4th of July - Bryce Canyon Adventure

Yep! Cats outta the bag. I have a boyfriend. We've been dating for 5 months. His name is Josh. He's amazing and he's the reason why I've been so happy lately : )

Anyways, this is what we did over the long 4th of July weekend:

I've lived in Utah since 2003 and I've NEVER been to Bryce Canyon. Josh, on the other hand, has lived in Utah for a year and has been there three times. I need to get out more.

So we decided to go.

After a beautiful drive up the mountain, we arrived at our destination. Of course, Josh's camera ran out of batteries so I gave him mine (I'm not a big picture taker) so he could be the "camera guy" and I could be "the navigator".

[My studley man rockin' the farmers tan]

We started off at Sunrise Point.

Then, hiked over to Sunset Point.

At this point I noticed that there are two ways to experience Bryce: (1) Drive along the ridge, stop at the designated look-out points, get out of your car, walk 10 feet, enjoy the view, take pictures OR (2) hike down into the amphitheater and experience nature.

Obviously the first way is the easiest, but we like adventure, so we decided to drop down into the amphitheater on the Navajo Trail.

After hiking down the gnarly switch backs, through the slot canyon, and into the amphitheater we came across this sign:

3 miles? Easy, right?!

We couldn't be more wrong. The hike was beautiful but burley! And running out of water a mile into it and getting altitude sickness didn't make things any better.

[Tired and out of water]

[Half way there and holding strong]

[Almost done!]

After a long hike we finally made it back to the bottom of the Navajo Trail. And this is what we had to climb back up in order to get some water:

Of course we made it out just fine (I kept saying "baby steps, baby steps")

Next, we headed over to the general store and got some much needed water and hot dogs.

I still wanted to see some of the legendary look out points so we decided to drive to the different look out points and check out the views.

[Rainbow Point]

[Natural Bridge]

[Inspiration Point]

Overall it was a great day! I can't believe that this gorgeous place is in my very own backyard! Josh and I decided that we would come back again and do some more hikes but that time we would be more prepared : )