1/30/21 bryce canyon NP & grand staircase-escalante national monument

after a snowy night drive up the mountain into bryce canyon’s campground, we fell asleep to the stars and woke up to a snowy pine forest. this felt like something out of a dream, once again ahaha🌈 such different scenery than the other parks we have been to!! rather than being in the red desert, we were in a lush, green forest <3 surprisingly not even as cold as we thought it would be (the weather app said 10 degrees ❄☃️)

we started out the day with an insane hike through the hoodoos (crazy rock towers). first we hiked queens garden, then made our way through the surprisingly less popular peek-a-boo loop. both were covered in snow, but peek-a-boo was much less packed snow, making the hike quite the calf burner lol (our legs are still sore 3 days later). the views were beyond worth it however. the coral rock columns were exquisitely contrasted by the snow that coated the ground and pine trees everywhere made for the perfect combination of colors. very beautiful vibes here :) checked out a mossy cave on the way out of the park before heading into escalante to work on our chem lab. first chem lab = pretty stressful, but we survived. we think our teacher thinks we’re homeless, but hes a homie, gave us an extra ten minutes to turn the lab in🤓

spent thursday night under a full moon at a lake on the outskirts of escalante petrified forest, which we explored in the morning. super insane to see these massive chunks of petrified wood. the colors that they contained were magnificent. after our little morning hike (and a quick wash of our hair in the park bathrooms), it began to snow, so we headed into town for service to work on homework.

friday night was spent right at the trailhead of the next mornings hike. we made an AMAZING rice and bean and veggie dinner with some spices... to die for🪐 the next morning, we hiked out to a waterfall, super gorgeous. on the way back from the falls we met some awesome people who gave us petro glyph recommendations in the st. george area, so we are hyped to check that out!!

after the waterfall hike, we adventured through slot canyons in the national monument. the famous antelope canyon in page, AZ was closed, but these canyons in escalante were insane (spooky & peek-a-boo slot canyons if anyone wants to check em out). surprisingly hot out here in the desert sun on the way to the canyons ✨ a 12 foot climb got us into the first canyon, where the setting sun illuminated the streaks in the red rock. the second canyon, spooky canyon, was quite spooky indeed !! some sketchy scrambles down into very very narrow slots. my water bottle felt the pain as it scratched against the rough walls of the canyon 🥲

after the slot canyon adventure, we made the drive out towards zion. listened to some words of wisdom by mooji (highly recommend looking him up on spotify) and made a delightful car salad of oranges, hot sauce, garlic powder,- carrots, and the rest of our current supply of spinach. fell asleep right outside of zion, so insane how each day is such a different adventure :)