A Snapshot and the Scoop: Sharing with Tadpoles

Whenever you backpack long enough to need to filter water, you just have to assume you'll be sharing your drinking water with something else. On our trip in the Grand Canyon Alisha and I had concrete proof that we were not the only ones using the water in the few streams we crossed . . . we were sharing it with a million tadpoles! Spring anywhere will bring the frogs and toads out of hibernation and to the water's edge to lay their eggs, and with enough time and the right conditions tadpoles hatch out and some of them grow up to be new frogs and toads. Well, every single stream that had any amount of water in it that my sister and I crossed while inside the canyon had tadpoles in it, which naturally meant we would be filtering our water in a space shared with tadpoles. We were extra careful not to suck up tadpoles into the filter, but it was fun and kind of cute to watch them wiggle around in their shallow environments. The certainly kept us entertained while we filtered!

Leave me a comment below and tell me if you ever caught tadpoles as a kid. Was it just me?

A Snapshot and The Scoop: Filtering Water

If you travel enough with me at one point or another I'm going to talk you into going on some crazy backpacking trip, and we're going to have to filter water. It's one of those chores of backpacking that is absolutely essential, but nobody wants to do it. My sister and I had to filter our water while on our backpacking adventure across the Grand Canyon, and we both learned a lot along the way. There are a multitude of different filtering systems available, but for our purposes a simple squeeze filter worked perfectly; all we had to do was fill the filter pouch up with water, attach the filter, and squeeze the clean water into our bottles and packs. We found out the hardest part of filtering was getting water into the pouch, and eventually figured out it is easier if you have running water that you can direct into the opening on the pouch instead of a pool of stationary water. The pouch, because you have to be able to squeeze it, lays flat when empty so getting water into a flat space proved difficult. We made it work in the end, and my sister became a pro at filtering water while I got the tent site ready and organized for our stay, or else packed up so we could get on our way. I'm sure that trip won't be the last time I use the filter!

Leave me a comment below and tell me if you've ever had to filter your water before. Why? Were you backpacking, or were you in a place that didn't have safe drinking water?

Kayaking with Jared

Enthusiastic. You guys know I hardly ever get to travel with Jared. On the rare occasions that he does travel with me it is usually on a trip to visit family or to meet up with family, though he did go with me to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - where he proposed! This past June he and I embarked on a nearly two week adventure where we went and saw a large part of his family in North Dakota and Minnesota, as well as my parents and siblings in Nebraska, and we also just so happened to get married while we were up there.

Anyway, one of the places we visited was the town of Bemidji, MN and a resort called Finn'n Feather, where we spent several days with his extended family celebrating his grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. The resort is located on a lake, one of the 10,000 or so in Minnesota, so of course we all took advantage of staying right on the water. Most of us fished, some of us swam out to the water toys, and a few of us took boats, kayaks, paddle boats, and stand-up paddle boards to explore the lake.

Well, this was one of the few times I could convince Jared to go exploring with me, so we strapped on life vests, grabbed a couple of paddles and kayaks, and hit the water. We paddled around the resort's shore for a bit, then decided to head across the lake and explore the opposite shore. He and I spent several hours on the water, poking around the reeds and water lilies to see whatever we could. The lake was calm and the wind wasn't bad, making it a perfect day for kayaking. We heard loons calling and saw a bald eagle soaring overhead, while closer to home dragonflies played among the grasses and we got showered in baby spiders as we pushed through the reeds along the shore.

We saw lots of little fish and a few big ones in the green-hued but incredibly clear water, and back towards the resort we saw turtles among the yellow water plants, poking their heads above the water for a breath. We headed in when we got hungry, though not without splashing each other a little bit, and Jared chasing me around threatening to flip my kayak. We found out I'm faster than him in a sprint, but he can outlast me if it came down to it... Oh, the things you learn.

Happy Birthday National Park System!

Celebrate. Can you believe the National Park System is older than any of us? It's 101 years old! America's Best Idea has a lot to celebrate, and I want to take a moment to look at my favorite national parks while I look forward to the future of the parks system. Here I've listed out my favorite national parks, in no particular order, with a little description of each park and why it is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
Who doesn't love towering mountains, tumbling waterfalls, lush evergreen forests smattered with aspen groves, A-list wildlife, and hot campfires under a cool night sky filled with stars? If you don't, you're wrong. But you don't have to take my word for it, just ask one of the million other visitors who seek out the mountains during the peak season of June through September. Why do I love this park, though? The sweeping mountain vistas are always amazing, both the main road, Trail Ridge Road, and the secondary dirt road called Fall River Road are well worth the drive, and any of the short hikes and established campgrounds in the park should be on your list to visit, but the real reason I love this park are the long hikes. There is nothing quite like summiting a mountain after gaining thousands of feet in elevation, or touching one of the few remaining glaciers in the lower 48, or passing by places to camp in the backcountry where you know you're in bear country. Yes, this place is amazing.

Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky District, UT
Grand views are the name of the game at this park, and you truly feel like you're in the sky as you stare down thousand foot cliffs to the next tier, then another thousand feet below that to the rivers. The Colorao River and the Green River cut Canyonlands into three sections, or Districts, and the Island in the Sky District is where you go if you want to see beyond the horizon. Up there you can glimpse the White Rim Road, views of the rivers, and use the plateau as a jumping point for any of the numerous trails down into the lower reaches of the park. This district of the park is all about the views for me, and if you visit at the right time you can find solitude as you perch on the edge of a cliff, watching a thunderstorm roll across the canyons below, contemplating life.

Canyonlands National Park, Needles District, UT
Yes, Canyonlands gets two spots on my list, because each District of the park is uniquely different. The Needles District is all about exploring. To really get a feel for this park you need to get out there and hike. There is only one road through a small section of the park, though a multitude of hiking trails sprout from the road. This district is significantly less visited than its sister Island in the Sky, and once you get out on the trails there are even less people. Why do I love it? You can hike for miles and get among the cliffs, arches, and spires (also known as hoodoos) and never see another person. Plus there is this amazing place called Chelser Park that defies words. You just have to go there.

Capitol Reef National Park, UT
Of the Big Five national parks in Utah, Capitol Reef is the least visited. I'm not sure why; maybe it is the remoteness, the drive along backcountry highways, or visitors don't see soaring cliffs and awe-inspiring views right from the road, at least none that can match other parks in the area. Capitol Reef has its own charm, but you have to get off the road to find it. The park protects a small oasis in the desert, a lush canyon threaded through by the Fremont River, that at one point saw a small culture of ancient Fremont Indians and at another point more recently was home to pioneers who planted orchards and farmed the land to make a living. The Gifford House still stands as a museum and monument to the mormon poineers, selling ice cream and homemade pies to hungry visitors looking for relief from the desert heat. Get out on a trail or hit up the scenic drive, though, and you get transported away from the green canyon bottom by the little river and find yourself surrounded by the unforgiving desert. This is the part I live for. Here you find the soaring cliffs splashed with colors ranging from tan to white to red to green and more. Here, out away from the main road, you find the little potholes embedded in sandstone, filled to the rim with tiny life. Here is the real magic of The Reef.

Zion National Park, UT
Zion is a world away from what most people will ever see in their lifetimes. If you think the pictures of thousand-foot cliffs, taken either from the top or the bottom of said cliffs, is awe-inspiring, you should try actually being there taking the picture. Zion National Park encompasses a large region of the southwest corner of Utah, but the main draw, and the most visited part of the park, is Zion Canyon. The canyon, carved by the small but mighty Virgin River, narrows the further upstream you travel, to the point where you can look up and your view is restricted to the patch of sky right above you thanks to the rusty red cliffs that rise up, sheer, more than a thousand feet into the air. Take a hike, usually a strenuous one, from the bottom of the canyon to any point up above the canyon floor and you will feel like you're on top of the world. Until you look up and realize you can go even higher. Along with all of the other parks on this list, I have visited this park multiple times, and each time I find something else to love. I visited in winter once, and fell in love with the silence that accompanies a soft snowfall. I visited more recently in May of this year and discovered even on the most popular hiking trails there is something special about overcoming your own mental barriers and making a climb that you thought impossible. For some of the most amazing hikes in the states, visit Zion.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, CO
Do you like playing in the sand? The kid in everybody has a chance to stretch their legs at this popular National Park, where the nation's tallest sand dunes are surrounded by mountains whos peaks reach more than fourteen thousand feet above sea level. You can sand-surf and sled down the golden dunes, and when you need to cool off you can walk off the dunes to splash in Medano Creek, one of the two life-giving streams fed by meltwater in the mountains high above that surround the dune field. Stay until evening, though, when most of the visitors are back at their campsites or hotels, take a hike out onto the dune field at night, and a whole new world opens up around you. I like the dunes best at dawn and dusk, while everybody else is off the dunes and before the sand heats up to a burning point. Sunsets and sunrises paint the dunes with splashes of color and shadow, and on clear nights the skies are so bright you can see your shadow on the monotone sand. Out in the preserve section of the park elk and bears share space with coyotes, antelope, and mule deer, and only one primitive road and a small handful of hiking trails provide humans a glimpse into their world.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN/NC
Lush green mountains rolling away into the distance, the constant sound of water dripping, trickling, rushing, roaring, life everywhere you look, from little salamanders under the leaf litter to birds chirping in the trees above your head, the Smoky Mountains are something unique. I usually avoid crowds, but even the most visited national park in the country has a few places where you can find peace and quiet, if you know when and where to go. I found plenty of it on my trip there in the off-season, when summer vacations were over and everybody went back to school and work. Do you want to be practically guaranteed to see an american black bear? Visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where they have one of the highest population densities of bears in the eastern US. I loved hiking in this park, where it was constantly wet and humid and vibrating with life. Also, I love bears and I got excited every time I saw one.

Surprise! Most of my favorite parks are in Colorado and Utah. You're not really surprised, huh? Also no surprise, my favorite parks are located in the mountains or the desert. I do have a goal to visit all of the 415+ national park/monument units (and I've hit a fair few) so I think my opinion of the best national parks is based on as much of a scientific process as possible, but I can't deny the way the desert and mountains call to me, and how the desert always sits right next to a mountain range. Here's my thought though: I want to know what your favorite park is, and why. If I haven't been there, I would love to know what makes it amazing. If I have been there, convince me why your park should be on my list of favorites. I look forward to rewriting my list this time next year.

A Snapshot and The Scoop: Hot Pink

My sister's and my trek through the Grand Canyon was full of unexpected lessons and surprising sights, but one of the ones I was most delighted about was the abundance of cacti. You all know I love cacti, and I especially love the different colors cacti can have. Inside the canyon we found purple cacti, light green cacti, dark green cacti, little cacti that looked like ropes, cacti that looked more like a tree or shrub, and then we found cacti with hot pink spines. This picture doesn't do them justice at all. The spines were the brightest, hottest pink I've ever seen! I've got a cactus similar to this one at home, but its barbs are red, not the pretty pink like this. We saw them all over the place, and I couldn't help but notice them even in the haze of our own weariness. Flowers are great and all, but this girl loves cacti!

Leave me a comment below and tell me about the coolest cacti you've seen. Do you know what it's called? I want to know!

A Snapshot and The Scoop: Rafting the Grand Canyon

I know it's hard to see in this picture, but there are two rafts on the Colorado River! On our second day in the Grand Canyon my sister and I finally got an overlook of the river, still more than a thousand feet below us, and we were treated to a glimpse of a couple of river runners down on the river. I absolutely love white water rafting, and rafting the Colorado River has always been a dream of mine. Some day I'm going to save up enough to take a week-long rafting trip along the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. It's one of my bucket-list items!

Leave me a comment below and tell me if you'd be interested in rafting with me! Let's start planning!

An Ode to the Painted Desert

Dazzled. I know what you're thinking: Another desert post?? Guys, I can't help it. The desert calls to me, it fascinates me, it makes my heart happy in a way nowhere else does. And it is different anywhere you go. You can have the soaring red and white cliffs of southern Utah, the golden sand dunes of central Colorado, the parched scrub-brush lands of Wyoming, and many other variations of desert, which is only a broad definition of a place that doesn't get a lot of moisture. And, of course, there's the Painted Desert.

The Painted Desert, a vast region stretching through central Arizona, is partially protected in various national parks, monuments, and state parks, such as Petrified Forest National Park and Wupatki National Monument. In these parks are prime examples of the exposed clay and sand that give the Painted Desert its name. Blues and purples in colors that seem to be from an artist's brush sweep across your field of vision, until you crest the next bluff and look down on mesas banded with corals and pinks. Deep burgundy hills give way to the green of oxidized copper, while whites and blacks wash through everything.

It's a toss up for me, whether I prefer to see the desert from among the hills and dunes or from above. Up high, on a bluff or plateau, you can see how the desert expands around you, the colors blending in to each other, bleeding from one shade to the next. Among the hills, though, along the canyon bottoms and the washes, you get the banding of the colors, the lines that separate one color from the next, and each individual grain has a unique shade to it. Oh, and the light! How the light plays on the desert can change its mood and colors from dawn until dusk. One hour you can have glowing golden walls, the next they are a flat orangish-tan, and then again they could be streaked dark with the moisture from a rare desert shower. You just can't get that anywhere else.

So yes, this is *another* desert post. And no, I'm not going to apologize for it. There's plenty more where that came from.

A Snapshot and The Scoop: Unfiltered Water

Ok, everybody knows this: don't drink unfiltered water, especially when you're in the backcountry and you can't get help if you become sick. Alisha and I were on our second day of backpacking in the Grand Canyon when we passed this little waterfall in Cottonwood Canyon. Pretty, right? Cottonwood is one of the few permanent water sources inside the canyon. Anyway, as we were passing this place by two girls, who had also backpacked in the area the night before, came up to the waterfall. I assumed they were taking in the view as well, until I watched one of them dip her toothbrush into the trickle of water, put it in her mouth, and begin to brush her teeth. I'm pretty sure I gasped out loud. Now, a tiny bit of water on a toothbrush that you're most likely not going to swallow probably isn't going to make you sick, but why risk it? All it takes is one pathogen, one virus or bacteria, to make a trip miserable. Maybe I'm being overly critical or whatever, but I couldn't believe she had done that. Alisha and I always made sure we only drank filtered water, used filtered water for person hygiene, and we even filtered water before we used it to cook our meals, though boiling it for long enough would have served the same purpose.

Leave me a comment and tell me if I'm being harsh. Too cautious? Would you take the risk?

A Snapshot and The Scoop: Ruins in Cottonwood

Can you see them? There are two little granaries in this photo, both at about 1/3 of the picture from the left and right sides, in the center. Alisha and I were hiking out of Cottonwood Canyon on our second day of our Grand Canyon Adventure when we noticed the ruins of two granaries on a shelf above the canyon bottom opposite us. We debated a little bit about backtracking and walking down the canyon to check them out, but ultimately decided they were best viewed from a distance. I haven't been able to find any information about them, though if Lisha and I spotted them I'm sure someone else has. It was a neat little piece of history right there in front of us when we weren't looking for it!

Leave me a comment below and tell me about a time you found something interesting, historical or not, that you weren't looking for.

A Forest of Stone

Fascinated. On our last full day of exploring the desert back in May my sister and I had the chance to get ourselves to Petrified Forest National Park. Now, I say "had the chance" for a reason. My sister and I have both tried twice to see Petrified Forest in the past and have both been thwarted by weather. The first time we tried we were with our family on our first two-week long summer vacation where we loaded up in my dad's truck, towed our pop-up camper behind us, and set off for the desert southwest. It was my first time seeing the desert, and it was that trip that sparked my love for it. I can't even count how many times I've been back since that first trip in the early 2000's. That first trip we had stopped at Petrified Forest National Park and I can't remember much about it, other than the storm. We got caught in one of the monsoon rains that crash across the desert in high summer, dumping buckets of rain accompanied by flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. I don't remember anything about the park other than that storm, trying to take shelter from it under a metal picnic pavillion with my dad, while Mom, Lisha, and little Austin ran for the car.

Alisha and Austin tried to visit the park a couple summers ago and ran into the monsoon rains yet again, cutting their stay in the park short because it wasn't safe to be outside. You are literally the tallest thing around. I tried to go myself on my desert adventure during the winter of 2016, and had made it to the park entrance before I was stopped short and turned back; a blizzard was tearing across the park from north to south, and it was headed straight for me. The rangers had closed the gates to the park and told me it was best if I found a place to stay put for a couple days while the storm blew itself out. My sister and I finally had good weather as we drove through Arizona on our way home from our Grand Canyon Adventure, and we had no reason not to stop. 

Petrified Forest National Park preserves an ancient forest of giant trees that fell, got buried, and instead of rotting over time filled with minerals that took on the shape of wood. The logs in the pictures of this post are all rocks, not wood. Most of them are very well preserved, right down to the details of the tree-rings, but filled with colors more brilliant than any living wood. Petrified Wood is one of the most colorful rocks in the world, and that plus the fact that it is wood turned in to rock makes it a high target for collection. Collecting and removing petrified wood from within park boundaries is highly illegal, but that doesn't stop people from trying, unfortunatley. There are signs everywhere and volunteers and rangers at checkpoints to make sure visitors leave the rocks where they belong. If everybody who visits the park took a piece of rock home with them there would be none left for future visitors to enjoy. 

Alisha and I spent several hours in the park, walking the shorter trails on feet that were still healing from our trek across the Grand Canyon and taking in the views of the desert littered with chucks of petrified wood. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the temperature at the end of May was not yet unbearable, making for a perfect afternoon to take in the beauty that surrounded us. No storms in sight. 

A Snapshot and The Scoop: When Does Trash Become History?

Did you know there are abandoned mines in the Grand Canyon? Actually it's not that uncommon for parks in the desert southwest to have a few abandoned mines located within their borders. The mine we stumbled across in the Grand Canyon just so happened to be a uranium mine... there were signs up all over the place cautioning against going further in a particular direction due to radiation. At what I assume was a safe distance from the mine we came across piles of old and rusted cans. Most seemed like food or drink cans but we also saw old fuel canisters and some other unidentifiable things, and it got me thinking: when does trash become historical artifacts? At what point does somebody go "no, we can't pick up that litter any more, it's part of history"? I mean clearly the metal cans above were thrown aside once they had served their purpose, and nobody back when the mine was in operation thought any more about them, but why should we care?

Leave me a comment below and tell me your views on this. Is stuff like this history? Or trash?

A Snapshot and The Scoop: After the Wedding

There hasn't been much about Jared's and my relationship that has been traditional, and the day following our wedding at the beginning of July was true to form. Where most people would either be packing for their honeymoon, on their way to their honeymoon, or already at their honeymoon location, Jared and I spent the day with our family at the local Lincoln Children's Zoo. Go figure, right, Jared and I go to a zoo? What?? Who are we? But really though, I couldn't wait to show my new husband where I began my career with animals, and I wanted to share that love and passion with our three year old niece, Charlotte. Jared's parents, siblings, and my mom tagged along with us as we wandered around the small zoo, and I'm pretty sure I bored everybody by reminiscing about the years I spent volunteering there. I know I had tons of fun seeing the animals and buildings I remember from my middle and highschool years, and was thrilled with the expansions the zoo has already made, as well as the ones in the works. I can't wait to go back there again after the additions are finished!

Leave me a comment below and tell me what you did the day after your wedding? Was it something that made you happy? That's all that matters!

The Wedding

Enamored. Rain on your wedding day is good luck, right? I sure hope so, because the day Jared and I decided to get married roared into wakefulness with a constant roll of thunder and pounding rain. I joined my dad on the front porch of my parent's house to watch the storm howl around us while Jared slept, oblivious to it all, in the guest bedroom. We had a busy day ahead of us and our plans were not about to be spoiled by a little bit of rain, so Dad and I went in and had breakfast before we started our day.

Jared and I were at the tail-end of a nearly two week vacation where we made a giant circuit around the middle of the country, starting at home in Texas and making it to within an hour or two of the Canadian border. Our goal was to visit as much of Jared's family as possible in North Dakota and Minnesota and also hit up my parents and siblings on the way to and from the northern part of the country. Lucky for us, Nebraska was a perfect halfway point for our travels, and that knowledge helped us initially decide where we wanted to be married after we got engaged at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter; it was a good middle ground for us and family in the south and for other family in the north.

Now, I'm not going to lie, I'd been trying to convince Jared to elope for almost a year. I didn't feel like a big wedding with all the strappings was really us, and I wanted to actually enjoy our wedding day instead of being on a tight schedule with a hundred other people to worry about. We had plenty of reasons to do it the "right" way, not least of which was to get all of our family and friends together and try to convey to them how much they mean to both of us, but we were kind of at a stalemate regarding what, exactly, we were going to do. We'd already announced we wanted to get married on June 23, 2018, we had already established our wedding party, my sister and I had started looking at places to hold the reception, and we had a little bit of money set aside for our big day. So when I got back from my Grand Canyon Adventure at the end of May and Jared said "lets get married" I shot back that we already were. And then he said "No, I mean right now."

He meant it too. Both of us were tired of waiting, we didn't want to plan a big wedding (we'd both been stalling when it came to wedding planning and decision making) and as far as we were concerned the wedding was just a formality in our relationship. After making sure he was really, truly serious, that this is what he wanted and not just because I wanted it, that we were making this decision together, we got the ball rolling. We talked to our families and decided to tuck our wedding in at the end of our travels at the beginning of July, giving us just over a month to get what we needed squared away. We didn't need much: both of our immediate families agreed to meet in Lincoln, Nebraska on July 2, we needed a place for family and us to stay, we wanted to wear something semi-formal but nothing like a big white dress and a tux, and we needed to make sure we had the proper paperwork to make our marriage legal. A quick search on the internet got us the marriage license forms to fill out and told us where to go to file them in Nebraska, I found my wedding dress in a single day after trying on about thirty different dresses, Jared found his shirt and slacks in about an hour at the same time I found the shoes I wanted to wear, a long-time friend helped us out with hotel rooms for Jared's family and us on our wedding night, and Renee, Jared's mom, agreed to officiate for us. We were set. We were really doing this!

And then we travelled. We drove for 900 hours (according to Jared) and were able to celebrate our marriage with family that likely wouldn't have been able to come to us if we had stuck with the original plan. We got everybody together and had one big week-long celebration of love and laughter and family. At the end of our travels in the northern states Jared's parents, siblings, and niece followed us down to Lincoln and we waited impatiently for the evening of July 2 to arrive.

Even the storm couldn't dampen the excitement. Us girls took the morning to have brunch and mimosas at my sister's place then headed to the nail salon to be pampered. Jared and I met with his family for lunch and to discuss the details of our ceremony with Renee, then he and I parted ways for the afternoon so we could get ready, he with his family and I with mine. Pretty soon it was 5:30pm and my parents and I were loaded up and on our way to Sunken Gardens, the place where my parents got married 28 years ago and the place where Jared and I were soon to become husband and wife.

We got there just before Jared and his family and took the time to find a spot and take some family pictures. They arrived, and right at six o'clock we began. I stood with my family and Jared stood with his, and at Renee's cue my dad placed my hand in Jared's. From that point on I had eyes for nobody but the man who was standing in front of me, holding my hands with both of his, soon to become mine. I have to be honest and tell you I don't remember much of what Renee said. We have it on video and when I rewatch our ceremony I'm sure I will recall her words, but all I can remember right now is the surge of pure joy and contentment that overpowered me and drowned out everything but the feeling of my hands in Jared's and the look in his eyes as we vowed to choose each other for the rest of our lives. 

As Renee pronounced us Husband and Wife and we kissed for the first time as a married couple our families burst into applause and it was all I could do not to throw myself into Jared's arms and never let him go. Instead, we broke apart and turned to greet our families, hugging everybody and thanking them over and over again for being there for us, for joining us, and for helping us pull off a wedding with a month's notice. The ceremony, thankfully, hadn't lasted very long. Being me and thinking more about the best lighting for pictures and video I picked the brightest spot in the gardens. The rain from the morning had given way to a beautiful day, bright and sunny, but also hot and humid. I hadn't considered the fact that all of us were in dress clothes, stuffy on any occasion but baking in the heat and humidity. By the time the ceremony was over we were all dying to find some shade, grab a cool drink of water, and otherwise get out of the evening sun. 

After our hugs and greetings everybody scattered into the shade while Jared and I took five minutes to take a few pictures together before coming back to the group to get the marriage license signed by Renee, my sister, and Jared's brother. We had planned on dinner together as a family before everybody turned in for the night and one by one we headed to our cars to find a restaurant downtown. Jared took my hand as we walked toward the car. "Husband." I smirked. "Wife." He grinned back, and bent down to kiss me. It felt right.

A Snapshot and The Scoop: First Look

When you think of the desert in late spring/early summer you usually think of blistering heat and no water. Alisha and I found the exact opposite on our trip to the Grand Canyon this May, and we were shocked at our first night in the National Park. It snowed. Seriously. Like, the little frozen white flakes that fall from the sky. We hadn't even been in the park for a minute before white flecks started covering the windsheild of the car, and when we got to the first overlook, our first view of the canyon, and got out while wearing the shorts and tank tops that had gotten us through our hike in Zion National Park that morning we both started shivering immediately. With the temperature around freezing and the windchill even colder, neither of us were prepared for the winter-like conditions we encountered on the rim. We didn't linger long at the first overlook, just long enough to snap a few pictures of the Grand Canyon on our first night in the park and see the river so many thousands of feet below us, before we all but ran back to the car and cranked the heat up. Temperatures between the rim and the inner canyon can differ as much as twenty degrees, and we knew that we would be warmer once we got into the canyon on our four day backpacking trip. I don't know about Alisha, but I couldn't wait for the heat.

Leave me a comment below and tell me about a time you experienced weather you weren't prepared for. Where were you? What happened?