Hope road trip 2018

This was our family road trip! We flew into New Mexico and explored there, Arizona, and Wyoming. We ended up in Utah and flew home from there. It was epic and this is our photographic story!

Sedona, AZ
Once we cooked out and got Nathan into bed, Taylor and Wil watched over him and David and I climbed the trail back up to the mid way point. This was my first go at night time photography and I think it turned out pretty well for my first shot.
Sedona, AZ
I set up my flash for this one, and once it went off we moved and waited another 30 seconds for the rest of the photo to take.
Sedona, AZ
Then we started playing with light and long exposures. It was fun
Sedona, AZ
More fun with light and long exposures. It started to get pretty cold so after this we took a few more an wrapped it up for the night.
Sedona, AZ
We did an about face and took another long exposure.
Sedona, AZ
One more shot, this one of the moon, and then we were out of there.
Truckin'
Rollin' down the road
Sedona, AZ
The next day we all met at Bell Rock for some more engagement photos. When we were done with those Taylor and Wil headed to their new home in San Diego and David, Nathan, and I kept on hiking away.
Sedona, AZ
This park was beautiful. There were a lot of people though and even more mountain bikers! So we ducked off of the main trail and started blazing our own through the desert. Eventually we met up with another part of the main trail and hiked it on back to the parking lot.
Sedona, AZ
Checking out the scene
Sedona, AZ
Sedona, AZ
Everywhere you turned out here there was another huge rock/canyon/cliff
Sedona, AZ
Sedona, AZ
Me
Sedona, AZ
This was a really cool part of the rock. I climbed up a tiny ways and the view was spectacular.
Sedona, AZ
Me watching out for rattle snakes as I hiked.
Sedona, AZ
Yup, that' good old southern me in the middle of the dry dry desert
Sedona, AZ
This is one of the views. The rock to the right is called Belle Rock. That was the name of the trail.
Sedona, AZ Devils Bridge Trail
We ended up at Devils Bridge trail in the evening. It was a long hike to the trail head and then a steep climb up. We got to the summit right after sunset so we did not get to stay long before we had to make the steep desend because of light restriction.
Sedona, AZ Devils Bridge Trail
As the sun was setting it turned the rocks different colors
Sedona, AZ Devils bridge trail
This was one of the plataues on the way up the trail
Sedona, AZ
Everything is gorgeous everywhere you look
Sedona, AZ Devils Bridg
So the sun had set and I took a few quick, anxious, photos before heading back down the trail. This was Devils bridge. The trees at the bottom are behind in, it's strait down! It's literally a bridge made out of rock that just juts out into nowhere.
Sedona, AZ
The people you see on the bridge was a group of friends that left after we did and passed us on the trail. About a half mile after that we found them sitting in the darkness in the middle of the trail waiting on us. They had not brought flashlights and could no longer see in the dark. Thank good ness we were still on the trail with lights. yikes!
Sedona, AZ
All of that land going strait up behind David was the trail
Onto the Grand Canyon
The next day I woke up so sick, but we pushed on to the Grand Canyon anyways and I'm so glad we did!
Grand Canyon National Park
This was our first stop to see the Grand Canyon. We didn't stay here long before we headed north and found an amazing trail on the canyon!
The Grand Canyon, AZ
We stopped by the Grand Canyons park and there were too many people and too many railings so we headed up the road for a bit and found this trail. The Grand Canyon is sooooo amazing, no photograph does is justice.
Grand Canyon, AZ
Little man at the start of the trail. At first we were just going to check it out because I was pretty sick this day. But after we took a look at it we went back and got Nathan in his pack so we could hike a bit. Sick or not, I was going to see some beautiful views!
Grand Canyon, AZ
Nathan playing around stretching his legs.
The Grand Canyon, AZ
The light paints the Canyon
Grand Canyon, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
David checking out the view
Grand Canyon, AZ
Beautiful!
Grand Canyon, AZ
Nathan is such a happy boy
Grand Canyon, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
This place was so beautiful! One day David and I will go back and hike to the bottom.
Grand Canyon, AZ
My guys
Grand Canyon, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
This was a cool tree, it just hung on the side of the rock.
Grand Canyon, AZ
All packed up and ready to hike
Grand Canyon, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
My favorite shot. The trail zig zagged down the side of the canyon. We didn't go very far because the sun was setting but it looked like it was switch backs all the way to the Colorado river.

The trail is right in front of you in this photo, a little to the left of center.
Grand Canyon, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
That was the trail on the way back up to the camper.
Grand Canyon,
We got back up to the top of the trail head and decided to hang our legs over a rock and watch the sunset. These Turkish people were in front of us on the very edge of the canyon drinking Turkish coffee and smoking hookah waiting for the sun to set. This couple you see in this photo just walked on down and started talking to them so the guys shared their coffee and they all watched the sunset together, took some selfies, and had a good time. The couple was hiking down into the canyon the next day.

It was really cool to see the camaraderie and thats one thing I really love about hikers.

The girl in this photo was barefoot and just hopped down this gravely, rocky path like it was nothing, like she had shoes on or something. David and I were awed!
Horseshoe Bend
We drove to Horseshoe Bend and camped out in the parking lot so we could see it the next morning.