Last year I took a west trip in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California where I did much exploring and hiking. First time I had experienced the “west” of the United States as we see it. A lot different from the North West of America like Oregon and Washington where there were tons of tall trees to this land of rock, dust and short sage brush.

Zion National Park is one of five National Parks in Utah and probably is the one that is most visited. It was extremely packed at that time of year, June, and it was hard to enjoy the nature and scenery in the late afternoon. The traffic congestion was awful, I sat in traffic for 1 hour to go 3 miles to the visitor center. There were many hikes I had in mind to do but there were queues for the trail. I never heard of something like that. The scenery was awesome though and I am glad that I made the stop here. I wanted to hike up the narrows as well but the water level and amount was to much for people to go up the Virgin River.

Images taken with an X-Pro2, The Virgin River below looking up the “trail” into the Narrows and the bottom is the Virgin River flowing through Zion Canyon with The Watchman standing in the back.

Wizard Island is the only island in Crater Lake and it is a cinder cone of the volcano that once stood there. The water is so blue there and you can see snow on the north sides and areas that are cast in long shadows throughout the day.  Hope you can go some time I only wish it wasn’t as crowded when I did.

Taken with X-Pro2 and xf 18-55mm lens