Stick Huts & Sea Lions

Finishing up in California, we were on the beaches near Hearst Castle and Big Sur. The campsites at Big Sur were beautiful. It was extremely fun. After these few days, my mom caught her flight home in San Jose, but not before the clutch in the car completely failed on us! Awesome. 

Who would have thought this well-maintained vehicle (which had been tuned up prior to the trip) would be a failboat? Ah well. It was fixed within 24 hours, so nbd.

a thing

more things

fuzzier things

stick huts!

Lizard of the dayyyyy!

Utahll Cliff

Zion: Chapter II. Today we hiked to Observation Point. It was a strenuous four mile ascent; eight miles round trip. It was well worth it. Today's goal: Don't died.

Wee!

  

If you look very closely, you'll see a tiny white speck on the road near the river. That's a two cab shuttle bus that brought us to the trailhead where we began our hike. (Click to enlarge).

We think there should be a slide back down from this point.

A lizard a day keeps the doctor away.

Zionward and Upward

Our first trek into Zion National Park was to Emerald Pools. What's cool about Zion is that it allows you to venture all throughout the heart of the park. The sheer size of the cliffs was intimidating, to say the least. Talk about existential angst, this park does an incredible job of making you feel small. Emerald Pools was very nice, although 'Emerald Pools' is a bit of a misnomer. It would be more accurate to call it 'Coffee Ground Pond.' We had a great time anyways. 

Lizard of the Day. 

Too Good to be True: Literally.

We're currently in Utah, the landscape is very different here. We've been camping a lot in different national parks and such. Our Kelty tent is awesome. Something that has been really intriguing about the places we've been are the foreign tourists we have met. People from places like the Netherlands, Germany, France, and China, to name a few. I talked to a girl from Slovania yesterday. Her luggage had been lost in transit, and she will have to go three weeks in the United States without it. 

Yesterday we visited another canyon, this time in Utah. 

I wouldn't really call this one 'grand', it's more... 'bryce'. 

We were really impressed with Bryce Canyon.

That is, until we found out it was manmade.

EXHIBIT A:   

 EXHIBIT B:

Apparently it's mostly styrofoam. They tried to mask it, but we were too cunning. 

It was still fun, but not quite as amazing once you know the dirty truth.

Today's lizard.

Look What We Found in Arizona! (Part II)

We went back to the Grand Canyon at sunset. Awe-inspiring. 

Boom. Left my mark.

Look! Another lizard!