Zion Day 2

On our second day at Zion, after going to Bryce for the day in between, we hiked into The Narrows. This included a one mile riverside hike, and then the rest was wading through the Virgin River in between the canyon walls.

Mud handprints

The walls got closer and closer together. We didn't get back this far, but the narrowest spot is about twenty feet wide.

Family picture in a side Canyon.

Zion Day 1

We had a wonderful time in Zion National Park. The first day we were there we hiked a five mile trail called Angel's Landing. It was named that by a man who said of the lookout at the end, "Only an angel could land there." The first two miles were switchbacks like the ones in this picture. It was cool as we hiked up we could see the part of the trail we had been on earlier.

The last half mile before the lookout was steep and rocky and had chains you could hold onto.

At some points it dropped off on both sides, like this picture. It was so fun! 

At the top was a gorgeous view of Zion Canyon.

And we saw two of the seventy California Condors that live in Utah and Arizona.

The Grand Canyon

Hamburgers for supper overlooking the Grand Canyon.

We were at the North Rim and with binoculars we could see the South Rim visitor center.

We hiked out to Angel's Window and saw stunning views.

The vast silence was amazing.

Las Vegas

On a Sunday evening in July we experienced Las Vegas for the first time. We felt a little conspicuous carrying our Tupperware camping clothing boxes up to our room in The Orleans hotel.

That evening we rode the shuttle to the strip where we walked through an enormous shopping mall mimicking the city of Venice, complete with a canal and gondola rides.

We enjoyed Grimaldi's pizza at 9pm for a late supper next to a fountain choreographed to music.

The High Roller, a distinct part of the Vegas skyline.

License Plate Search

Since the beginning of our trip we've been keeping track of all the state license plates we've found, and somewhere along the line mom and dad promised to buy us ice cream if we found a Hawaii license plate. And sure enough, in the Crater Lake parking lot Seth spotted the rainbow plate.

Even though we found it at Crater Lake, we didn't get our ice cream until we were on the way out of LA. But our blizzards were worth it!

We were glad for the ice cream since we were driving through 116 degree weather!

Since then we've been continuing to search for license plates, and we finished finding all of them just a couple days ago! South Carolina was the last one.

Los Angeles

We were so excited to be able to stay in LA with another one of mom's aunts. Here we are with Rachel and Bob.

Spending time at Santa Monica Beach swimming in the Pacific was a blast!

We experienced rush hour traffic in LA when we drove to Malibu Beach to watch the surfers there. On the way home we stopped at Chipotle for supper. We drove home through Hollywood, Beverly Hills (a rich section with enormous mansions), and Mulholland Drive (to see the city lights).

On our last full day in LA we went to the Getty Museum! We enjoyed going on an architecture tour, touring the gardens, and seeing the paintings and an exhibit with concrete poetry.

Sequoia Part 2

This is the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world by volume. It is dead on top so it doesn't grow higher, but it keeps growing wider!

This is the tree you can drive through. :)

We also hiked up Moro Rock for a view of the Sierra Nevadas.

We got a view of the road we would be driving down! On a trip with many winding roads we all agreed after driving on it that this was the worst.

On the way out we stopped at Hospital Rock, where we learned about Native Americans who had lived in the area and saw the petroglyphs they had written on the rock.