As the classic country tunes from Blackhawk, Tim McGraw and Reba played on the CD player (yes CD player), we drove passed the Grand Canyon one last time. Saying goodbye to our new friend as the snow lightly drizzled down and clouds once again covered the blue sky.

I continued my drive towards Page, Arizona. The red-rocked cliffs hugged the two lane highway and I couldn’t help but think this was foreshadowing for my next adventure into Utah and I couldn’t be more excited!

I arrived in Page and immediately made a reservation to see the Antelope Canyon. I don’t splurge often but some things you just have to see. 6:30am… yikes! I’m definitely not a morning person but a lot of sunrises to see so hopefully I’ll get better. I made another reservation for a camping spot on Lake Powell. I was pleasantly surprised to arrive to an amazing lake and a campground with… wifi? Fancy! It didn’t stop there, as I sat alone at my picnic table researching hikes for Zion, the neighbor came over and asked if I had a wine opener. Of course I have a wine opener and as I was handing it to him another guy invited me over to share in their feast of barbecued steaks and lobster. How could I possibly say no to them? It turned out to be an annual trip for these guys, a couple retired guys from Arizona and father and his son and son’s best friend from California. They were so gracious and kind, not to mention they made amazing food. We sat around the fire for the rest of the night, sharing stories and laughing, until I realized that 5:30am wake up call was staring me down. So I climbed into my car with Franklin and we crashed out. I unfortunately did not wake up in time… shocking I know.  I called the tour company and asked if I could reschedule for the following day, they agreed, and I thanked them one hundred times. So instead of doing the two hikes I had anticipated, I took a shower, did laundry and hung out by the lake. Yes this fancy campground also had showers and laundry.

The next day, I woke up on time and drove down to meet the group to head to Antelope Canyon. It’s this magical canyon that was carved by water, sand, and wind and now has beautifully smooth surfaces and curves. It was a very cool place, however, once again you have that balance of beautiful nature and tourism that can often detract from the magic of the place.

Speaking of tourism, the other spot I wanted to check out was the horseshoe bend on the Colorado river. So beautiful, breathtaking, but then you quickly  have to get out of the way so that the 30 people with selfie sticks can get their pictures taken. Oh well, it is what it is, you really just have to expect that when you go to these places.

After all of that, Franklin and I crossed into Utah and headed for Zion. Wow, you see enough of these national parks and you come to understand why so many people worked so hard to secure these special and unique landscapes, and thank goodness they did. I can only imagine what some of these places would be like if they weren’t protected.

Zion is just beautiful, as you can imagine. You drive into Zion canyon and these monstrous cliffs and hills are all around you and everything is a perfect auburn hue, even the road is not your traditional charcoal but more of a maroon color.

After driving as much of Zion as you can (non-dog friendly shuttles are recommend and a main road is shut down to cars not staying at the lodge), we located a primitive camping spot 6 feet from the water on Kolob Reservoir,  just outside of Zion restrictions. It was perfect!