stopping through zion national park

we were sooooo somber as we drove away from our home of palo alto, headed for utah and then our new home of london. i am so glad that forever and always we will have the bay area in our hearts, cherished as the place we met, fell in love and started our life together. there are a lot of things we will miss about san francisco and palo alto, but most of all we will miss the amazing people we met and developed friendships with there. we are so grateful to have had their examples and goodness in our lives.

annnnyway, we’ve driven several different routes from the bay to salt lake city in the past and this last time we chose to go via southern utah. we stayed at my parents’ barn loft just south of cedar city overlooking kolob canyons and spent a couple of days hiking in zion national park.

that place is just insanely beautiful. i can’t believe how much i love utah. (being in such a stunning part of the beehive state helped quell our sadness at leaving the golden state!)

our first day, we headed straight for the angel’s landing hike, which i have wanted to do for years. we had a great time hiking up together in the heat and beauty until we got to the infamous part of the trail that includes sheer cliffs on either side and necessitates holding on to a chain to scale up the rock formation. and the boy, bless his scared-of-heights heart, decided he was done.

so, being the really nice wife that i am, i left him behind in the sun and kept going up to the summit – haha! he was sweet about it and waited for me so i could get the adventure and the views i was after. i took a lot of photos at the top to show him so he didn’t miss out entirely :) the ascent was challenging and a little scary, but sooooo worth it!

the boy took pictures of me coming down on the big camera. if you can spot me in these photos, you get 1000 points. i can’t even spot myself, haha! but he took about a dozen photos because he knows i like cool things documented. man, i love that boy.

 
^^ reunited for the descent…and yes, i know those sunglasses are kind of ridiculous. i lost my good pair and found these somewhere – did the job! ^^

that night we had cafe rio (yessssss!) for dinner overlooking kolob canyons, and then the next day we hiked the narrows. it was pretty crowded at the beginning but we went down some side canyons and had the grandeur all to ourselves! it’s fun to hike through the water (especially because it is so hot outside!) and always be wondering what’s around the next skinny corner.

  

both hiking days ended with a box of six creamies (the most amazing popsicles – i think they are a utah thing?!). gotta cool down, you know!

then we headed north to beloved salt lake city!