Southern Utah where “life has been elevated.”
Kanab, Utah is known to be hiker’s paradise. There are Zion and Bryce national parks, both within 1 hr driving distance. There are various unique canyons, such as the Wave (another blog that we already posted), Antelope Canyon, Peakkaboo Red Canyon, and many others. There are also wilderness trails where roads can be as muddy as you can imagine but adventurous as you can explore their secrets. So many adventures and so much beauty are easily found around us. Our life has definitely been “elevated!”
Antelope Canyon has lower and upper canyons. We visited the lower canyons around mid-afternoon per another hiker’s advice. It was not as grand as some national parks that we visited but it was full of soft curves and ornate lines, as if you were walking within a Dali painting. The lighting that reflected throughout the canyon was so colorful and exotic. Every corner we turned, we saw another beautiful hew of light reflecting against the wall with different ripples and waves. All of the formations were created by water over thousands of years. The artistic touch by nature was quite delicate and soft as if a man who felt in love with a woman is caressing his lover so dearly. How lovely this canyon was!
We had one of the most memorable Christmas days! We had a special Christmas eve mass. It was extra special because we got to sing the same Gloria music that we had chosen for our wedding.
Snow flakes were falling and continued until the day of Christmas. Soo-Jin said “Snowman time!” After making Mr. ugly snowman (Soo-Jin wished it was little prettier), and having lovely lunch by chef Sunil, we headed to Zion National Park. The drive was absolutely gorgeous with snow touched mountains and canyons covered in fresh powder. We felt as if we were in the middle of Switzerland where so much snow had fallen on pine trees that they were covered by sparkling white cotton candy!
We drove around the park first and went on to hike Emerald pool trail. We were awed and felt so blessed to be in the middle of Zion winter wonderland where it seemed Tinkerbell had waved her wand to sprinkle dust upon the canyon floor. The end of trail was highlighted with a waterfall that was about 300 feet. Snow, waterfall, red rocks, and more snow, we couldn’t have asked a better way to spend Christmas!
2016 was quite special for us – we got married, left Chicago, and got on the road! We were excited to begin 2017 with more love and adventure at Bryce National Park. It was actually our second time visiting Bryce. The first time, we couldn’t even got on a trail as the visibility was so poor with blizzard conditions and a full whiteout. As we began the first day of the year, we went back for a second encounter. It was different from Zion in that Bryce was bigger and speckled with pink, red, orange, and yellow hoodoos. It was as scenic as Zion, but with completely different formations and textures . We spent the entire afternoon, hiking the sunset, Navajo loop, garden, and sunrise trails. We felt the high altitude of shy of 9,000 feet but we wished we could spend more time to explore back country trails.
Happy New Year, 2017, everyone!
SooJin & Sunil 