Utah, June 2008

i didn't post anything back in may because i was thinking i'd wait until i could say i had a new job. sadly, i would still be waiting. as catherine put it, job-searching time moves significantly slower than normal time. sort of like human years & dog years, i guess. although catherine likened it to that episode of buffy where kids were being sucked into a hell dimension where they were kept as slaves until they got old and then spat back out into the real world but time moved much faster down there so it was like they were aging 80 years in a couple of days and...ahem. sorry. my point is that catherine compared something that happened in real life to something that happened on buffy. she is truly one of us now.

but no more waiting, because i want to share pictures of our trip to utah. we took a lot of pictures, but i'll just hit the highlights.


EMERALD POOLS

the hike to the lower & middle pools was fairly easy. it goes under a waterfall, which was more of a misting since it had been so dry.



but even a mist is refreshing when you're hiking in 100 degree heat.





steve the mountain man:



the hike to the upper pool is significantly more strenuous, but the pool is worth it. nothing feels better on sore feet than cold mountain water.




VIRGIN NARROWS



my dad has been wanting to hike the narrows for quite awhile, so it felt really special to share this with him. he went out there with his cousin ten years ago, but they'd had too much rain that season and the rangers weren't letting anyone in the canyon. this time it was fairly dry, meaning that, if we were careful where we stepped, the water never came above our thighs.












ANGELS LANDING

i still can't believe i did this. it didn't seem that scary when i was doing it but later that night, my neuroses kicked in and i started thinking about all the awful things that could've happened...me falling off a cliff...steve falling off a cliff...my dad falling off a cliff...but it's best not to think about those things. let's just focus on the fact that i'm badass.

looking up toward the entrance to the canyon:



cool, breezy, Refrigerator Canyon:



the start of Walter's Wiggles:



the Wiggles from the top:



the beginning of the Angels Landing trail:



the start of the treacherous bit:





yes, that's really the trail:



this was the point in the trail where my pictures stop doing it justice, mainly because there aren't many of them. when the trail was 2 feet wide and i was holding onto a chain with 5,000 foot drops on either side, the last thing i wanted to do is let go of the chain and fiddle with my camera. for a better idea of what the last part of this trail is like, check out this slideshow.

me & dad at the top:





the tree we had lunch under:







dad said that since he hiked Angels Landing when he was 50 and again when he was 60, he'll have to come back and do it again when he's 70.


WILLIS CREEK SLOT CANYON
















BUCKSKIN GULCH SLOT CANYON

Wire Pass, leading to Buckskin Gulch:









the narrowest part:





Buckskin Gulch:














that's enough for now. i'm sure i'll be supplementing this with my parents' pictures when they get back.