Emily and Mitchell in the USA

 After driving up from the Grand Canyon and across the Utah border, we reached Zion National Park. We were arriving on a Bank Holiday Monday afternoon, which meant there were more people leaving than arriving at this time.  We stopped briefly at the checkerboard mesa, which was a small mountain which was all criss-crossed from the formation and erosion.  We then wanted to stop and do a short hike, but we missed the street parking and then the car park was on the wrong side of the road where we weren't allowed to turn in, so we had to go through the big tunnel first. It was very long and went through the mountain. There were the occasional windows carved into the side, but other than that it was completely dark inside.  We made it to the outside, and stopped at a viewpoint to have some lunch. The rocks were all glowing orange in the early afternoon light and we quickly finished up to get to our first hike in Zion.  We went back through the tunnel and turned into ...

We arrived at the lodge by the Grand Canyon North Rim after dark, and it took us a while to find where to check in. They turn the lights down low to keep it dark in the park, so it was hard to find where to go. But we did it and checked into our tiny cabin for the night. It was a real log cabin and pretty chilly until we turned on the little heater. We made some quick pot noodles for dinner and had a shower to clean off the long dusty day, and settled down for the night.  The next morning, we slept so long we missed breakfast, but we ate some protein bars and juice and decided it wasn't too long to wait until lunch. Our first visit was a small trail to Bright Angel point which started right behind the cabins and overlooked the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It was truly immense and you could see so far and all the way down to the river flowing through the bottom of the canyon.  We then took the transept trail which followed the rim's edge through the trees. It was a very prett...