She flew in late Thursday night and we left early Friday morning to drive 5 hours to Zion National Park in Southern UT. (Yes, Salt Lake City is cold and there is snow on the mountains but southern UT is in the 80s due to the lower elevation so that is where we went.) We got to Zion pretty early in the day and had plenty of time to set up our campsite and hike the park. We saw the main attractions of the park and did two main hikes all before it got dark. We went back to our campsite cooked dinner, made a fire and crashed from our long busy day.
On Saturday we got up and drove to the North Rim of Grand Canyon. It took us only three hours to drive from Zion NP to the Grand Canyon. Once at the Grand Canyon we walked around the little village they had and we to the different view points of the canyon. It was very windy in some spots but overall it was a very comfortable fall day. After we had our fill of the canyon we drove back to Zion, cooked dinner and crashed for we would be hiking Angel's Landing.
After a good nights sleep we got up on Sunday morning packed up our campsite and heading to the trail head of Angel's Landing. For those of you who don't know Angel's Landing is a very steep hike 2.5 mile hike. The hike starts off on pavements with large gains of elevation with a lot of switch backs after to get to what you think is the top you then have to finish the last half mile hiking on this steep cliff with chains. No joking matter. Rachel and I kicked this trail butt. We pretty much ran up the trail with no rest. (I don't know if it was the bacon, cheese and egg bagel sandwich that gave us our energy or the sweedish fish we ate after our bagel sandwich). I have climbed Angel's Landing 3 time already with other people but I never climbed it so fast. Rachel was just amazing going up all the switch backs and climbing with the chains. She was very nervous about the chain part of the hike and I being the good friend said I will turn back whenever she wants. We would be out on the chains and she would say "I really don't know about this" and I would stand there seeing if we would turn back and then she would take off climbing the chains up to the top. It was a windy day and there were fires in AZ so our view was a little hazy at the top but still the hike was worth it. After we climbed and hiked down Angel's Landing we then got in the car and drove back to Salt Lake City were Rachel caught her flight back to Rochester.
Rachel and I had a great time hanging out like we usually do (we have only been friends since 2nd grade).
While I was off with Rachel in Southern, UT Brad was in Northern UT/ID (right on the boarder) working/hanging out at Bear Lake. So he was invited to hang out with Rachel and I but due to work it turned out to be a girls weekend for Rachel and I.