I have always been drawn to mountains. A child of the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California, being near mountains simply feels natural to me. In my eyes, mountains are essentially synonymous with home.
My love for exploration and adventure has always been present, but my range of travel was pretty limited until recently. In the last few years, I have ventured out of my home state for some of the first times in my life. Here, I will recount these times. I hope that the images I share convey even a glimpse of the sheer wonder and magnificence of the tremendous landscapes I have been lucky enough to witness firsthand.
All of the photos I post were taken by me or my adventure-mates unless otherwise noted.
Let's begin...
I start my story with one of the first trips that pops into my mind when I think of the word, "adventure": a five day road trip my mom and I took from Southern California to Southwestern Utah in the summer of 2014.
With our minds set on the red mountains that lay ahead, my mom and I departed for Utah in the middle of that July. We started our journey with a four hour drive to Las Vegas, Nevada, which we broke up with a stop in Calico, California. Calico Ghost Town, off the I-15 near Barstow, is a former silver mining town located in the Mojave Desert. The topography was beautiful; expansive stretches of mountains in hues of brown, khaki, tan, and dark, muted reds spanned as far as the eye could see from the summit of the town.
The threatening dark grey clouds were broken beautifully by the sun's peeking light.
My mom taking a nap in a cave that doubled as a miner's bed. Many nooks like this one were sprinkled throughout the site.
The wall to our right represents well the style of building present in Calico. This 1880s mining community appears to have been renovated very little over the last one and one-third centuries.
The following day, we left Las Vegas, Nevada happily destined for our lodging by the eastern bound of Zion National Park. I snapped this photo off the I-15 by Littlefield, Arizona. Having never been to Arizona or Utah before, I was very excited to add both states to my list on the same day. Our stay in Arizona was quite short, however, as the drive through the Arizona portion of the I-15 lasted approximately thirty minutes before we crossed the border into Utah.
To get to our lodge, we had the pleasure of driving the incredibly scenic road that winds through the southern portion of Zion National Park. Stormy clouds sent down thick sheets of rain, to the point that we decided to pull off the road to wait out the deluge at a turn-out. That, and the stunning landscape was distracting me to a point that it felt like a crime (and a hazard) not to park, get out of the car, and stare.
We were not the only ones to take advantage of the spectacular turnout.
A very happy daughter and mother.
As we drove further into the park, we happened upon some new, lighter colored rock formations.
Checkerboard Mesa, measuring 6,680 feet at its summit, can be viewed from right off of highway 9.
We stayed the night in our lodge. Overnight, the clouds cleared.
In conjunction with the stunningly blue sky, the rich, red mountains beckoned as we approached Red Canyon.
Red Canyon, off Highway 12, was too enticing not to get out and explore.
Located in Dixie National Forest territory, Red Canyon gets its name from its bold, rusty colored dirt. The pigmentation is due to the high iron content in much of the soil from this region of Utah and the Southwest.
This tree's roots were practically reaching out of the side of the cliff.
We continued on into Bryce Canyon National Park. The views from the car were awe-inducing.
Green trees, red mountains, and puffed cloud skies for miles.
These Henry David Thoreau quotes on a lookout structure read:
"Silence alone is worthy to be heard."
"I need solitude. I have come forth to this hill... to see the forms of the mountains on the horizon - to behold and commune with something greater than man."
This Natural Bridge is one of the hallmark features at Bryce Canyon.
A little more of a side view of the Natural Bridge in all its glory.
Hoodoos, Bryce's characteristic badlands rock spires, reach up over the landscape and create a variety of fascinating formations.
Bryce has many sides within its 56 square miles, including rolling hills covered in lush bristlecone pines.
Slippery slopes slide down into hoodoo-filled canyons.
The most gorgeous day to visit the most gorgeous place.
Gradient slopes expose hoodoos forming at the rusty base.
A view from the top of a similar slope. The actual distance down to the bottom of the slope in this photo may not be apparent at first, but taking a look at how small the trees become on the way down may be a helpful indication of this mountain's height.
My mom must have a version of that photo as well, but with hers featuring her shoe for scale.
Another view of the sloping hoodoo canyon.
Upper Inspiration Point, Bryce Canyon. Aptly named, if you ask me.
A panoramic view of Bryce Point.
The elevation above the canyons below made the wind a quite impressive force from where we stood. I felt so free here, almost like I was flying through the moving air.
The hoodoo formations at Bryce Point are like nothing I have ever seen. Mostly red with tips of white, the layers of sediment in these spires create a truly mesmerizing scene full of color, dimension, and drama.
The tan colored hoodoos reminded me of sand castles more magnificent than I ever dreamed of building.
A panorama of the prior two photos stitched together.
Sunset Point lets you get up close and personal with the rows of crimson hoodoo glory.
I often look at this photo and long to be back here.
Even in the brief hours we were there, the moving sun altered the shadows around the hoodoos, making apparent the sheer plasticity of the appearance of these spectacular canyons.
Hikers descending the trail down to the canyon floor.
The opaque white clouds shadowed the mountainous landscape, creating even more shapes and patterns to observe from each lookout point.
A view of some hoodoo formations from up close to a sprawling distance away.
Sunrise Point provides a more pastel color palate, exhibiting muted shades of pink, tan, and cream.
Back in Red Canyon after departing Bryce. My mom learned how to take a selfie!
The photo I was taking in the background of my mom's technological feat.
Red Canyon is a place I still dream of on a regular basis. My mom and I were enchanted with the glorious rock formations, and especially by the fact that we were entirely alone among them.
Driven by the desire to touch the crimson rocks visible to us from the road, we parked and did not stop walking until we were face to face with these behemoth beauties.
Mom taking refuge from the hot, July Utah sun.
My mom, my grandmother and I have always had a fascination with rocks, fossils, and all wonders of nature. The crumbling shale and sandstone rock coating the floor and walls of this canyon were enough to keep my mom and I busy (and very happy) for the entirety of the remaining daylight.
A tree limb among a fossil hunter's dream: sheets of shale that crumble and reveal treasures at the slightest touch. We found what we believe to be a couple of small fossil shells embedded into these signature red rocks.
My meditative mother with the epitome of balance exhibited atop a Red Canyon mountain.
The following day, we took on Zion National Park.
The Virgin River runs through the heart of Zion, providing a life force for the magnificent flora and fauna that populate the vast 229 square mile national park.
The canyon that makes up Zion entails towering deep red, brown, and white sandstone walls over the muddy green river. The cliffs tower 500 to 2,000 feet above the trails by the canyon floor.
The Zion squirrels were certainly a wonder to behold in and of themselves. Quite plump and clearly overfed by human visitors, these squirrels were unsettlingly comfortable with human interaction.
This little guy was very curious about the contents of my mom's backpack.
Just peeking...
Making the commitment.
He didn't find what he was looking for.
The meerkat pose was too cute not to capture.
Mud next to the banks of the Virgin River displays paw prints of a recent visitor animal friend.
Dark crimson cliffs slope starkly upwards to the sky, nearly straight above where they begin at their base.
The late morning sun barely peeked over the damp, cool cliffside.
The contrast between the clear blue sky, the lush bristlecone pines, and the iron-rich chestnut mountains was glorious.
The signature Zion cliffs towering over the muddy green-tinted Virgin River.
This dome looked practically carved out of the side of the mountain.
Nature's divine artistry expressed through a less than perfect panorama.
More adventure awaits around the bend.
The enormity of these cliffs can hardly be captured in photographs.
The sound of a waterfall pouring over a steep cliff simply enlivens the spirit.
For a better idea of how epic the height of this cliff truly was.
From directly to the side, joined by the sun's warm rays.
From behind the waterfall.
The smaller of the famed Emerald Pools of Zion.
Mountains the height of 50- to 200-story buildings.
No dull view exists in this magnificent place.
It is incredible to think that water and wind created these colossal works of art.
Trees, sun, mountains, sky, and a full soul.
Unfortunately, my mom went off the trail and had a mishap. Purely compelled to peek inside some holes in a rock face, she climbed up and fulfilled her desires, only to slip on the way down and break her big toe. She was luckily able to hike the short distance back to the shuttle stop. Upon getting her shoe off, however, a great deal of swelling and pain ensued.
The Virgin River, the lifeblood of the Zion ecosystem.
The view from the shuttle stop, bound for our lodge.
As the sun set in the warm July evening, we prepared our minds and hearts to depart Utah for home the next day.
A night full of ice buckets, Aspirin, and a lot of pain for momma followed.
On the way home the next morning, we saw a rock shop by the side of the road and simply could not resist. Mom on a cane and me very glad to pause at our happy place before the coming nine-hour drive I would complete solo, we joyfully shopped and found some last minute treasures from our newly discovered favorite adventure state.
We left Utah focused not on the change of our current plans, but rather on the excitement of what was to come for us in this place in the future. We fully knew that we would be back, and we fully knew that it would not be long.
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