2 Hos do Utah or is it Two Hos do Utah?

Whatever it is, we did it and we are back. I am back and it was an amazing trip.

I pretty much did what I planned out to do, hitting all the spots that I wanted to hit and did hikes and night ventures to see the stars. It was a great road trip, one that I will remember for quite some time.

Also, with that much time alone with my brother, it was a good bonding moment. His behavior changed so much for the better, that it was really great to see the new him. He seemed more open, still a little private for my taste, but it’s good.

He looks good. Fit, slimmer, all good things. He wears the same size clothes that I do. When did that happen?

On the social level, it seems like he’s going out and socializing from time to time. Great things.

So, with seeing the new brother and exploring a new state with new parks and freeways with no major mishaps, it has been a great trip.

Where to begin?

* * *

Zion National Park

Surprisingly the main park itself is small. I didn’t expect it to be so small. There is a lot of back country that we couldn’t get to without a permit or strenuous hiking and such, so we stuck to the main park.

It reminded me a lot of Yosemite, with the valley and the mountains and cliffs.

We arrived in Springdale around midafternoon, checked into our hotel and rested a bit before going to the park. We went into the Visitor center to talk with a Ranger about what are some good day hikes and also about Angel’s Landing. Ahhh, Angel’s Landing, that is the one that had been playing in my head. I was psyching myself out the whole drive to the park and the day before we actually hiked it.

The Ranger showed us pictures and what he said kind of relieved some of the anxiety that I had. He said, “Don’t be cavalier about it. Respect it, but it is doable. Only 12 people have died on it since it opened in 1906”. So, the odds are in my favor.

We then took the shuttle to the end of the park, driving through the park, familiarizing ourselves with the park.

We were originally planning to do Angel’s Landing the next day, but since one of the hikes that the Ranger recommended will be closed on weekdays, we changed our plan.

Our hikes on our first day were really simple hikes. Mostly flat, about 8 miles total in about 4 or 5 trails. We did the river walk early in the morning and then we went to the Weeping Wall and Hidden Canyon, which is the trail that would be closed on Monday. We didn’t see that many hikers on the trail with us. Most of them were going to Observation Point, which was an 8 mile hike round trip.

The hike was a good hike. It was a little strenuous, but not so much where I’m dying. It was a good first real hike for me to get me back into shape. I’m glad we did it in the morning too, since it got very hot later in the afternoon. We hiked and hiked the gradual switch backs up and up until we get to a part where we are hiking along the side of the cliff. The walkway was about two feet wide and chains are spiked against the side of the cliff for you to hang onto. I totally didn’t expect it. It wasn’t too terrible, but I thought it was great practice for Angel’s Landing tomorrow, since I know that is what most of the hike would be.

Once we reached the top, it was just a wide slot canyon that we hiked into, scrambled over some rocks, and then just rested. It was just nice and relaxing to just sit and enjoy the silence. It was just nice to get out of the city, to get away from crowds, to get away from people and to just be almost solitary. I felt energized as I was hiking up these mountains, on these trails, passing fellow hikers and vacationers here and there.

One thing that we noticed while we were there and something that I had notice all my other times at other National Parks is that there were so many Europeans. I think the majority of the hikers and vacationers that were on the trails throughout all of the different parks that we went to were Europeans. It felt like we were backpacking across Europe. I guess that was an added perk to this vacation too.

Once we got back down from Hidden Canyon, we took the shuttle to the Grotto and did the Kayenta Trail, which connected to the Emerald Pools that are by the Lodge. This is when I started to die. The Kayenta Trail wasn’t that bad. It was actually a relatively flat trail that was very similar to the Rim Trail that we did in Glacier National Park, all in the sun but flat. It wasn’t until we reached the trailhead to the middle and upper pools. The middle pool wasn’t that bad of a hike. It was like a stroll in the park compared to the 0.3 mile was the trail from the middle to the upper pool.

Fuck that short hike. I was cursing myself. I was dying. The sun was beating down on me, sucking out my energy and my soul. Each step took a little bit of my soul. Each step, I died a little. It was hot. There was no shade. My super awesome fisherman’s hat is stuffed somewhere in my backpack, which was too much of a hassle to get out mid hike. I didn’t expect it to take so much out of me. .

Fuck that 0.3 mile hike. Fuck it. I was so out of shape. I wasn’t fit for something like that. I should have hiked multiple times before I had gone on the trip, getting myself in shape for hikes. I should have known better. Fuck. We to the pool and I just found some shade and sat. I drank water. I drank some more. I loaded up on my trail mix and some jerky, fueling up, replenishing the salt that I lost during that hike. It was strenuous and I was out of shape and I hated myself for it.

I sat and watched as others played in the pool, climbing over rocks and throwing rocks. I sat and watch as I rested and fueled up. That fucking 0.3 miles. I dug out my hat and put it on before we trekked out and down to the lower pools and continued on with our journey. Of course the trip down was easy peasy.

I should be like Minh and say Never again! But knowing me, that’s not going to happen.

But the good thing about me is that I bounce back quickly and adjust once my body gets going.

We made it to the lodge and I just rested on the grass. I laid there, head on my backpack look up at the clouds passing high above and the red rock cliffs that was before me. I let the silence take me in and just let this peace and zen take over me. It was bliss.

The rest was short, but much needed. Then it was on our way to our next trail, the Pa’rus Trail. It is the only trail that is dog friendly and wheel chair accessible. It is a paved trail over a few bridges that is just flat and easy. The downside, you area always in the sun. It felt longer than the 1.5 miles that was marked.

That happens all the time. The hike or walk feels a lot longer than what it was marked down. It doesn’t matter what trail I’m on or where, every time, it just feels longer. Just weird.

We reached the visitor center and that was the end of our day. We did about 8 or 9 miles that day and that was enough of a warm up for my first day of hiking since we still have about 9 days left on this trip.

Springdale is a very very small town that is just outside of Zion that is lined with some restaurants, some homes, and a lot of hotels, B&Bs and lodges. There were dining options, but not that many. That night we went to The Spotted Dog, which is kind of a mid-level fine dining place. The menu is all right, I had the lamb shank. If there’s lamb on the menu, I’m getting it.

The cabernet that I had was bold, strong, and just fucking awesome. For $15, it was well worth it.

My only problem with the restaurant was the waiter. He was just creepy. It wasn’t his appearance, Anglo with his long hair tied back in a ponytail, no it was more his behavior. I think he was just trying to come on too strong in being knowledgeable and accommodating. I have no fucking clue, but it was just fucking weird and creepy. Even my bro thought he was creepy. I wish I could explain with my limited words just how he was so creepy, but I can’t. Just have to take my word for it.

* * *

Okay, this is my second week of writing this and it seems like this program aren’t saving my drafts like I want to, or I totally forget if I wrote more, so, I’m just going to write about the memorable parts of the trip, rather than a day by day.

Story of my life….things just happen and I have to adjust.

* *

Angel’s Landing

Angel’s Landing was just awesome. Again, I was psyching myself out for the prior two days or so, feeling anxious about the hike and the climb.

We woke up early in the morning so we can get up there when it was less crowded. We missed the first bus at 6AM but managed to get the second bus a half an hour later.

It was a cool morning, but it started to heat up quickly. The first part of the hike before getting to Walter’s Wiggles was easy. The wiggles in my opinion wasn’t that bad either, but Hien was having issues.

Once we finished with the first half of the wiggles, there’s another wiggles in the back. This one is much tighter and shorter. The incline wasn’t that bad, but there were just many switchbacks.

Finally we made it to Scout’s Landing. I stopped for a drink, quenching my thirst before we started to scramble.

My focus was on the ground below my feet. One step at a time. One pull of the chain at a time. With each step, I grew more and more confident. My anxiety withered away in a wisp and it was just a matter of adrenaline pumping through my body now.

We scrambled. We climbed and soon, we made it to the top and it was just majestic.

I just picked a spot on the side of the cliff and just sat while I drank and ate, filling up on protein and water, resting for the trip back. It was peaceful up there staring out into the valley and just taking everything in.

We watched as the sun rose higher and higher, shining into the darken valley below us. Just beautiful.

Little chipmunks and squirrels scurry around me hoping that I would drop some of my trail mix, but I never did. One tried to break into my backpack, but there wasn’t anything in there that he could have gotten too. A lucky squirrel got a nut that Hien dropped.

As it was getting later; it was about 8:30 by this time, it was time for us to head back down. The day has begun in the valley below and many are making the same trek we did just a few hours ago. It was going to be busy and with the crowds, the way back will be even more dangerous.

With more confidence, we made quick work on the way back. More confident with each step and more confident with where to hold onto. Thankfully the bulk of the people on the way up were still on the Wiggles or resting on Scout’s Lookout so we didn’t have to wait for many hikers to clear before we moved on.

As we got back to Scout’s Landing, my adrenaline was slowly leaving my body and then I feel it. There’s a sharp pain on my right knee. With each step, pain. Sharp.

I didn’t realize that my wallet was banging down on my knee with each step and it bruised my knee. It was bad. But I managed anyway.

Once we reached the bottom, we just relaxed for the rest of the day. We took the Grotto trail back to the lodge and once there, we got our coffee and caffeine up. We found a table and just relaxed.

We’ve conquered a mountain that morning. We’ve conquered the world. It was like we reached up into the sky and touched the stars.

I thought back to the moment while I was up there, seeing a smaller ridge down below that was hidden in the shadows. As the sun moved higher, lighting the valley floor, we saw it bathed in the warmth and rays of the sun. It was simply, beautiful.

It hit somewhere in my heart, pulling at the strings. The beauty of it just hit me and I couldn’t contain my emotions. Tears almost flowed.

That’s how I got while I reached the top of Yosemite Falls a long time ago. Majestic and fantasmagasmical. Bliss.

I love moments like that. I love it when I’m just moved but such beauty and perfection. It rarely happens, but I welcome it with open arms once it does. That was a moment that I’ll never forget.

As we were just getting our morning jolt, we work out a plan for the rest of the day. The clouds are rolling in, so we reconsidering what the plan was for the night. Originally it was to hike up to the Watchman and take pictures of the stars and the Milky Way. A ranger recommended it as one of the spots to shoot the sky. So, that was our plan.

So, after our little break, we decided to hike up there, to see how rough the trail is and to scope out the spot. We took the one-mile hike up and stake our claim to the spot for that night. The views up there were spectacular, high above the ground, seeing far out into Springdale and the views of the ridge on the other side of us.

Then we hiked down and took off our shoes. We were done hiking for the time being. We put on our flip-flops, grabbed our coffee cups, and hopped on the shuttle again to the Lodge.

There we loaded up on coffee and our little treat for the day, a nice big soft-serve ice cream. I picked a nice spot on the grass again, in the shade, and just sat and enjoyed my day. Thinking about the majestic feat that we did that morning and thinking how great the trip had been so far and that we still had about a week left on our journey.

We took our time. We sat and rested, watching the hikers and visitors just going about their business. It was just simple. Simplicity is bliss.

Afterwards, we did the last two things we didn’t do, the Cathedrals of Patriarchs and the museum and called it a day.

We went back to the hotel and just rested.

As the day progressed, the clouds flowed in, covering the skies. It was overcast and our hopes of shooting the stars were dwindling. It was the new moon that day, so it would have just been a perfect time.

Around 9 PM I went out to see that the skies were scattered. There was night sky and there were stars. I decided I was going to drive to the junction, deep into the valley to see if we can see anything and when we got there, we can. Stars littered the sky like sands in the sky. Shooting stars leaving streaks bright against the black.

We decided to just do the hike. We went back and got everything and went on our way. Up and up we went in the dark. It was my first night hike and thank goodness we have our headlamps. They were handy. Unfortunately, we didn’t see much stars up there. It was a hazy night and it wasn’t because of clouds. Where we were, the clouds were gone. It was Springdale.

There was just too much light pollution from Springdale for our eyes to focus to see the stars. After a half an hour, we hiked back down and drove back to the junction again.

The night of star gazing was a bust, but we still have the rest of the week to capture more, and that is what we did.

* * *

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bright and early we went out merry way the next morning on the next leg of our trip. It’s about a two-and-a-half to three hour drive to Bryce Canyon National Park.

The relatively short drive wasn’t too bad as we traveled through the Zion/Mt. Carmel tunnel. It’s a tunnel through the mountains, coming out on the other side to a different landscape than what we came in from.

Along the way, while still in the vicinity of Zion, traffic stopped as a herd of big horn sheep grazed along the side of the road and some crossing it. There was an impatient guy who almost ran over one as a few cars ahead of us, a car was stopped taking pictures.

The rest of the trip was fairly quick, driving past plains and valleys underneath the darkening sky. Rain clouds were moving in.

We stopped by the visitor center after we got to Bryce and looking at the weather board, thunder storms were expected that day. Also, they listed that the Milky Way would be directly above right at sunset.

Hien surveyed the souvenirs, thinking of what stickers to add to his growing collection, and I just sat and think about what we should do that day. The tentative plan that I came up with, park at Sunrise point and just walk the rim. It’ll be a quick and easy resting day as we familiarize ourselves with the park and its layout.

We parked at the General Store and got ready. My knee was hurting, but I couldn’t let that bother me. We started our hike under a dark gray sky. Things doesn’t look good for us.

Bryce.

What can I say about it? What are my general first impressions after seeing it live and in person and not from the pictures? It lived up to my expectations. Even from afar, up on the rim, it was a landscape that I have never seen before in my life. The wonder that are the hoodoos. How were they formed? How do they all look so uniform and similar but so different? Earth is a beautiful mystery.

We hiked along the rim and shortly we took a slight detour, veering away from our plan for the day. We hiked down to the Queens Garden, me thinking it was just a hike to a viewpoint and then back, but it turned out to be a loop that connected to another trail.

That’s when it started, the rain. It was light and short thankfully, but we were ill equipped for it. All we had were water-soaking cotton hoodies. It just made me laugh a little bit, me going hiking and traveling as often as I do and I don’t have a proper outdoor waterproof jacket. It’s definitely on my list of things to buy before our/my next big excursion.

Being down in the valley floor, necked crooked up at an awkward angle, staring up at the hoodoos, was definitely a humbling experience. The world is a beautiful place and I am blessed to be able to witness its beauty first hand.

I am blessed to be able to follow my dreams and do the things that I say that I want to do. Travel. See the world, not just other countries, but the one I call my own.

We looped back up to Sunset Point and rested before continuing on the Rim Trail. The rain has stopped but still threatening. We reached viewpoint and viewpoint, reaching the end at Bryce Point and that was when the sky opened up and water came pounding down on us. The rain was hard. The droplets were fat. This wasn’t the misting SoCal rain that I have grown accustomed to in my years down here, but the rain of my childhood. This was PNW rain.

So, our plan to hike back to where we started went out the window and we got on the shuttle back to the General Store. There, we got warm and bought our ponchos which we never used.

We stopped by the visitor center on the way back, picked up whatever stickers Hien wanted and went to our hotel in Tropic. It was actually not a bad hotel. It was very cabin like with fast free internet but no cable. It was definitely an infinite times better than where we stayed in Zion.

Once checked in and rested, I decided to go explore and find the Grand Escalante Staircase, hoping that we can find a slot canyon hike. Google said the visitor center was only six miles away and when we got there, I was just definitely surprised to find that the Grand Escalante Staircase was just a ginormous piece of land. All the hikes are miles and miles and miles deep on unpaved roads which my little Civic can’t handle. Next time, we’re bringing a Jeep.

The ranger told us that we could do the Kodachrome Basin State Park instead. It’s a paved road all the way to the end and that’s what we did. The park was small and unremarkable. We did a quick hike and called it a day.

That night we drove into town to get dinner. Prime rib and it was the best thing we ate so far. It was a simple family diner along the side of the highway.

After dinner I decided to drive into Bryce Canyon Village to find a drug store so I can get a knee brace. We ended up at the General Store. They had all kinds of braces but knee braces. Just my luck.

While heading out, we saw that the buffet that had horrible reviews on Yelp was packed. The line snaked out to the hotel lobby.

There was another place to try to find a brace, the tropic General Store. None there either, but I decided to pick up an ACE wrap and called it a night.

The next day was our first and last full day at Bryce and it was the longest hike in our trip.

With my knee wrapped, we started our day. First was an eight mile loop, the Fairyland Loop. It was a hike all in the sun. It wasn’t grueling, but the sun was just there. There’s no way to get away from it.

It was here that I learned more about my brother and what’s going on in his life. A good thing in my book. We hiked and hiked, eventually ascending back to the rim. We finished the hike in about three hours, two hours faster than the suggested time. We reached the trailhead of our next hike, Sunset point and rested. I readjusted my knee wrap. I did it a little too tight that morning, causing even more pain. Loosening it helped significantly.

We will be hiking through the amphitheater from Sunset Point through the valley for and then up to Bryce Point. It was about a 4 mile hike.

The hike starts with going down into the valley through Wallstreet at Sunset Point. The trail takes us down between two towering hoodoos on either side of us. It’s tall. We were but mere tiny specks next to these giant walls. It was humbling indeed. Just beautiful.

We make it through the to the valley floor, through the hoodoos into the clearing and soon, we are on our way winding through the trail, connecting to Peek-a-boo loop. The Peek-a-boo loop winds its way around hoodoo walls and up and ridges. Bryce was quickly becoming our favorite park, even though we have only been to just two so far and had many more after. It actually did turn out to be our favorite.

There’s just so many different sceneries and so many different hikes that one can take. Just pure awesomeness.

It was a great hike and we made quick work of it. Done, we got in our car, which we parked at Bryce Point early that morning, and went our merry way back to our hotel.

After dinner, we went back to the park at Inspiration Point for another try at star gazing and photographing the Milky Way. It was very windy up in the Upper Inspiration Point lookout, but we did had a great view of the Canyon as the sun was setting.

After the moon set, more and more stars came out to play. With the help of an app, we found where the cluster of the Milky Way was and that’s where I aimed my camera. The light cloudy haze of the Milky Way stood out against the dark gray of the night sky. What I captured on my camera was just a light explosion of stars and galaxies; it was nothing short of wonderment.

We stayed for about an hour, waiting for the stars, watching the night sky, and looking for shooting stars. We then decided to head down to Sunset Point for a different point of view and thankfully it was less windy there.

Overall, our last night in Bryce had been a success.

* * *

Capitol Reef National Park

The State Route Scenic 12 by way is a beautiful little drive connecting Bryce Canyon National Park to Capitol Reef National Park. The difference in scenery shows how vastly different Utah is from region to region.

When we got to Capitol Reef, it surprised me that we didn’t have to pay to enter the park. There was technically no entrance to the park. We stopped by the small visitor center and I scoped out what to do that day.

With my knee hurting me and it seems like all the hikes are big long hikes in the hot baking sun, it felt like it would be an easy day as all we did was just took a tour of the park via my Civic. We did the scenic drive all the way to the end, seeing all the vastly different cliff walls and the stretching plains along the way.

On the way back from the end of the drive, we picked up a German Woman who was here with her family on a road trip of their own. She’s on the tail end of her 21 day trip and her next stop would be Vegas.

After the scenic drive we continued on State Route 24 through the rest of the park, stopping at orchards picking our own apples and to the petroglyph wall, which I didn’t’ have the right lens on my camera to really photograph. We took another highway off of the main highway to the end, and that was pretty much our time at Capitol Reef. We only had one day there.

While at dinner at a local cowboy bar, we met a Park Ranger and asked him where we would be able to see some stars that night and he recommend Sunset Point. So that was our plan for that night, to go out on another night hike and we did capture the Milky Way again. There wasn’t as many shooting stars that night, but it was still great to see the stars again. That would be our last night out star gazing.

* * *

Moab and surrounding parks

With another long day ahead of us, we got up early and went our merry way on Scenic State Route 24 to our last stop in Utah, Moab.

The drive is one of the most spectacular drives of my life. From area to area, the scenes were things that I have never seen before in my life.

We drove by Luna Mesa and the rolling black hills and rocks below the high rising plateaus was very eerie. The name was fitting, Luna. It definitely felt like I was driving through the moon.

As the moon passed, the red rocks of Mars came to, especially when we got to Goblin Valley State Park.

We did a small slot canyon hike at the state park and then we went to play on the goblin like hoodoos. The area definitely had an extraterrestrial feel to it. We were no longer on our little blue Planet. Earth was a distance away and I’m traversing through the foreign Martian landscape. I was a space traveler exploring our solar system. Magic.

Done with the valley, we got back to trekking to our first stop, Dead Horse State Park and Canyonlands.

We pulled off of the main highway onto the road that takes us up to the parks. By the time I read Dead Horse, my tank was nearing on empty. I decided that I’ll go drive into town and then drive back to Canyonlands after we are finished with Dead Horse.

Dead Horse is another small State Park. We were high among the wide valley down below. We grabbed a map and worked out what we were going to do and for some strange reason, it took me a damn long time to grasp how to read the map. But eventually we did and we just hiked along the rim of the plateau, seeing the different views of the valley.

While we were getting ready for the hike, putting on our shoes, filling up with water, lathering up with sunscreen, a little girl pulled up next to me on her mountain bike. Short blonde, kind of cute, and a friendly girl.

We started to talk and apparently she’s from Toronto. I never asked what she was doing in Toronto, but she stopped by her parents in Pennsylvania (the plates of her car), borrowed her car and just drove out there by herself.

After I heard that, she just became a hundred times more attractive to me. There’s just something about a girl who is able to go out and do that by herself that just wows me. That is a very attractive trait indeed. Just hot….Liz was her name.

We bid her adieu and we just hiked the park. Spent a few hours exploring and then we were done after hiking the rim.

We checked into at the Motel 6, filled up the car and next up, Canyonlands.

We got there late in the afternoon, around 4ish and did a few hikes. Mesa Arch was a definite must do and we did the Aztec Buttes.

The hike to the Aztec Buttes was definitely interesting as we had to climb up a sand stone cliff to the top. Unfortunately the Buttes seemed to be destroyed. There was a broken rock structure and another smaller one at the Buttes. Afterwards we did the Upheaval Dome, a meteorite that is slowly eroding away.

Then we drove to the Grand View Point, took a few pictures as the sun was about to set and drove on back.

We showered and then went to dinner. Maybe it was because it was around 9 PM and we didn’t really eat anything all day, but the food at the Middle Eastern restaurant was just fucking awesome. I totally expected something different from my order, but it was still good none the less. After, we were still hungry, so we stopped by McDonald’s for some nuggets and I pretty much crashed afterwards.

Now, a word to the wise, do not ever eat any McDonald’s the night before a big hike. You will be fucking thirsty and there will be nothing that can quench that thirst. NOTHING.

Our first stop the next morning was the petroglyphs at Sego Canyon. That was definitely interesting to see old ancient artwork from Native Americans hundreds of years old. The Barrier Canyon glyphs were definite proof that we had been visited by aliens. We are definitely not alone here in this universe. No way that we are.

We trekked out on foot from the first view point to find the ghost town. We found an abandoned building, but I don’t think that was the ghost town though. Looking at the maps, it seems to be the cemetery even though we didn’t see any gravestone.

Then it was onto Arches. Since the line was so long getting into the park, we decided to just by pass the visitor center and go straight to the Delicate Arch, since I know it was going to be crowded.

Luckily we found some decent parking and we went on our merry way up and up and up the hill to the Arch. After that, everything else was a piece of cake. The Arch was huge, tall, and spectacular. It definitely is one of the big draws to the park. Then we did a hike to Sand Stone Arch and Broken Arch. Finished we drove to the end of the park and did a small hike to two small arches. We didn’t do the whole 7 mile hike, but it’ll definitely be something that must be done the next time.

We just had one more stop left on our trip in Arches and that was the Windows and Double Arch.

We opted to do the easy route at the Windows and then went to Double Arch.

I was just amazed by the sheer size of Double Arch. It was just beautiful and climbing up the cave walls was definitely fun. It was definitely a great last impression of the park.

Then our last stop of the day was Canyonlands, the Needles. Liz, the cute mountain biker, suggested that we try and go to the Needles. She loved it.

It was definitely a long long long long drive to get there and by the time we reached the visitor center, it was closed and I was nearly out of gas. I only had enough to get back into town, so we didn’t get to explore much of the Needles. Studying the park map, it does seem like that it was more of a place for hardcore hikers and adventurers and from my impressions, I preferred it more than the Islands in the Sky and I didn’t even hike it.

Driving into town was a little worrisome even though I knew I had enough to get back to Moab. And like the night before, we got back to the hotel, showered and was out to dinner by 9.

That was all of Utah and the next day would be our last day of the vacation, our Arizona leg.

* * *

Arizona

Early early was when we started out the next day. We left Moab around 7 in the morning and trekked all the way down to Arizona in a few hours. Our first stop, Monument Valley.

It was a great rest stop after a few hours of driving. I took in the views of the iconic Monument Valley, bringing back memories of old western movies I have seen. After a few souvenirs, we were on our way to our next stop, Lower Antelope Canyon and the slot canyon tour.

This was absolutely fucking amazing. The whole experience will definitely be burned into my memories. I was definitely amazed and one of my bucket lists have definitely been fulfilled.

There was a long line when we got there and had to wait about an hour-and-a-half before our tour started. I wanted to go to Horseshoe Bend while we waited, but my bro scared me saying that they’ll close down the road, so we just waited. We waited in the car as the wind picked up and the sand was blowing. We waited in the high heat of Arizona. We waited and waited and then it was time.

Luckily for us, we picked up another hour as we crossed the Arizona border and we got on the tour just at the right time with the sun high above us and shining down through the slots.

The colors were just amazing in the tight twists and turns of the canyon down below. No words can really describe that whole trip. It was a definitely high point of the trip. So impressionable that Hien wasn’t even impressed with the Grand Canyon.

After the tour, we drove the 15 minutes to Horseshoe Bend. Like all the other parks, I’ve seen the pictures but it was just great to see the actual thing live. We are in a draught and that was definitely apparent here. The Colorado River was very very low, but it was still beautiful regardless.

Then it was back on the road to our last stop, the Grand Canyon. We got there late, to the main visitor center in the village at 5pm. We checked out the bookstore, picking up more stickers for Hien and walked along to the main viewpoints.

It was my third time there and I was still in awe and amazement at the beauty of it. Hien was not so much.

The one thing that I couldn’t get over was how much it had changed since the two years I’ve been there last. The village and some of the viewpoints seemed to have changed that it was beyond recognizable.

We decided to get on the shuttle to go to Hermit’s Landing, where I ended up the last time I was there but never really explored. We got on a special bus that took us to the last sunset point and that is where we ended up, just watching the sunset and it was just beautiful.

This was my third time there but funnily enough it was my first time on the shuttle. After the sunset, it was just crowded. The wait was long for the shuttles to come and it was getting late. Hien decided that we should just drive straight home and I was too tired to drive straight. He was going to drive the first leg.

Maybe it was just me and my control thing, but every time that Hien drives, it just annoys me and drives me crazy. I just don’t understand it. I was trying to sleep and he was following closely behind a few cars while on cruise control. Not the safest thing as proven when the car in front of the van we were following was brake checking the van and Hien had the slam on the break.

He was hoping that they would just pass the car in front of them and I was just like, pass them both and that’s what he did.

I drifted in and out, making sure that we were headed to the right direction. We got on the 40 and I just knocked out for some time. I woke up and saw that he was driving 65 on a 75 and I just shook my head and just tried to sleep and not pay attention.

As we head into CA, the limit was down to 65 but he decided to drive 75. No fucking clue at all. I just had to leave it.

I took over just a little before Barstow and since I was in control, I was feeling better. Less annoyed and we made it safely back at 4:30 in the morning.

Our trip was done. 2460 miles later we made it home.

Utah, one of the best road trips of my life. Great hiking and great views and a great bonding experience with my bro, getting a little more insight to his life and seeing how much he’s changed for the better.

Awesome trip and I definitely will do it again….

One day….one day.