Canyoneering, anyone?

You know what one of the best parts about having a long-distance relationship is???? (side bar:  yes, there really are good things about long-distance relationships!)  When you get to see your honey, there are usually grand adventures involved, especially if you are meeting somewhere in the middle.

Landon travels quite a bit for his job, so we sometimes get to meet in fun places, like Colorado, or, most recently, Nevada.  Not quite "in the middle," but when his job sends him to Las Vegas for work, I am most definitely willing to take advantage and drive out to see him!

It wasn't the most organized trip on my part, but it was certainly a ton of fun.  On Friday night we stayed in Las Vegas at the Mirage Hotel and Casino and did the fancy city deal. I got to meet all of his work buddies and bosses (so nice to put faces with names finally!) at their Black Jack Tournament and we got to enjoy all of the lights and sights that Vegas has to offer (Elvis included)!

Saturday dawned bright and early and we said adios to the city and headed out to do some camping and hiking.  We originally had our sights set on Zion National Park, my absolute favorite National Park, which is only about 2.5 hours away from Vegas.  The last time I was there was when Daddy and I stopped to camp there during our drive across the country during the move from NC to CA.

But Zion had different plans and decided to dump 2 feet of snow on the ground the day of our planned visit.  Neither of us felt like camping in a snow storm and freezing temperatures, so we changed our route and headed for the high desert outside of Las Vegas instead.

After a few wrong turns (and an accidental drive across the Hoover Dam....) we enjoyed a beautiful canyon hike down to the Gold Strike Hot Springs.  This hike was absolutely a challenge, and was super fun.  Lots of difficult and tricky climbs up and down steep boulders and canyon faces, but the hot springs at the bottom were SO worth the trip!  It is so amazing to me how they just bubble up out the ground out of nowhere and form a natural bath tub!!!  However, we didn't bring bathing suits, and didn't want to sit in the biggest tub with a really creepy mountain man naked, so we just enjoyed the hot springs as we passed by.

We headed to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to camp for the night and caught a breathtakingly beautiful sunset on the way.

I have always loved the desert.  I think it is such a beautiful place, so full of color.  And so full of animals and plant life that are so amazingly tough and hardy!  Like this coyote (can you see him??)

After a beautiful sunrise on our secluded little canyon ledge, we did some more visiting around the Lake Mead area, then headed back into Vegas for a good lunch at Bachi Burger, featured on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives.  Let me just tell you.......aaaaaaamazing!

I am so blessed that Landon loves adventures as much as I do!

-AP