I know it’s been a few weeks friends, but have no fear, because the Friday Five is back this week! I’m still working on a blog post recapping my recent Southwestern US National Parks hiking road trip extravaganza, but I thought it would be fun today to share my five of my favorite photos from the trip in time for National Park Week!! Let me tell you, it was NOT EASY narrowing these down to five! I saw so many parks, hiked (and drove) so many miles, saw so much indescribably beautiful scenery and took SO MANY photos! My cousin was kind enough to take all of these photos for me on my Nikon and my iPhone! It’s always so awkward handing your camera to someone and saying, “take a photo of me walking”, but looking at the camera and smiling for every photo gets real boring, real quick!
Pro tip for when you have a specific idea for a photo and need someone else to take it: take a photo of the other person first doing what you want to do in your photo. Then show them on the back of your camera what the finished product looks like so they have a picture in their head of what the photo needs to look like when they take it! Plus the settings are all dialed in correctly then for them too! That’s my little secret for you!
One.
Delicate Arch | Arches National Park | Moab, UT
Arches was incredible! I think this was the hardest hike that we did all trip (except maybe Devil’s Bridge in the rain). It was a mile and a half straight uphill hike to get to this glorious point, but when you turn the corner and see Delicate Arch glistening in the sun, it’s ALL worth it! Also, GO BLUE! ;)
Two.
Zion National Park | Springdale, UT
Zion was my favorite National Park overall! The scenery was just stunning everywhere you looked. We did four hikes here, but I wish we could have spent a few days here doing more. I really want to come back and do Angel’s Landing. That’s on my list for next time!
Three.
Bryce Canyon National Park | Bryce, UT
Bryce Canyon, like every other National Park, had STUNNING scenery! It was so cool going in winter and getting to experience Bryce with snow covering the hoodoos and trails. This switchback below was on the Navajo Loop Trail and we connected it to the Queen’s Garden to extend our hike. It was one of the most serene and peaceful hikes I’ve ever been on, not to mention, we had just about the whole trail to ourselves!
Four.
Mesa Arch | Canyonlands |Moab, UT
The 5 AM wakeup call to hike to Mesa Arch for sunrise was so worth it! I photographed the sun rising up through the arch (it’s the header photo above the blog post title ^) and it was incredible to see! After a few minutes of the sun rising, we climbed up onto the top of the arch to watch it get higher into the sky.
Five.
The Grand Canyon South Rim | Grand Canyon National Park | Arizona
Pictures just do not do the vastness of the Grand Canyon justice. I couldn’t believe how big, how wide and how deep the canyon was! It was just stunning and the 6 miles we hiked here in the snow was one of my favorite days of the trip! This is also another park I can’t wait to come back to and I want to hike down to the Colorado River next time! #hikinggoals
