A Mormon, A Catholic and an Atheist go to...

So I promised a post a few weeks ago and then never followed through. But I have some time now and I'd love to share some awesome stories from this week.

Last weekend was the last three day weekend of the semester. Being the good BYU alumna that I am, I used it to the best of my ability (momentarily forgetting that I will have a spring break this year!) and went to three National Parks in three days. I had been planning since late December to drive up to Utah and say farewell to my lovely ILP head teacher Maegan before she left on her mission, and when my coworker said she wanted to go up to the Grand Canyon I decided to make a weekend of it all.

We began our journey Friday night, a little bit too late for my liking as the driver of our adventures, but we got into Williams, AZ by 10pm and found a hotel. I rejected the first one we found because the lady behind the counter saw us walk in, made eye contact and then promptly ignored us for the next 5 minutes while she finished whatever she was doing. It wasn't that we weren't helped right away, but as a face for customer service I expect a "I'll be right with you" or "Give me a minute." Seems easy enough to expect from a front desk attendant. The second hotel (the one we stayed at) was cleaner and seemed less sketchy to me, except when we tried to get into our room. Then the card reader wouldn't read our cards, or really any cards that weren't Master Laundry Cards....so we got one of those with a promise not to accidentally or otherwise sneak into other rooms and that we would return it next morning. Sitting in our room we realized how funny our adventure could be as we started saying: a Catholic, a Mormon and an atheist went to the Grand Canyon...

The next morning we headed out to the Grand Canyon. I had the opportunity to introduce my companions to selfie sticks! and then we promptly saw more of them than I ever thought I would see in America. We also saw a gaggle of Japanese school girls in uniform and many more groups of Chinese and Japanese tourists also visiting the Grand Canyon. I had a blast saying hello to them in Japanese or Chinese,

and Justin had fun doing handstands and acroyoga near the edge.

We hiked down into the Canyon a little bit, but we were hoping to drive to St. George and get a hotel room there for the night, so we knew we couldn't stay super late or go really far down. We went far enough down to see the change in rock and watch the donkeys hiking back out of the canyon with heavy packs on their backs. It was cool, and we knew it was going to get cooler (in temperature) if we continued hiking down in shadows and a deepening afternoon, so we hiked back out. it was actually a lot farther down than I realized we had gone, but I can't say we really went that far.

That night we made it to St George by about 9:30 and found another Motel 6 to stay in. I think we were the luckiest travelers there because we found what I think was probably the last empty room in St. George. It was over priced and a single bed in a smoking room, but it was a room with a shower, so I was happy enough. After visiting with Maegan Sunday morning and saying goodbye and good luck on your mission, we decided to head out to Zion's and see what we could find in terms of hikes in that National Park.

The park was really full that day because it was President's Day weekend, and who wouldn't want to be out and enjoying the weather and scenery! They told us that basically we couldn't drive much farther than the main entrance to the Park, so we asked if there were any less populated areas. The lovely Park Ranger Andrew let us in on a (somewhat) secret valley about 45 minutes away. He was spot on: we saw 3 other people in the 3 hours we were in the area hiking around. and it was a GORGEOUS canyon! Zion's really is wonderful, and I was reminded of that as we drive and hiked around and saw the mountains and valleys around us.

The last National Park we went to last weekend was Wupatki National Monument just north of Flagstaff. It is some ancient Native American ruins, but very well preserved. We had a blast running around and looking at the workmanship of the remaining walls around. It was extremely windy there, so I don't know how the ancient peoples managed to live and farm there. We barely lasted an hour puttering about, but maybe we were just tired from so much travel time in the past few days. 

All in all, I had a blast traveling and getting to know my travel companions and viewing some of the most amazing sights in Arizona and Southern Utah. We had good conversations, took some great pictures with my selfie stick, and enjoyed the beauty of nature. so a Mormon, a Catholic and an Atheist went to the Grand Canyon, Zion's National Park, and Wupatki National Monument in a weekend and lived to tell the tale.