For Memorial Day this year, Jon, Jessica, and I went to Zions National Park.
It was sooo awesome!!!
But it wasn't at first, when we woke-up at 2 am to leave to get there.
That's right. Knowing that it would be a very busy day at the park, we wanted to get there in time to leave on the 6 am shuttle so that we could beat some of the rush. Jon drove the whole way there while Jessica and I slept in the car (thanks, Hon!) When we got there we shuffled onto the shuttle and made our way to our first hike: The Narrows.
We were so excited! Especially Jessica:
'Kinda look like she's photo bombing, right? But she wasn't. Her face just comes that way sometimes.
Getting to The Narrows super early was a fantastic idea. We were there as the sun was coming up and the angle of the light on the rock brought out all the deep, rich colors in the rock. It was GORGEOUS!!!
We tried to take pictures:
They didn't do it justice.
Another awesome part about getting there super early was that it was fairly empty. We were able to go at our slow pace and be goofy and have fun without prying eyes or impatient people.
See, look! Here Jessica and I are getting into the water without anyone else around!
And here we are being silly and having fun!
I will admit, it was pretty cold and the numbness in my feet didn't go away until we'd been out of the water for an hour...
...but it was worth it!
After The Narrows, we hiked to Emerald Pool and ate lunch on the edge. At this point, the whole waking-up at 2 am thing was really hitting us and we were getting pretty tired.
But we were still awake enough to take pictures of Jon sitting in his model pose:
He begged me to post this picture. You're welcome, Jon!
We were super tired for a long time. But then, we woke-up!
And decided to do one last hike to Hidden Canyon!
Hidden Canyon went up super high and had some of those scary parts you see in pictures online where you have to hold onto the chains in the mountain side. We only held onto chains for one little part, and then went back down (I'm not a fan of heights).
The view it gave us was spectacular, though!
Right before we turned around to head back down, we found this really awesome staircase built into the side of the mountain:
And then Jon and I took engagement pictures part two on it:
And then Jessica asserted her singleness and took a picture by herself on it with Jon in the background:
And then we hiked back down and went home.
On the ride home we had one of the most memorable moments of the trip. In anticipation for this day, Jon had spent several hours compliling music about Zion. "Israel, Isreal God Is Calling," "Faith In Every Footstep," "As Zion's Youth In Latter-Days"...pretty much, it was an hour of solid Mormon Tabernacle Choir music. We're playing this music in the car on the way home, singing along and feeling the Spirit. Then, the very last track on the CD starts playing and it wasn't a Mo-Tab song. With beautiful violins, I thought that maybe Jon had found a pretty instramental version of a Zion church song. And then suddenly, the violins cut out--being replaced by a heavy beat--and the song transforms into a Mexican pop song.
"What the heck is this?!!!" Jessica and I both ask.
Jon's eyes are sparkling and he looks like it's Christmas. "It's a Mexican song sung by a guy named Zion!"
"WHAT??!!!"
But Jon was lost by that point, dancing to the hip-hop rhythm of the song, which ocassionally sung out something like: "Yea, Zion! Sing it, Zion!"
I would find a youtube version of it and post it here so that you could appreciate the absurtity of the situation, but upon finishing the song Jon turned to us and informed us that we should probably never listen to the song again because there were some pretty bad Spanish words. Regardless, it caused for a pretty good laugh!
And that's our trip to Zions!
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