Day 6 - Zion National Park

Zion is a very interesting place. The majority of the park is based around a main road with tall rock formations on either side. At the suggestion of a friend, I attempted Angels Landing - a 5 mile hike ascending 1500 feet. The hike is basically broken up into 2 parts, the "sure I can follow this trail up for a couple miles" and the last half mile of "what the hell was I thinking??" (names not official). The first part wasn't so bad - just long and tough with the elevation but with wide, mostly paved trails. The second part is unpaved with chains most of the way up and extremely steep drops. At one point, you have to walk a 3 foot wide section of rock with a 1200 foot drop on one side and a 900 foot drop on the other and only a chain going down the middle for "safety". As I've mentioned, I'm not one for heights so after climbing a bit on the second half, I stopped at the first point where the chains were 6 feet apart and decided I'd live to see the remainder of my trip. The best part was the area between the two points where most people decide whether or not to go on. About half decide to stop there so most just take a breather and enjoy the view from that point (pic 4). I met some really cool people while hanging out there. Again, it was one of those conversations where people want to know what brought you there and share their own experiences.

I also checked out the Lower Emerald Pool with a waterfall that flows year round (pic 5) as well as Weeping Rock (pic 6) which has constant water permeation.

I should mention that I drank water directly from the canyon stream today so if I don't make it, I'd recommend not doing that - if I do make it, I'm probably fortified with lots of minerals, algae, and sediment. ;)

Enjoy.

Day 5 - Bryce Canyon

Here are my pics from Bryce Canyon. The weather was beautiful. The temperature was 36 degrees when I woke up this morning and the skies were blue like I've never seen before. I woke up last night to take a look at the night sky and saw a good size shooting star zip by. I took most of these pics while on a 3 mile hike around the park (Queen's Garden and Navajo trails). The sunset was from last night when I got to the park. Enjoy.

Day 4 - Grand Canyon

Day 3 - Sedona, AZ

I have to admit that at first I was very skeptical of adding Sedona, AZ to my trip. I wasn't exactly sure it would be my cup of tea and my friend Carl was recommending it which made it questionable at best. ;) Either way, Sedona was beautiful. I got in late Thursday night while the sun was going down so I didn't have much time to see anything but the next morning I woke up to the first picture. I signed up for a jeep tour and our group off-roaded it up the rim of the valley. The weather was perfect and some of the views were breathtaking. The group I went with on the jeep tour was very friendly and from all different parts. We got to talking about what we did and what brought us here and I told them about my journey across the US. They all thought it was an awesome idea and wanted to know how I was doing it, what prompted me to do it, if I was documenting it and where I was going. After talking about it, one of the women mentioned how she was in somewhat of a similar crossroad in her life and how she was trying to figure out where to go from here (figuratively). I think there's something about travel that brings out the best in people and helps them to better understand themselves and what it is they're looking for.

Enjoy the pictures.

Day 2 - Carlsbad Caverns

What an amazing day! The caves were just stunning. In all I hiked somewhere around 4 miles today and saw the Natural Entrance, the Big Room and the Lower Cave. The first 2 are publicly accessible but the Lower Cave requires a reservation and is much more strenuous.

Here are some pictures from the Natural Entrance and the Big Room:

Here are some of the photos from my Lower Cave hike:

Day 1 - Carlsbad Caverns

This will be a quick post since I'm typing on my phone. I made it to NM today just in time to see the bat flight. Around sundown all thebats (somewhere between 23,000 and 1.8 million) come spiraling out of the cave entrance and go in search of food. It was incredible to watch. Tomorrow I'm doing the full cave tour which starts at 8am and covers several miles of the cave system. Hopefully I will be able to post some pics afterwards.

The start of my "national park extravaganza"

I've made it to Tallahassee. I leave tomorrow morning for Austin and then from there, it's on to the Carlsbad Caverns, NM. After I take some photos, I'll be sure and post them.