Vegas and Zion, part 1.

Wow.
The last week has been a whirlwind of adventure out West.

Day 1: Vegas, baby!

Raquel Minh and Carrie Lynn together again.

Free vodka cranberries all night.

The boyfriend and I spent a night out in Vegas with my best friend from high school. We managed to get ourselves into the Caesar's Palace club without any cover charge and had free drinks until midnight! It was a 4 hour time difference from the east coast so we were exhausted by midnight and headed back to our hotel shortly after...

Day 2: Rock climbing in Red Rock

That little spot is where we'll be climbing.

That little spot is actually very big.  

Climber's paradise. Check out all the climbers on the walls of these cliffs.

We spent Friday in a park outside of Las Vegas. Ryan's brother and his girlfriend took us sport climbing. This was the most amazing place to have my first climb outside. We climbed two different routes on a rock called the Magic Bus and took a trek through other spots before calling it a day.

Day 3: Angel's Landing in Zion National Park

We're climbing to the top of the rock behind him.

Last set of paved switch backs. Easy part is over.

The last 30min of the hike is narrow ledges, climbing over steep boulders, and shimmying cliffs.

The top of Angel's Landing.

The view from one side.

The view from the other side.

We're on top of the summit as the sun sets.

Heart. Stopping.

As soon as we got to Ryan's brother's house. We headed out to Angel's Landing in Zion for a 2 and a half hour hike. We biked uphill between huge cliffs and then started our hike up Angel's Landing. It was the most rigorous and steep hike I've ever done. There are countless switchbacks, boulders, and cliffs to climb before reaching the top... but all the hard work was worth it. At the end, Ryan and I had the entire summit to ourselves as the sun was setting. It was otherworldly.

We hiked back down and I started to worry about biking through the canyon in the dark. Right before we got on our bikes, the full moon came over the cliffs and lit up our entire path. It was like we had a street lamp turned on behind our backs lighting up the huge cliffs. We didn't realize the road was uphill on our way in so it was an an exhilarating surprise to speed through Zion on our way out. 

This might be my favorite day of all time.