Finally

So we have finally got this thing together and have stuff to put up on our blog!!

Our summer (yes, we know it's officially winter for most of you) was incredibly fun. In May we traveled to Utah and did some major backpacking through Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce (we camped in 32 degrees) and Zion. Best vacation I have ever had! I had trouble keeping up with Travis sometimes, as he is the super hiker, but once he got a blister on his heel, I could!

We started in Arches and hiked through lots of beautiful places, the best is the Landscape Arch (on the left, the size of a football field). We camped in the La Sal-Manti National Forest and, as you can see, the view from 'base camp' (our tent) was incredible! Had fun listening to wolves at night. It took us 1 hour every day to drive down the mountain back to Moab. Trav had to go whitewater rafting, so we hit the Colorado and this time had to paddle all the way through (we went rafting on the Colorado when we were at the Grand Canyon but it was a motorized boat). Had a great time and the experience made Trav officially a whitewater guru, of sorts.

Next was Canyonlands. I loved this place. The lands looks like a giant dinosaur stepped in mud many years ago and now an imprint is all that is left. Trav decided it would be fun to take our rental (an SUV) down the 4x4 trail(where we only saw Jeeps). Many times, as I looked out my passenger window, all I could see was what felt like hundreds of feet straight down the side of the canyon. Once we left Canyonlands, for some strange reason, our SUV had lots of rattling...HMMMMMM

On our drive to Bryce, we stopped at Capitol Reef for a quick hike and found beautiful petroglyphs (ancient drawings).

Bryce was awesome! We hiked into the hoodoos (those tall spires you see), went on a full moon hike, and did some horseback riding. Camping was quite cold there. The only day that I picked up a newspaper (only to have paper to burn), it said that Bryce was the coldest place in the lower 48 that night. But our sleeping bags we got for Christmas worked wonders (thanks Mom and Jerry!).

Next was Zion and our most challenging hike by far. We hiked, over two days, the 14 miles down the 'Narrows,' the Virgin River that cuts through Zion. The actual trail is the river and was incredibly difficult. Thank God that the current was low- some have had to swim down the river instead of hike. Needless to say we were wet the entire time and exhausted once we hit our campsite the first day. But there is nothing better than camping next to a river! The second day we saw what they mean by 'Narrows,' walls of rock as high up as 2000 feet on either side of us! Breathtaking. We didn't get a chance to explore the rest of Zion like we would have liked, but the Narrows was the highlight of our trip!