A Special Earth Day Anniversary: Love of the National Parks

Today, 4/22/2023 marks the six year anniversary of my husband and I’s love of the National Parks. It was on this day back in 2017 that we visited our first National Park together.

We lived in Las Vegas back then and were not even dating yet. I constantly heard that Zion National Park in Utah was an awesome place. Yet, I could never find anyone to drive up there with me. Jimmy and I worked together and sometimes hung out in groups outside of work. One day I texted him “what do you think of spontaneous road trips?” He said “love em”. I asked if he wanted to go to Zion National Park and he said yes!

In 2017 Earth Day fell on a Saturday, just like today. We had no idea, but on Earth Day all of the National Parks are free to get in, all weekend long! So we enjoyed a no fee entry. We explored the park some and then decided to hike one of the most strenuous hikes: Angel’s Landing.

The only thing I remember distinctively about the hike was arriving at the bottom of the final summit. I looked up and saw tiny humans scaling their way up a very steep and thin looking path. I figured that was just extra, since there were many people sitting around us, having lunch and taking pictures. Jimmy asked “aren’t you coming?”, “no I think I’ll just stay down here” I said. He was having none of that and begged me to finished the climb to the top.

Perhaps you have seen videos like this or know about the narrow trail to the top, either side a long plummet to the canyon floor, with metal chains to cling to. It is not a hike for the faint of heart. Once I was doing it however, it did not seem that bad. In fact, it looks a lot scarier in that video. The picture below of the “famous spot” felt better with the safety chain next to me!

Once we got to the top, it was all worth it. We were met with a spectacular breath taking view. 360 degrees of green and orange Zion with the deep blue sky. It was unforgettable. We stayed at the top a bit and then headed down. However, going down was definitely much harder that climbing up.

I remember we got to one section and there were people coming up. Unfortunately, we met on one of the skinny paths, sheer vertical rock wall on one side and 1500 feet or so drop on the other. I don’t remember anyone else in the party except this one girl. I approached her as she clung to the metal chain bolted in the rock face. She was not letting go of that chain for anything! I told her “OK I’m going to get awkwardly close to you now, don’t move”. I clutched the chain with my left hand, scooted my feet around her and grabbed the other side of the chain with my right, basically giving her a giant death defying hug.

Once we got that out of the way, the rest of the trek down was met with slow steady movements. The only part I remember being really scared of was the very last section. It was basically a very steep rock face and I remember thinking I was just going to slide right off of the thing! I may have scooted down on my hands and feet…

We explored a bit more of the park, the Virgin River and the Emerald Pools. Once evening hit, we had an epiphany. Bryce Canyon National Park was only about a hour away and since it was Earth Day, free all weekend to enter. Could we do TWO parks in one weekend? We went for it!

The next day, Sunday, we arrived at Bryce Canyon and were speechless at the sight of thousands of orange “hoodoos” rock formations. We enjoyed walking around the rim of the canyon. Unfortunately, we walked a little further than expected. Like Zion, Bryce Canyon has a bus system to negate heavy car traffic. You park at the visitor center and catch buses throughout the day to get where you need to get. We walked all the way to this one bus stop and waited and waited. “Uh oh” we thought, does the bus not come to this spot today?

After waiting a while we decided to take the road leading back to the main road. Once we got there we started walking it back to the visitor center. Moments later a park “tour bus” came up and we flagged him down, explaining our situation. The bus driver apologized that the buses indeed do not go up to that stop that day. He said he’d be happy to give us a lift up the road to the visitor center, where our vehicle was. On the bus was nothing but sweet older women, they absolutely LOVED Jimmy.

What seemed like a spur of the moment, “let’s visit two parks”, turned into a six year quest to get to as many National Parks as we could. The very next weekend we went to Sequoia, King’s Canyon and Death Valley National Parks. The weekend after Joshua Tree National Park. As of writing this, we have been to 40 National Parks and countless other National Park Service places. For our honeymoon we went to the Everglades, Biscayne, and Virgin Islands National Parks. It is a special thing that we share and we cannot wait to get to more! I try to capture the special moments in all the “National Park Series” pieces that I paint.