0034RT 0033RT 0032RT 0031RT 0030RT 0029RT 0028RT 0027RT 0026RT 0025RT 0024RT 0023

Next we drove a few more hours to Zion National Park, which is the most impressive place I have ever been in my life.  I could see myself making a yearly pilgrimage to there... it's that amazing.  The photos do not do it justice.

RT 0046RT 0047RT 0048RT 0049RT 0050RT 0051RT 0052RT 0053RT 0054RT 0057RT 0058

The following set is from when we hiked to a place called Angel's Landing.  It's that peak at the left of the photo.  It is considered one of the 7 craziest hikes on the planet. 6 people have died attempting this hike in the last 10 years. There are parts where the trail is only a few feet wide and it's a 1480 ft drop straight down on either side (that's higher than the Empire State Building for reference) .  And there are no fences.  There are some chains you can hold onto, but they are on the non-certain death side of the trail.  I included a couple iphone photos from this hike, because I was not going to stop to take my camera out of my backpack at those spots.

RT 0059RT 0060RT 0061RT 0062

This is the view from the top.  Totally worth it.

RT 0063I'm not much for "selfies" but I thought this spot deserved oneRT 0064RT 0065RT 0066

Here's one of the iphone photos on our way down. Gives you an idea of what the trail was likeRT 0079And I couldn't resist a victory photo at the end next to the warning sign.RT 0078

After Angel's Landing, we had to go check out a place called The Narrows.  You basically just hike through the Virgin River between the canyon walls.  A good portion of this hike you are hiking thigh deep IN the river.

RT 0067RT 0068RT 0069RT 0070RT 0071RT 0072RT 0073RT 0074

So that was Zion, hopefully I can make it back soon.  On the way back to Vegas, we stopped at Valley of Fire state park.  we didn't spend much time there because it was 107 degrees and we were tired.

RT 0075RT 0076RT 0077

So that was the trip.  Again, I highly recommend you get out and do something like this too.  Hope you enjoyed.  Back to weddings for the next post.