Bryce Canyon

Another awesome place during this trip was Bryce Canyon.

 

 There are a bunch of these formations called hoodoos.  A hoodoo is a rock formation that looks sort of like a chimney. The top of each hoodoo has a larger rock peak with a thin chimney underneath it , supporting it. This is because the top of each hoodoo is made of a harder, less easily eroded rock, while the sedimentary rock below is easier to wash away with time.

I highly recommend the hikes here. I'm really looking forward to going back so I can do the Rim Trail hikes.

Mister Kitty

For no reason at all I felt like posting a picture of my adorable kitty cat before I continue with the updates from the trip:

Look at that cute little face! He was sticking his tongue out at first, but pulled it back in for this picture. I think he was a little irritated that I was hovering next to him with a camera.

Pictures from Utah

Here are some pictures I took as we traveled through Utah:

Las Vegas

So, Jesse and I left for Vegas around 11 am, starting the first long leg of the 3 week cross country trip that we were going to take. There wasn't much to see on the way to Vegas though: lots of cars, lots of freeway, and a good chunk of desert. We started hitting the desert region as nightfall was approaching, and didn't cross the border into Nevada until it was quite dark, though the vast amount of lights in Las Vegas would be enough to made the sky a musty yellowish-grey color instead of the deep blue we had on the way in. I was astounded by how many lights and people there were for 8:30 pm, but then again it was Vegas. We navigated our way through the people to our hotel (the Imperial Palace), which is when our luck turned out to be pretty damn good.

We walked into the Imperial Palace, rushing a little bit since it was almost 9 and we had the Crazy Horse burlesque show to catch at 10:30. We got into the IP to get our room, and in checking in were told it was a free upgrade to a suite. Sweet right? We walk to a private elevator, not thinking much of it, then look at our room number. "1908". We look at the elevator buttons. They only go up to 18. *brief pause* I hit the "P".

Turns out we got a free upgrade to a penthouse suite. PENTHOUSE. As in double king-size bed, jacuzzi in the bathroom, full wet bar, two sofas, balcony, two flat screen TVs, and an N64 and Xbox.

We celebrate and drink a beer, then look at the time and realize its 9:45. We have to go get tickets still! We run out and have about 2 miles to the MGM for the show, noticing along the way that every half-off ticket booth is closed. Right outside the MGM is the last ticket booth about to close, and for some reason the guy lets us in line, calls in, and is allowed to sell us tickets (it was 10:20, and they were supposed to close at 10:00). So, saved about $60 on tickets.

Now, my only recommendation for everyone: if you ever go to Vegas, you must go see the Crazy Horse burlesque show at the MGM. It was amazing. So amazing that I wanted to go see it again but couldn't since it was the last showing of the night.

At this point we realized we hadn't eaten so walked over to New York New York (sorry these photos are such low quality; they're cellphone pictures):

 

The plan was to then leave Vegas at 10am or so in order to make good time to Zion, and instead stayed in Vegas until noon making full use of the jacuzzi. Best trip to Vegas ever.

Zion National Park

One of my favorite stops was at Zion National Park:

Zion has two amazing trails that everyone MUST do if they ever go to Zion: The Narrows and Angel's Landing.

The Narrows is a 4 mile hike upstream in very deep, very cold water. Now, on a normal person the water is near up to the shoulders. On me, I would be underwater if touching the ground. Good thing  there were walking sticks to help push me forward in the river. Thunderstorms started rolling in though, so pushing forward was a no go due to possible flash floods.

From there, on to Angel's Landing! The first few miles were super easy paved roads. The thunderstorms hit about 2/3 of the way up. We decided it was best to put on our rain jackets and seek shelter under a cliff overhang only moments before the rain hit. The lightning reflected all the way in the mountain face and we could literally see waterfalls forming down the adjacent mountainside. As 50 and 60 year old couples ran (literally, RAN) down the mountain, we decided it was a great time to practice a new art of hoboneering (aka we laid down in the middle of the pathway and did nothing for an hour).

Once the rain had stopped, the trek continued! The last half a mile was by far the most treacherous. 2000 feet up, and only a chain rail to hold on to on one side, a straight drop on the other. It was exhilarating. The rain had cleared out everyone else. To be all alone on Angel's Landing was incredible. there was a 360 degree view of Zion, peregrine falcons flying by, and a friendly little chipmunk that I followed around.

Unfortunately, the camera with all of the photos was stolen while at the Boiling River in Montana, so I don't have any of those photos to post.

More Yellowstone

So, here are a few more pictures from going through Yellowstone, since it was such an awesome place.


First, here's a few pictures of the bison! Aren't they cute?

This one was right next to the car (and about the size of the car):

And here is a picture of the sunset as we were leaving to go hit up some hot springs! Note to everyone: sunsets look way cooler everywhere else. They aren't as pretty in California for some reason (probably all the smog):

Yellowstone sulfur ponds

 

Here are some pictures of the sulfur ponds in Yellowstone National Park, WY.

The colors were so incredibly vivid, reaching some awesome blue and gold colors.We ended up called them "steamies" (as you can tell from the second picture) since they gave off so much steam. Too bad they all smelled of rotten eggs. It was way cool to see it all though. I've never seen anything quite like this before. There were tons of elk and bison there too! They seem to like the heat that comes off of it.

Lone Peak, Big Sky, Montana

Hiked from 7000 ft to 11166 ft over about 2.5 miles. 1.5 of those miles were on this skree slope.

The first trek was pretty nice; trees, moss covered rocks, little creeks. When the trees left we had what was in the picture: lots and lots of rocks. It was a good 2000 or so feet of just rocks. Which is interesting since in the winter months this is a huge tourist attraction for ski/snowboard folk. Good thing enough snow covers the rocks. We saw quite a few jumps set out for snow jumps, as well as jumps for BMX bikers that ride down from the top.

For the last couple hundred feet, we were hiking through the snow. Fortunately, upon reaching the top, we all celebrated, then accidentally disturbed a herd of mountain goats. HUGE! I'd never seen any before, but they had this awesome beards, and were extremely angry we came near. There were 18 or so I believe. The alpha male stood over us on a large rock until we all vacated the area. Good thing they didn't chase us down!

On the way back down to the car, we stopped at about 15 raspberry bushes, and ate nearly all the the raspberries on each bush. Hope the bears didn't mind too much! It was a good back-to-the-car snack.

Overall, it took us all day to do this hike. Surprisingly going up was easy. Coming back down was so steep that I started to just ski-slide my was down the mountain. Which resulted in me falling. Hard. Oh well. I'd definitely do it again, and would definitely recommend it to other people. The view from the top was incredible!