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Girls Trip to Joshua Tree

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Week two in southern California brought me to Joshua Tree. My sister-in-law had the idea to spend the night in Palm Springs and then explore Joshua Tree with her family girl-gang, aka her sister and cousin. Friday after work we packed up the car and began the drive to Palm Springs. We had a late dinner reservation at an Italian place downtown so we checked into the hotel, got ready with some vino, and got dolled up for our patio dinner. Dinner was amazing and we were all carb loaded for our big day. The next morning we headed to Joshua Tree which was only an hour away from Palm Springs. We stopped at the visitor center for souvenirs and made our way all the way down to the Mojave/California desert divide. Along the way we stopped at all the major sights. A couple of my favorites were the jumbo rocks where we had a picnic lunch and explored these massive boulders. They look really smooth and soft but are actually rough molten lava that used to be under the earth. Skull rock was super co
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Brotherly Love in Sequoia and Kings Canyon

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After arriving in San Diego, four days later my brother and I decided to head north and explore Sequoia and Kings Canyon. We were doing some research and learned that the road into Kings Canyon closed for the season that weekend so it would be our last opportunity to go this year. We instantly said "well, we have to go now" and booked our stay at the Wuksachi Lodge an hour deep into Sequoia National Park.  I took off Friday so that we could have the full weekend to explore the park and after gathering our things in the morning we began the journey. It was scheduled to take us about 5.5 hours in total but we had to make a few stops along the way so it ended up taking us 10 with traffic. The forest just received snow that weekend so all vehicles entering in the gates were required to have tire chains on hand. We stopped at several Auto-Zones that didn't keep them in stock and ended up getting a set at Walmart. We weren't sure how to use them and luckily didn't end u
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The Big 5 Finale: Capitol Reef National Park

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We couldn't leave Utah without making it to the last national park in the state: Capitol Reef. Although it was a good 3.5 hours from our house, we planned it out so that we could hit Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument on our way back, killing two birds with one stone.  Our first stop in Capitol Reef was Cassidy Arch, a moderate 3 mile hike where the end destination was a natural arch, yup you guessed it. We decided to do this trail because this we'd actually be able to walk on top of the arch, something we haven't been able to do yet in any of the other national parks.  Turns out this spot is pretty popular for repelling because there was a ton of groups waiting to repel down through the arch.  This was the view from the other end of the ledge, we drove in on the road below. One thing really unique about Capitol Reef was the blue/green sand. I tried to capture the layer in the picture below but like most of the scenery, pictures simply don't do it justice.  W
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Zion: Canyoneering

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 Another adventure through Zion was a canyoneering day that we booked a month or so in advance. I read about a blogger who had done this and highly recommended it so this was on my list from the get-go. Although, I think I built up my expectations a little to high for this one. I thought we were going to be rock climbing up the canyons and repelling down but we ended up hiking up and repelling down. I guess that makes more sense considering the adventure was "for all levels" of experience.  We booked through Zion Mountain School and spent the day with the owner and our guide, Mike and his pup who was a pro belayer at Water Canyon. The pup had his own harness and would wrap his paws around Mike's legs to "hold on" on the way down. Mike set up all the ropes and taught us proper technique. We did about 5-6 belays down the canyon and I got some epic pictures. Not pictured: crashing into the rock wall and falling into the water. On our second to last belay, I got stu
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Zion: The Narrows

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Zion was full of adventure. After we did Angel's Landing, I knew it wouldn't be my last time in the park. We had a few more hikes planned to get the full experience. The Narrows was the next priority on our list. We actually ended up having a pretty epic experience for this one. We met a guy who guides The Narrows for a tour company. He hooked us up gear from his shop where we rented neoprene socks, shoes, and pants so that we would be prepared for a full day in the water. This was pretty crucial since our shuttle tickets were from 7-8am in the morning and it was going to be in the 30s at that time. By the time we got to the river and in the water it was closer to 9MT and the temp warmed up a bit. Our new friend planned to join us but since it was his day off he wanted to sleep in a bit. He told us to get started and he would find us in the river.  As we began walking it was such a surreal feeling. I kept thinking how cool it is that you can actually do this, walk through the w
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Winning the Lottery: The Wave Edition

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I can finally say I won the lottery! Well, one type of lottery. I may not be a millionaire but my life these days is pretty rich. North Coyote Buttes only allows 20 people a day to obtain a permit for this desert phenomena. Months in advance, 10 permits are given away in a lottery with the other 10 permits drawn the day before. The lottery is everyday at 9am MT.  We submitted an application at least 10 times before finally winning and technically, we didn't even win. Our new friend Jacob put us on his application on Sunday in hopes of winning a permit for Monday and guess what, HE WON! Are we his lucky charms or vice versa? We had just gotten cell service in Zion after hiking The Narrows when we got his text and immediately started freaking out on the shuttle back to the car. We couldn't believe that we finally won, truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. I tried calculating it out and there's less than a 4% chance of winning each time you enter. Of course there's a lot
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