Zion - Part Two: The Narrows

It was recommended to us by several friends to take trekking poles or a walking stick with us on our hike up The Narrows. We’re both REALLY glad we listened.

Hikes in just about every National Park are listed as the following: Easy, which are usually paved or well maintained and short with little to no elevation gain; Moderate, which are not for people with severe health problems and are generally more difficult with rougher paths and trails; and Strenuous, which can be very long, with little to no actual mapped out trail, large elevation gain or difficult and dangerous terrain.

The Narrows is listed as Strenuous.

Geoff, ready to take on The Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah

Zion - Part One: National Parks and Ghost Towns

We left Seattle on the second part of our trip after spending a few days at home. We drove straight through, for about 24 hours, passing through Eastern Washington, Oregon, Idaho and most of Utah before reaching Zion National Park. We went through rain squalls, bug attacks, high winds, soft sunrises and scorching hot sun to get there. We passed many places we'll be adding to our list of future exploration needed. Our list seems to keep getting larger and larger, even as we tick so many boxes off of it. Ah, the life of the perpetual traveler... 

Eastern Washington looking lovely. En route to Utah

Love the four to eight watch on ships for the sunrise. It was beautiful on the interstate as well. Somewhere in Northern Utah.

Death Valley - So Weird. So Hot. So Very Very Hot.

We woke up to a nice breeze on the shores of Lake Isabella. The sun was bright and the boats were just starting to dart around the lake, disturbing the crystal clear reflection of the dry, grassy hills surrounding us. Geoff ate pizza. It was great.

Geoff enjoying pizza for breakfast at Lake Isabella, CA

I watched him chomp down on the Costco pizza we got the night before ever so adoringly as I remembered it was our anniversary. It made me smile. What a weird place for us to be celebrating our years together. And yet it was perfectly fitting. Completely out of the ordinary and definitely outside the box. An adventure. I love our adventures. I love that we enjoy doing the same sorts of things and better yet - enjoy doing them together. We're pretty lucky. We might not live flashy, or come close to making six figures a year but we have each other and that's pretty damn amazing if you ask me.

After a breakfast of pizza we got organized and headed to our destination for the day: Death Valley National Park.