Part 1, 30th Anniversary Trip

Spider Rock in Canyon De Chelley National Monument

Hello everyone!!!

I have a non-crafty post to share with you today. If you've been waiting on this post I apologize. I returned home Sunday afternoon and my energy is completely drained. Recently my hubby and I took a road trip to celebrate our 30th Anniversary which was in May. We visited several states and national parks. Originally we were due to travel to Wyoming and visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton Nat'l Parks as well but a summer cold derailed us. We made the right decision to rest up in Park City for a few days so we could enjoy the rest of our trip and not add those additional miles. I'll be sharing photos of our trip the rest of the week and once I make the final photo selection (I took thousands) of each tourist stop I'm going to make a travel journal for us which I'll share here as well. 

The first stop was a visit to a place on my hubby's bucket list - Canyon De Chelley National Monument. His favorite western is Mackenna's Gold starring Gregory Peck and it was filmed there in the early '60's. He loved seeing Spider Rock in person and fortunately it was a beautiful, sunny day. 

Canyon De Chelley National Monument

On his way to see Spider Rock

Along the way on our journey I sent a shout out to my Pocket Letter Pal, Katrin. So happy you enjoyed my messages sweet friend. xx

We spent the second night on the road at Kanab, Utah and the next morning we visited Zion National Park which was 30 miles away. It was our first visit to Zion and it was apparent my hubby had come down with a summer cold. We scratched our hike to The Narrows (you get there by hiking in the middle of the Virgin River) as it wasn't a great idea to hike literally through ice cold water with him sick. Instead we opted to take the shuttle bus tour and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery including the Virgin River. Zion has the distinction of being Utah's first national park and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Luckily I had some med's with me that kept him going!

Here are more photos of Zion National Park.

Buffalo grazing along Mt. Carmel Road on the way to Zion from Kanab.

Checkerboard Mesa

Zion Visitor Center

This area is what they call the Patriarchs...

and this big white rock behind it is called the Great White Throne. 

The bus tour ran alongside the Virgin River.

Zion shuttle buses

The Temple of Sinawava was the last stop on the tour and it's also where you trek down to hike to The Narrows.

There's nothing like mountain water and I enjoyed cooling off in it as the temps were creeping up that day. Good thing we went early in the morning!

The water was clear and beautiful. 

I snapped this photo at the falls. 

When we left Zion I asked my hubby to snap this so I could send another message to Katrin. :)

Our next stop was Kolob Canyons off I-15 which is also part of Zion Nat'l Park. 

Kolob Canyons Visitor Center

The Hanging Gardens

After visiting Kolob we traveled on to Park City and checked in our timeshare. We were due to spend the week but cut our visit short 2 days so we could make our way back via a different route which took us through southwest Colorado and back to New Mexico. 

I'll share those adventures with you tomorrow.

Thanks for the visit today!

Lisa xx