Sisters Trip Round 3!

Han and I have this tradition now that we go on a fun trip once a year, just the two of us. This started when we went to Southern Cali in November of 2017. Next we road tripped out west to a bunch of places like Custer State Park, Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Glacier National Park.

This time we explored Northern Arizona and Southern Utah! Since I live in Arizona now, I thought it would be fun to explore some of my new state and go into Utah since it was so close. Hannah flew in on a Wednesday night then came to work with me to meet the kids I nanny for on Thursday. That night we got dinner with our friends and prepared for our little road trip north.

We left around 7 or so, drove through Flagstaff and up to our first destination in Page, Arizona, Horseshoe Bend. Before that though, we stopped at a jewelry stand that was literally in the middle of no where and bought some cute bracelets made by the people who live there. Then I put my drone up to get some shots!

Anyways, I've been to Horseshoe Bend before with Josh and felt like Han NEEDED to see it, especially since it was on our way to our final destination. WOW. I seriously can't believe how beautiful Horseshoe Bend is. It's only a 4 hour drive from where I live in Scottsdale and is a must see if you're out here!

Next we drove past Lake Powell (a place on my bucket list), and made it to Zion National Park. This has been a dream of mine to visit this park and it did not disappoint. We went straight to our campsite since it was getting kind of late. We wanted to make sure we got our site set up before dark. After getting the tent up and everything in order, we played some Yahtzee, ate cheese and crackers for dinner, and made a fire. In between some of these things we explored the campgrounds. We found a beautiful river next to us, a minute walk from our site. WOW. This was also so beautiful, especially with the huge mountains in the background. I couldn't get over the views, even from inside out tent!

That night there were SO MANY stars in the sky to look at. But it was the worse night of sleep ever. It was calm and quiet when we went to bed, but got extremely windy throughout the entire night. Our tent kept collapsing on two sides and it was so loud with parts of the tent flapping. Thankfully our tent never came unstacked.

There's something amazing about waking up after sleeping in a tent in a national park. First thing I saw when I got out of the tent were deer, a baby and her/his mama at the campsite across from us. Then I took a stroll down to the river while Hannah was still sleeping, and I sat on the rocks to admire how awesome this place was (and of course take pictures).

I then woke Han up because we had exploring to do!! There was a trail that started right in our campground called Pa'rus Trail. This was a super easy walk and paved, but awesome views and cool bridges. We saw a lot of lizards and a blue heron on our 2 miles walk. There was a small water fall with teal blue water. I LOVE the sound of waterfalls! As I'm sure everyone else does, too!

This photo is one of my favorites from our trip! I feel like it captures our view that we had most of the time.

Here are some more pictures from the Pa'rus Trail.

After this we refueled at our site and walked to the visitors center to grab some souvenirs (I collect stickers from everywhere I go, so I can put them on my yeti cooler). Then we took a bus to Emerald Lower Pools Trail where we saw another waterfall. This one was much taller. Part of the trail was underneath the waterfall, so it got us just a little bit wet and boy did that feel good in 98 degree weather.

We wished we could have done The Narrows trail where you walk through water basically the whole time. But Hannah cut her foot by stepping on a glass and breaking it. It was pretty bad so we didn't want to worry about it getting infected with dirty water. Next time!!

After heading back to the campground, we decided not to stay another night and drive back to Page where we got a hotel room so we could get a good nights sleep and shower.

The next day we drove to Grand Canyon National Park! It wasn't what I expected at all. It was more green, less red rock than I thought. The canyon itself was AMAZING. It looked fake! There were 38 mph gusts of wind, so it was scary when we wanted to get that "instagram shot" by sitting on a rock hanging over the edge, but so worth it. We didn't stay here too long, but so glad we stopped to check it out.

Last part of our trip was just a drive from Flagstaff through Sedona. It is honestly the most beautiful drive I've ever been on. It was like 30-45 minutes out of the way, but I wanted to show Han and she said that was her favorite part of the trip!

Of course nothing is ever boring with Han, so as soon as we got back in Scottsdale, we went straight to get her nose pierced. It looks so good! She left the next morning (we had to leave at 4:30 am to get her to the airport) and that was the end of our mini sisters trip for the 3rd year in a row.

Where to next!!?? We already have some ideas ;)