Southwest is Best . . . Hiking Adventures in the Canyons of Arizona and Utah

It's taken me two months but I finally am able to post the report and pics from our hikes in the southwest, Enjoy  :)

In May I made my annual cross country drive to some of the most breathtaking places for hiking in Arizona and Utah.  After hiking solo in the Grand Canyon for two days my girlfriend Whitney flew into Phoenix to join in on the fun.  Below are trip reports with pictures from the hiking adventures we had over the following week.  The weather was unseasonably cool and rainy at times but we got lucky and were able to get in some phenomenal hikes between the storms and wild weather.  Some highlights were hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up in a day followed by exploring an old cave and getting pelted with tiny hail the following day.  The wild weather followed us into Utah but we managed to gauge the forecast and hit up a cool little local slot canyon called Peek-A-Boo in Oderville.  Finally, the weather broke and we had three amazing days, first exploring the out of this world hoodoo formations in Bryce Canyon, followed by two days in Zion where on day one we scrambled across the knife edge of Angels Landing and climbed high above the canyon to Observation Point.  This all lead to our final and best hike of our trip, hiking the Narrows, sixteen miles, most of which was walking through a river as canyon walls rose steeply from each side of the river!

Click on the links below to read reports and view pictures

Thursday, May 21st:  Grand Canyon - Rim to River and Back

Friday, May 22nd:  Grand Canyon - Cave of Domes

Saturday & Sunday, May 23rd & 24th:  Horseshoe Bend, Rimrock Hoodoos, Peek-A-Boo Slot Canyon, Pink Coral Sand Dunes

Monday, May 25th:  Bryce Canyon

Tuesday, May 26th:  Zion Canyon - Angels Landing & Observation Point

Wednesday, May 27th:  Zion Canyon - Narrows (Top-Down)

Thursday, May 28th:  Lower Antelope Canyon

The Colorado River from the South Kaibab Trail 

 Whitney in the Cave of Domes . . . on her birthday!

 Horseshoe Bend (Whitney's picture)

 Rimrock 'Toadstool' Hoodoos

 Rad Slot Canyon AKA Peek-A-Book Slot Canyon

 The Pink Coral Sand Dunes was kind of lame...so I had some fun! #SMACKERS

 The hoodoos of Bryce Canyon

 Whitney along the knife edge of Angels Landing

 Zion Canyon from Observation Point

The Narrows!

Lower Antelope Canyon

4 comments:

  1. Woah, you guys really know how to do it up! Thanks for sharing, outstanding pictures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you liked the pictures, Susan. It was a great road trip and can't wait to head back there in the future :)

      Delete
  2. Awesome. Heading over there in September and this post has me very excited!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent, enjoy your adventure in the southwest. September sounds like a great month to be out there!!

      Delete