Exploring Zion

So for those of you who have forgotten what being in school is like, let me remind you. From fall to winter it's class, class, work, class again, eat, class, work some more. All day sitting on your butt. Every day. So as soon as this semester was up we went for a long trip of adventure. With no sitting on butt action in there. We decided to head down to Zions National Park. We stayed at the cutest campsite in the world...and i'm a failure because I didn't take any pictures. 

Brent was super excited about doing a big big hike so we planned one for Thursday. It was a whopping 14 miler. It was to Kolob Arch. So we sang "if you could hie to Kolob" song a lot. ("There is no end to this trail... there IS NO END to this trail....")

Here's how the journey went.

Brent's note: Jessica has the tradish of taking a before-the-hike photo. So that's what we have here :)

Here's the stunning view of what we're about to go into(ish)

Our trail was red (after several hours of walking, I concluded it was red because of the blood of poor innocent wives who were dragged along to do this hike) But it really was very secluded and beautiful. 

My Honey looking all sexy in the wilderness!!! (another of Brent's notes. I'm going to have to have him sit by me all the time while writing. Boosts my self-esteem)

We followed this amazing stream all the way along the hike. We found it very fascinating that it was green. It looked really pretty against the red rock though. 

Here's Brent doing what he does best: exploring.

And jumping places. And giving his wife a heart attack. That's a lot further jump than it may appear from this view, the river must've been 15 feet wide at this particular canal. (Brent again, boosting his pride)

See?? I'm loving this red rock.

We had some hikers take this. In the background you'll notice an awesome mountain. We named it Orange Mountain. (note, all mountains we saw were given this name. We are very creative)

Talking about names, we saw a BILLION lizards. They were all different sizes and pretty cute. I started going through the alphabet and naming them (to keep my mind off the pain, haha)

My Honey lookin all sexy again :)

(Orange Mountain the third)

The trail that never ends

And drumroll please....here's the arch!!

I guess it's one of the largest in the world. The forth largest to be exact

The stream was so pretty up there! 

Brent being silly.

This guy below gave us QUITE the heart attack. He was lying right across the trail. He was over three-feet long! EK! I have no idea if he was poisonous, but it was pretty scary all the same. 

We finished the hike in about 9 hours. I had several blisters and was exhausted while Brent seemed barely winded. It was a beautiful hike however, so i'd say it was worth it. 

The next day I was too tired (and burnt) to do any more hikes so we chilled in St. George. That night my family came down and we had a great dinner! The next day we went to hike Angel's Landing. So, looking at the picture below, we climbed to the top of this:

Here's the beginning of the hike pose with Taylor. 

The last part of the hike is all really high up and has sheer drops on either side of you. So you see the chains in the picture to hold onto. 

Here we are (almost at the top)

(would not want to fall off at this point...)

View from the tippi-top!!

It felt SO good to go Froberging around and to celebrate school getting out. We had a great weekend!