Zion National Park, Final Day

Man, how to compete with The Narrows, right? But since there's no real ability to, you just gotta do the exact opposite.

Which is walk all damn day in the blazing hot sun.

We woke up and took things a little slowly. We had a few too many early wake-up calls and knew we needed to relax and take it easy before the sun cooked us alive.

Coffee. Breakfast. Washing up (using full-body wet wipes). Saying hi to the deer trespassing on our campsite.

The usual.

Our trip for the day was the Emerald Pools Trail. We got on the shuttle (squeezed in like sardines) and headed out.

Again: photos tend to lack the ability to replicate the absolute scale of a location. The grandeur. The immensity of a feature of land. The canyon that is within Zion just goes on and on and on... From one horizon to next. It's breathtaking.

The worst thing you can ever tell yourself about being in nature and navigating yourself within it: oh, that looks easy.

It will always be hotter than you think. It will always be more dusty than you think. Whatever factors you consider about being in nature, it always answers back: I am more.

Wetter. Colder. Steeper. Further.

It doesn't matter. Nature always has more in store for you than you initially thought.

But that's what makes being in it so fun. That's the allure. Come for the beauty, stay for the challenge of being and staying within the beauty.

When I'm out in nature, not only am I able to experience and connect with it, I also get to connect with my self. I slow down, breathe (often harder), observe, and think. I get to push myself; see that I'm capable of overcoming the obstacles thrown at me.

Being within nature is as much about learning about myself as it is learning about the world I inhabit.

We're but brief visitors of place created long before us.