My family has made a tradition of taking a vacation each year that one of us graduates high school. Nick’s was Colorado, Patrick’s was Zion, and mine was Sedona. My sister Katie is the last that will graduate, but she doesn’t share quite as much of a love of hiking as the rest of us. That being said, I’m sure we will still go somewhere cool when the time comes.

My trip this past summer was supposed to be to Yosemite National Park in California, but due to fear of high COVID restrictions in California, we switched it to Sedona. This did not disappoint whatsoever, but I still have a visit to Yosemite on my bucket list, so that’s what I’m going to write about today.

Yosemite features many natural beauties such as mountains, waterfalls, and just a vast wilderness. Just looking at pictures is incredible and I definitely want to go here one day. There are so many hiking trails that offer a variety of different views. Whether you want an easy hike that leads to a waterfall or an all day hike to the top of a mountain, Yosemite has something to offer.

One of the main attractions of Yosemite is the Half Dome hike, which is something that my family has been looking into for a long time. This is yet another major excursion that is a 10-12 hour commitment, and many camp overnight in order to complete. Once you complete the long hike up to the base of half dome, you start the ascent up the cables to the top of the dome pictured below. You usually need gloves to avoid hurting your hands, and some people feel safer securing a harness to the cables. The view from the top is said to be incredible, and when you look at it from the bottom, you can see the massive cliff you were just standing next to.

While Yosemite offers many hikes of varying difficulties, it is also a rock climber’s paradise. I personally do not have the skillset required to complete these climbs, but it would be amazing to watch people ascend these cliffs that are literally thousands of feet tall. I have watched documentaries about a few rock climbers completing the first ascent of certain cliffs such as the Dawn Wall of El Capitan, which happens to be in Yosemite. I think it is fascinating to see these people so high up on a cliff that they look the size of a mouse. It really shows the truly massive scale of Yosemite and these cliffs.

Yosemite seems like an amazing destination that has so much to offer, from lakes and waterfalls to towering cliffs, there is something for everyone to enjoy. I hope to be able to visit one day, and who knows, if I do, maybe I’ll write a blog post about it.

Citations:

“Half Dome Day Hike.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 10 Apr. 2021, www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/halfdome.htm.

Law, Lana. “10 Top-Rated Hikes in Yosemite National Park: Planetware.” PlanetWare.com, 8 June 2020, www.planetware.com/california/top-rated-hikes-in-yosemite-national-park-us-ca-328.htm.

Zion National Park in Utah is well known as one of the most scenic places in the country. The towering cliffs are incredible on their own, and when you add the signature red color of the rock, the result is stunning.

(Excuse the quality of the pictures, uploading them to the site made them a bit blurry)

I had the privilege of visiting this amazing place, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. We prepared for our adventure all year. Searching the best hikes in the park, making sure to research the lesser known, but still amazing areas, and even buying equipment and learning how to rappel. This trip was something that we were looking forward to the entire year, and my family was already bonding in the process of preparing for this experience.

When we got there, I was amazed by the beauty of the park. If you ever have the chance to go to Zion, even just to drive through, I highly recommend. The views are amazing and the towering cliffs really make your problems feel smaller. We did so many of the iconic hikes like Angel’s Landing, visited Bryce Canyon, and even repelled through a slot canyon, but one of the highlights of the trip was an all day 9 mile hike we went on through a river to a place called the Subway.

     Angel’s Landing:                                                                         Bryce Canyon:

The Subway hike was quite the endeavor, hiking down into a canyon, and then spending all day hiking in a river. We had many obstacles to overcome, including purifying water and carrying food. There were some unexpected ones too like going to the wrong starting spot (my mom was freaking out), and even broken shoes (my fate unfortunately). Through this long, hard hike however, we made some of the best memories of the trip.

Subway:

Being stuck down in a canyon for 10 hours straight with your family is actually one of the best ways to make unforgettable memories. We may have had some issues, but we went through them together, and came out of it with an amazing experience. Any time we may have felt tired or overwhelmed on the hike, we could just look up and see the beauty surrounding us, and it was all 100% worth it.

This trip to Zion truly locked in my love of hiking and nature, and I am so glad I got to experience it with my family.

My most recent National Park-like trip I went on was to Sedona Arizona. This was yet another beautiful destination and an amazing adventure. While we didn’t get to experience all of the events we had planned due to some wild fire complications, it was a great opportunity for us to come up with alternate plans as a family and compromise to make the best of the trip.

If you ever have the chance to go to Sedona or the surrounding areas, I highly recommend. It is a beautiful town surrounded by stunning red rock mountains. It is a stunning dessert destination with so many hiking and sight seeing places to explore.

Thank you so much for reading about my adventures! I am so excited to transition to destinations I have not had the chance to visit yet and can’t wait to share all of these amazing National Parks with you!

Hi everyone! I have chosen to go with the National Parks blog topic, and I am excited to get started by telling you a little bit about my background. As I said in my first post, I come from a family who loves hiking and travel, and I am always looking for a new adventure. This developed into a love of National Parks, and an interest in learning more about all of the opportunities for adventure that are out there.

When I was 10 years old, my family took a trip to Michigan to Lake Superior. We stayed in a cabin, went on lots of hikes, and bonded as a family. While this was not a trip to an actual National Park, it began a tradition of going on an adventure related vacation every other summer for the next 8 years. This trip showed us how beneficial it can be to get out of your day to day life and truly enjoy what nature has to offer. We went on one more trip on the East coast, to Acadia National Park in Maine before venturing out West to Colorado.

Where my love for adventure truly started was on this trip to Colorado.

We did all of the adventure related activities you could think of.

From Hiking,                                               To White Water Rafting,

To swinging over a 1,200 foot deep canyon,

We did it all.

(Here’s a link to the Royal Gorge Website and a video if you wanna check it out.)

These adventures were amazing, fun, and thrilling, but the best parts of the trip were the bonds we created and the memories that will last forever. If you look closely at the rafting picture, you can see that every single one of us has a huge smile on our faces. This is not just because we are doing something thrilling, it is because of the amazing experiences we have had throughout our trip that brought us together and opened our eyes to the beauty of our country and the world.

I know thrill isn’t for everyone, but that is only a fraction of the joy national parks offer. The natural beauty is astounding. There is beauty in the simple things like a stream running through the woods, or a mountain in the distance if you stop and take a minute to really look. It can be truly amazing to see the vastness of nature from the top of a mountain, and it can help you see things from a different perspective. Experiencing this with other people is a great way to create unique memories that will connect you for the rest of your lives.

That being said, there is beauty everywhere, and I encourage you to go out this week and see the beauty of nature on our campus. There is so much to see if you just take a moment to look on your way to class. Next week I am going to talk about my next two trips out West, and then I will start diving into the research of new parks to explore. I encourage you to look into a trip out West if you ever have the chance, they have been some of the best experiences of my life!