Sunday, June 5, 2011

St. George


All Dustin wanted for his birthday was a week in St. George at his grandparents condo.
I haven't been to St. George in forever so I was really excited about this.
We really wanted to go to Zions for a few days,
so we decided to invite the experts down to serve as our guides.
So Ryan, Alex, Carter, and Shane came and stayed with us Monday thru Wednesday.

I am not going to lie, I usually dont like hiking at all.
I feel like it takes forever to get a good burn and then I hate the going down part.
It is so hard on the knees.
But I have always really wanted to go to Zions so I sucked it up.
And I am so glad that I did.
I seriously had the time of my life and I cant
wait to go on another out door adventure.


The first day we thought we would start with the classic Zion's hike.
Angels Landing.


I was a little nervous about this hike because I am not a huge fan of heights.
But it was seriously so much fun.
I loved the end of the hike where you are just holding on to the chain.
It was breath taking.
I loved being able to see down the canyon.
But on our way down I got a little spooked.
It started raining and got really windy.
We were at the very top at the scariest part and I was not happy.
I was just moving as fast as I could to get off that mountain.
Luckily it stopped raining and the canyon looked even prettier.
After that hike, we weren't done for the day.
So we decided to do a little hike
Emerald Pools

The funniest part was Carter decided he wanted
to jump off a little cliff into the water.
There was signs everywhere saying that you cant get in the water,
but we of course ignored that.
But everyone by the water was freaking out.
These old ladies kept yelling at Carter saying get down
your going to get hurt.
Carter didn't get hurt and it made for a good laugh.

Dust and I thought that we were just going to do this one day in Zions.
But the boys had already planned on doing the Subway hike.
This was was an all day hike and a little more intense.
I thought that if we didn't do this hike now we would never do it.
So I convinced Dust that we should go on it.

This was one of the funnest day of my life.
When I woke up in the morning I was a little nervous
about it because the park ranger tried to scare us.
He said the water was extremely high, that we needed wet
suits in order to go on it, and the current was strong.
I have never done anything like this before so I guess you can say
that the guy really did scare me lol.
The only hikes I have really done before are the Y hikes.
So I mentally prepared myself and set off.


I knew I was in for a day when the hike started out with
rock climbing down a mountain. ha ha
I was like for real? Are you serious right now?
Then I was even more shocked when we got to the river
bed and there was no trail.
I was like were is the trail.
And everyone was like you just make your own trail.
I just had to laugh at this point.

I was totally out of my comfort zone.
I started out the day really cautious.
I didn't want to get in the water because it was cold
but by the end of the day I was just trucking though the river.
We had so much fun crossing the river, going over rocks,
and really just visiting with each other.
The first part of the hike was a little boring but when we got to the Subway opening
it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
The water going over the red rock was stunning.
The whole hike was worth seeing this beautiful site.

The water was so high this time of the year that half the hike was closed.
But seeing as I was with five adventurous boys this did not stop them.
They decided that it would be fun to go swimming in
the water to try to get get up the waterfalls and the cliffs.
This is where I started getting a little worried.
The water was seriously freezing and I dont really do well in the cold.
The boys were so nice though and helped me through the whole process.
They were just all laughing at how cold I was.
And how cautious me and Ryan are.
We went as far as you could possibly go and then
we hit a waterfall that we could not get up without a rope.
I am not going to lie,
I was real excited when we couldn't go any further.
I was so cold that my lips had turned purple and I could not feel my feet.
I had to lay out in the son with three sweat shirts on for an hour just to get kind of warm.

The only problem with this hike was we didn't bring enough water.
We only brought 7 water bottles for 6 people for an 8 hour day.
You do the math.
We were dying.
At the very end of the hike, I could not wait to get back just to get some water.
We were starved, thirsty, tired, and exhausted.
But it was so much fun.

The next day I couldn't move.
I could not believe how sore I was.
My whole body ached.
I looked at my feet and they were covered with cuts.
I couldn't believe how tore up they were.
I could not walk, or put on shoes for like four days.


The next two days were spent with just me and my sweet heart.

We had so much fun laying out, ordering pizza and watching the NBA playoffs.
We ate Bear Paw.
Which was amazing (only if you order breakfast though)
We did a session in the St. George Temple.
Which was so much fun.
It was so great to see the temple where my parents were married.

We sersiously had a blast down in St. George and we cant wait to go back.







1 comment:

  1. Elise, you make me want to go on tons of outdoorsy vacations all the time. I'm sad that you and Dustin are moving back to Vegas. Abel really likes Dustin (and you know how sometimes it's hard to find other couples that you both like to hang out with haha). Maybe we could find a time to hang out before you leave, as well as maybe meet in the middle sometimes and go to Zion's since you loved it so much!

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