The Valley of Fire Adventures

 Hello friends! I hope you all had an absolutely amazing spring break! My spring break was hectic and I definitely do not feel rejuvenated at all. I need another week to rest and recover for the remainder of the semester. I spent Monday through Thursday in Southern Utah. We arrived at the house that we were staying at around 4:30 AM and we were exhausted. My family and I explored and hiked the mountains of Utah. On Tuesday, we visited Zion National Park. The park was much busier than I anticipated but it was gorgeous. We were at a very high altitude on those hikes and my dad and I were the only members of our family who made it through the hike. Then, we took a bus to the Narrows trail. This is the most famous trail of Zion, but it was closed for high water. Apparently, when it is open, people have to hike through knee-high water. However, we were able to walk a lot of the trail without getting wet and the views were beautiful. We even saw a group of extraordinarily friendly mule deer. By this point, we had not had any water all day and we had only eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We were parched and tired and sore and ready to go back to the place we were staying. We ate at an In and Out burger place and I was unimpressed by the food. Their fries were no better than Mcdonald's fries. 

    On Wednesday, we hit multiple locations, including locations that were not listed as public hiking areas. We stopped at a couple random spots my father found online and then we hiked the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. The Red Cliffs were unbelievably beautiful, and we hiked along a clear stream until we reached a small waterfall. Then we used a rope to climb up the side of the cliff, above the waterfall. I was totally fine climbing up, but I thought I was going to die on my way back down. This location was much less busy than Zion National Park, which I loved. We concluded our day when it started raining and headed back to eat the best Mexican food I have had in my entire life. I lifted, relaxed in the hot tub and played cards with my family. 

    On Thursday we made the two-hour trek to Las Vegas. However, we stopped at a state park along the way. The Valley of Fire seemed small and uninteresting at first but as we continued driving deeper into the park we encountered massive rock structures of every color. The paths were only marked with poles so we had the freedom to climb up huge formations and into caves. This was my absolute favorite hike of the trip and you guys MUST go explore the area at some point in your lives. Then we spent the last bit of our day seeing the Las Vegas strip. If I am being entirely honest, I was quite unimpressed. It just seemed like a lot of gambling, drugs and homeless people. Anyways, it was wonderful to experience the city and I know many people adore Las Vegas. I will tell you all about more adventures in next week's blog! I hope you guys are doing amazing and I am excited to hear about your spring break adventures.