Conquering the Southwest

A Southwest Road Trip Photo Journal

To end our summer on an adventurous note, we roadtripped 750 miles from San Francisco to Zion National Park in Utah. This was one of the longest roadtrips I have ever been on and it was definitely one to remember! One reason being that the AC in my car had gone out only days before, and we managed to do the whole trip in 90-100 degree weather with just the windows and little, battery run fans. But also because the company was the best and I got to see landscapes I have never seen before. Highly recommend!

1st Stop: Vegas

We decided to stop since we had been driving 9 hours and spent the night in Vegas. About 40 miles before we reached it, we got a flat tire and were lucky enough to find a tire shop that was open. It was the only one for 30 miles each way, so thank goodness we found it! After that little hiccup, we still managed to make it as the sun was going down to one of my favorite places, Seven Magic Mountains.

Lost City Museum

On our way through Nevada we passed a sign that said “Lost City Museum”, I convinced everyone to check it out and it turned out to be way further than we thought but I thought it was worth it, I’m a Museum Studies major though so I may be biased whoops. It was a small museum in the middle of nowhere, made of adobe, that focused on the artifacts recovered from local prehistoric archaeological sites, my favorite being the Native American, Anasazi.

Zion National Park: Angels Landing

We did not come prepared for the hiking but the views!! Incredible!!

Zion National Park: The Narrows

This hike was different than anything I’ve done before. We were in between giant rock formations and hiking in and out of water waist high.

Sand Hollow

It was sooo hot that we decided to take a break from hiking and get in some water. We rented jetskis, jumped off rocks and icing on the cake: me and my sister actually ran into old family friends that we used to live in Kansas with over 10 years ago!! So that night we went over to where they were staying to have dinner, play board games and catch up before they drove back to Kansas the next morning. Crazy!! I love being reminded of how small the world is!

Back Home:

On our way back home, passing through Arizona, we found the cutest little waterfall swimming hole. I honestly have no idea how we found it but it was a hidden gem! I ran out of film unfortunately so not many pictures of it.