As a follow-up to the Half Dome hike that Julie and I had accomplished just a month before this trip, we had also planned and executed on the Zion Narrows hike to scratch that off the bucket list…

The drive proceeded as normal as the daylight continued and the summer heat started beating down with increasing intensity. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something running…

This was a week-and-a-half of touring what I called the Grand Circle. This circle consisted of the natural attractions that covered Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, especially the National Parks since there were so many of them in this vast expanse of the desert southwest…

But just as we thought we could cruise effortlessly, we were stopped in our tracks by a deep-looking pool with a little waterfall off to the side of a seemingly impassable wall behind it…