The Adventure's of April - Day 4

We were on the road around 7:30 am Thursday morning. Driving through the rest of Utah was so beautiful. I had no idea there were so many mountains all throughout the state! I guess for some reason when I thought of Utah, I thought of desert and arches in the middle of nowhere... haha  

This mountain view was what we could see from the parking lot of our hotel.

After a couple hours we reached the northern tip of the Zion National Park, the Kolob Canyons.

There was a 5 mile loop throughout the canyon that we were able to drive through.

Aren't we just cute ;) 

Zoom in on this picture and see what the points of the canyon are called and how high they are.

 After leaving the Kolob Canyons we had to go back out on the Interstate and drive around to the southern entrance to Zion. 

Once we reached Zion National Park, we walked around the visitors center for a few minutes and then hitched a ride on a Zion shuttle bus, which drives all through the canyons and stops at all the major spots in the park and you can get off and hike, walk, and see all the sites the park has to offer. 

Riding on the shuttle bus.

The Virgin River forks off and goes all throughout the park. 

The trees were such a bright green it was amazing seeing the deep color contrast.

There were tons of these Western Skinks running all around on the rocks and grass.

The first place we got off the shuttle bus was to hike up to the Emerald pools towards the middle of the park. 

This was just too goofy to pass up posting ;p 

Lower emerald pool

The water was just barely flowing over the cliff, so the pools were pretty low too.

 After we hiked back from the emerald pools, we got back on a shuttle and went to the last stop in the park. 

This squirrel was running around begging everyone for food. It was pretty cute!

These canyon walls were massive.

This part of the river was so beautiful. The water was absolutely freezing though!

We wanted to be able to hike some in the Narrows, but the sun was already starting to go down, and the water was so cold we couldn't really stand it. If we had some waiters and waterproof shoes, it would have been much better... So that was kind of a bummer, but we really hope to get back there someday soon when we have more time and can do more lengthy hikes and so forth. 

So once we finally got out of Zion National Park, we pretty much immediately drove into the Virgin River Canyon. 

It was so pretty. 

We then drove through some of Arizona before reaching the boarders of Nevada. 

It was crazy how quickly the scenery started to change. Palm trees, instead of pine, and sand instead of clay. It was pretty amazing!! 

We drove through Las Vegas right as the sun went down. 

Even though Las Vegas isn't the best place in the world, it was beautiful to drive through at night. The lights just stretched on and on and on, it was breathtaking to me, as someone who loves city lights at night. I tried to take some photos while driving through the city but most of them turned out pretty bad, as you can imagine, ;p 

We drove a few more hours through both Nevada and Arizona, before reaching our destination here in Kingman. We have had a terrific time so far here with a large portion of the Braught family. It's been fun getting to meet Nathan's extended family. I think it's starting to sink in more that I really am married and have a whole new extra family to love and spend time with. 

I will be sure to post some pictures in the next day or two, of what we have been up to so far while we have been here. 

Thanks so much for all taking the time to read these lengthy posts and look at these photos. It has been really fun hearing all your feedback!