We road tripped it down to St. George to get our sunshine fix. There are no words for
sunny, 50-degree weather after weeks and weeks of dark, snowy, 18-degree death. It was absolutely AWESOME.
{^^^ Katie's face = pure and utter joy. Evidence of the absolute awesomeness.}
I love St. George. The stunning red rocks and endless blue sky keep a smile on my face the whole time. I can safely say St. George ranks at least an 8 on the zero-to-Yellowstone happiness scale. We climbed around among ancient petrified sand dunes and beautifully weathered sandstone formations for hours. The only thing more fun than hiking somewhere awesome is hiking somewhere awesome with awesome friends.
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| Sorry you look like a shortie, Andrew... |
Then all our friends went home on Sunday. Ryan and I woke up early on Monday and made the beautiful drive to Zion National Park, just the two of us. Before we had even started dating, I had told Ryan that I wanted to be there the first time he saw ZNP, home to some of my favorite rocks and hikes on the planet. He promised he wouldn't set foot in the park till I could go with him. Good to know my boyfriend's an honest man! It was totally worth it to see his face when we came face-to-face with this.
I love that Ryan loves hiking. And even though there were a few times I legitimately thought I was going to slip off the narrow ice-encrusted spine of rock and fall to my death, it was so much fun climbing Angel's Landing with Ryan. I judge a lot of my guy by how he values nature, and on this hike he only gave me more reasons to love him.
^^^ Trail of ice and death. And then Ryan and I as we started the coolest part - walking on the spine!
Standing 1,488 feet above the valley floor. It was incredible.
Earth {and three day weekends} are amazing.
