Utah Trip – Zion National Park

Our next stop would be the Zion National Park. It was already late afternoon when we reached the park, so we basically just set up our tent (a huge tent enough to fit 5 of us) and had dinner for the night. We did not rent the campground just to ourselves; in fact one has to reserve for it months in advance. Instead, we shared a campground with a group of Malaysians whose trip organizer was Wei Ping’s friend.

One of the stops we had on our way to the campground

Nice scene with cactus plants in sight

The next morning, we left the campground early for the Angels Landing hike. The hike was a tough one, especially the descent. Descents are always difficult for me because my center of gravity is not exactly low, and those worn-out shoe soles of mine certainly did not help. Pei Ying and I got to the peak at a pretty decent pace, but we took quite some time to get back to where we started.

The view up there was definitely worth all the hard work though, and the lunch we had at the top was definitely a satisfying one. I guess it proved that victory will only be sweeter if it is a hard-fought one.

Morning moon

Zion Valley

 

Beginning of the hike

 

A series of steep switchbacks

Rocky mountain (literal)

Insane slope with lots of insane people on it (trail marker in smaller photo)

 

Check out the steep cliff and how close the trail is to the edge…definitely not a time for missteps

Pei Ying making her way up

Deep valley

 

Support chains for hikers (trail marker in smaller photo)

Photoshoped

Zion Canyon viewed from Angels Landing

Zion Canyon widescreen

Utah trip – Bryce Canyon National Park

We left Arches National Park at around noon, heading to our next destination – Bryce Canyon National Park. We did not do any hikes there, basically just stopping at a few spots to take photos. The view there wasn’t that spectacular in my opinion, but my expectation wasn’t high in the first place too.

I somehow discovered the widescreen mode when I was taking photos in this park. Yeah shoot me for not knowing that earlier…but since then I was hooked. Here are a couple of widescreen shots that I took…and I used to think that such photos are computer-stitched panoramic shots:

 

An enlightening trip indeed!