“For beautiful eyes, look for good in others;
for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;
and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”

-Audrey Hepburn

Sunshine

 

 “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” 

-
Helen Keller

Zion National Park

Zion was our last stop before heading home. It was so beautiful, and definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Our first day in Zion we took the Emerald Pools trail. It would have been an easy hike most days, but it was 106 degrees the day we went! Despite the heat, we had a good time. Our second day we went on a hike called "The Narrows". The "trail" is actually the river, and you walk through it as it goes through a canyon. It was so amazing, and so much fun! We also saw a lot of cool wildlife in Zion; lizards with vibrant blue tails, deer, ground squirrels, dragonflies, frogs, and tarantula hawks (a type of hornet that has the 2nd most painful sting of any insect in the world!) Zion was a great way to end a great trip :)

Animals in Western Nebraska

Here are some pictures of some of the animals we saw when we were in Western Nebraska. I took the top picture when we were driving through Lodgepole and we saw a field with at least 30 horses in all different colors. My parents had to stop and let me visit them and take some pictures - a definite highlight of our trip :) The next two are pictures of some cute, feral tabby kittens we saw near where we were staying. There was a mom and five babies. The last picture is a baby horned toad we found on a hike. I can't believe my brother found this one because it was so tiny, they blend in perfectly with the rock, and the sun was starting to set!

"I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained. I stand and look at them long and long."  -Walt Whitman

Sunsets

Photo taken from the car somewhere in Nevada of the sunset our first

day on the road

Amazing sunlight through the clouds near Laramie, Wyoming where we
stopped for dinner one night

Beautiful sunset in Bennington, Nebraska when we were staying with
aunt, uncle, and cousins :)

A sunset in Western Nebraska, near Lodgepole

Same sunset, different perspective

Colorful clouds on a fun sunset hike with uncle and brothers

We saw so many beautiful sunsets on our trip! They were all so amazing and different each day. I wasn't able to get a picture of all of them, but here are some of the pictures I did get. Most of the places we were traveling it was pretty flat so we were able to actually see sunsets. Here you can't see much between the mountains and trees :) Unfortunately, I didn't get to see a sunset in Arches, because the majority vote was get dinner instead of stay for sunset. Maybe next time....

Arches National Park

On our way home we stopped by Arches National Park, and spent one afternoon/evening and the next morning there. The landscape, the colors, and the rock formations were so beautiful, and so unlike anywhere we've been before. While we were there we stayed in Moab, a town just south of Arches. We found an amazing cafe, The Peace Tree Juice Cafe, that had great fruit smoothies (and a great name too :) I took the first three pictures the first evening, and the light and colors were so beautiful. Cairns like the ones in the fourth pic are all over Arches. The base stone is actually attached to the ground to mark the trail, and then people build off of that. 

“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” 

-
John Burroughs

LoDo

We're back from our 2-1/2 week road trip adventure! We covered 8 states: California, Nevada, Utah,  Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and we stepped over the Missouri River into Iowa. We had a great time and I took way too many pictures, so I'll be splitting them up over a few days :) 
For my first post I'm sharing a few photos from LoDo (lower downtown) Denver. LoDo is such a fun place to explore, and they have lots of cool artwork on the sidewalks - like those amazing pianos! I think the animal crackers one is my favorite :) You can't see from the angle in the photo, but it even has nutrition facts on the side, and a rope like the handle of the box. The third pic is the sign outside my favorite bookstore - I wish they had one here! They have so many books and all these cool places to sit and read. And a horse with sparkly purple hooves :) Can't say I've seen that before!

“Cities were always like people, showing their varying personalities to the traveler."

- Roman Payne