Here's the truth about traveling. You will meet some interesting people along the way. For instance, I did this hike that was in Arizona. It was the hike to a very iconic place on the border of Arizona and Utah. The hike is called the Horsehoe bend and it has been carved out by the Colorado River. It's iconic for the view and because it has some amazing sunsets in that specific area. They recently made it clear that the trail was redone as it was once a five-mile loop now cut off to one mile out and back trail. Honestly, I would have loved the five miles but you can't be picky when it comes to traveling.
So I get there and we get down to the bend and its beautiful. Gorgeous. Just unreal. I start pulling out my camera stuff and realized that my tripod plate was missing. Looking around I saw this guy sitting on the edge with camera gear all set up. One was on this big tripod and it was moving ever so slowly. I made my way over to him. Nicely and politely I asked if he could take some photos of Lylah and me and he happily helped us out. He took the camera and took about ten to twenty shots of us. I thanked him and sat and chatted for a while. It turns out, he was from L.A.
Guess what his job was?
Shooting stars and landscapes. He had been shooting stars and landscapes for seven years and he made a real living doing something he loved. I was shocked. I was sitting next to someone who was legit. I felt like I met a celebrity but I tried not to be crazy about it. As I talked to him more and more I started to get this feeling over me. Like it was fate. I was supposed to meet this guy. I stared at him. There was no way that this was happening.
The sun was setting and as we were packing to leave he mentions that he and his friend are going down to this canyon about an hour down the road to shoot the stars tonight. I stared at him and I looked at his friend. He was also from L.A and he had his daughter with him. Telling him I was interested I asked for the location of it and he was happy to send it to me. I got in the van, went to a gas station and got some supplies, and considered the possibility of going. Was I risking myself? Yes. Was I going to be alone with two men and a kid if I went? Yes. Was it worth it? No idea.
Shrugging I decided to head back to Utah. I got about ten miles down the road and pulled over and looked outside my window. The sky was getting clear and something in me told me I needed to turn around. Something was not right. Telling myself that it was all good I turned around and headed to that location.
The hour was long, there was a private gate, and the road was kind of difficult to maneuver but I made my way down and recognized the guy's friend. I pulled into a parking area and I felt something in me that just felt good suddenly.
Nao Came up and said hello. I said hi back and within minutes I was sitting and enjoying the stars with these two japanese guys who made a living in L.A. We were eating food and making music and just living in the moment. It was spectacular and I felt so at home. I have never experienced a feeling that like before and I honestly loved that I changed my mind to go. Nao helped me so many times with my star photos, gave me advice, and told me that I could change certain things in my photography to make the image more clear. I was so excited. He actually knew what he was doing and it was spectacular.
We now are friends through Instagram and I hope I get to hang out with him again someday. Every bit of that night and morning was worth the extra time. Sometimes taking risks is worth the reward.
For my birthday we did this hike that we had absolutely no indication on where it would go, how hard it would be, and where the end was. We just decided to go ahead and jump on a trail in the morning and just get our day started and after that, we would go from there. It sounded fun and I honestly was excited to just spend my birthday outside. After all, our lives deserve nature and to be celebrated. I got both that day. So we started on the trail and by the looks of google maps, the trail seemed pretty easy. We guessed it would be about four miles long and it kept going from easy to moderate and so on. Really it was one of those hikes that gave you everything. It went from pine trees to aspen trees, to meadows, to the creek, and finally to big switchback.
There were a few times that we looked at the google maps and we hoped for service to look up the trail on All trails but most of the way consisted of one bar.
Once we hit four miles we looked at each other and wondered where we were going. It seemed that the trail was sort of maintained and they had a big wind storm that came through and tore down a bunch of trees so someone came through and hacked up a bunch of trees to make the path more noticeable. We did run into a few hikers who told us that the path was a loop and eventually we would come to a fork that would give us an option to go back down. Thinking that we would be able to find it easily enough we kept going and around five miles we stopped. The trail looked like it literally went straight up a 90-degree angle. Unsure of how to feel we kept moving forward. I felt myself start to get drained and then I saw the little brown signs. There were switchbacks to our right-hand side.
We went up to them and go to the top of this mountain. We then met another set of hikers who told us that we should go to table mountain. Looking at the path we wondered if we should. We were tired, low on food and low on water, and slightly defeated we asked the ultimate question.
"How long did it take you to get up there and how steep is it?"
The answer.
"Took me about an hour and a half but I felt the elevation gain. It was worth it and really pretty"
Staring at each other we knew that if we didn't go we would regret it later. So with some deep breaths, we kept going....and going.....and going. This hike was hard. There was gravel, there was elevation gain (4,000 to be exact) and there was so much wind. Trudging onward we tried to take breaks and once we were good and our hearts weren't in our throats we kept going. Eventually, we made it to the top and our hearts stopped. It was beautiful. Right in front of us was the Grand Teton. It was unlike anything I Had seen. My birthday was complete. I kid you not, the hike was at least eleven miles all the way around but it was so worth it. It was hard and I was dead tired and needed a glass of wine after (which I spilled sadly), and it was much appreciated after all that we had done.
So if you ever want to see a different view than anybody else of the grand Teton then I would recommend the Table Mountain Trail in Jedediah Smith Wilderness park. It's worth every mile
IM back to civilization!
For the past two days, I Have been in a compound that has literally had no service at all. Like none. We ended up going to the campground near the Tetons without really knowing how close we were to the tetons. That night we ended up having a campfire which was amazing and I really enjoyed and I was so happy to have time with a friend. and yes I did meet up with a friend. Im currently traveling with my friend Steph who is also from FLorida and climbs at the gym that I used to work out. SHe is on a one year adventure while I am just feeling it out as I go.
For us, both is was nice to finally meet up and hangout with someone who was just as into the camping life as you.
It was also wonderful to spend my 24th birthday with someone. Oh yes, I turned 24 yesterday! GO ME!
And I will say it was wonderful.
Yesterday we ended up getting up and had a plan to do the hike that was near the campsite and then from there we were going to head out towards the Teton National park and spend time there. So we start this hike and thinking we were gonna do four miles we got going and the hike was from easy to moderate. We even saw two moose on the trail and helped out a lady who said that he was not happy with her appearance. After the moose, we kept going and at some point, I started to wonder where the turn around was. Then we ran into a group of hikers. We asked them where the turn around was and came to find out it was a loop trail that had a side trail to the tabletop mountain. So we keep going on this hike and eventually, we start running into some steep inclines. We get six miles in and talk to some other hikers and ask for recommendations.
Low and behold nobody can give us straight answers but one thing was clear, we had to do the side trail. It was THE TRAIL for the tetons (as the locals say) so looking over at our options we decided to trek up and go to the tabletop mountain.
This hike was hard. Very hard. We were at 10,000 ft and we felt the burn in our legs. Our lungs were struggling and I really had a hard time with the last bit of the hike but we went onward.
I kid you not, I was amazed. The hike was worth it. So freaking worth it. THe picture I post on here will tell you what I mean. It was a wonderful surprise for my birthday and I was so happy to have this trail be the start to my year of being 24.
After we got down the mountain we did around 11 miles and man did our feet hurt. The reward? Wine. Lots of wine. If I say so myself yesterday was amazing and Im so excited for the rest of this trip.
