Every January brings a major industry conference for me, and with it, a convenient excuse to visit our home in Kanab, Utah. This year, we got to celebrate late holidays with my beaux-parents from Oregon.
We all met up in Las Vegas on New Years Eve. In true Vegas fashion, they go all out for the new year, closing down the street for an open air celebration while several hotels put on fireworks shows. Though it was raining, we walked over to a covered area where we could see several, along with a drone show. It was back to its sunny self by the time I returned for my conference, so I could enjoy the rooftop happy hours and a trip around the LinQ wheel with some vendors, along with a visit to the gun range.
All the real views came in between. The scenery in and around Kanab still wows me every time, and with our rental SUV, we were able to reach some brand new spots. We started out with a revisit of Nevada’s Valley of Fire.
On the weekend we explored farther afield than we had been before, almost 3 hours drive away in the Escalante, the otherworldly Devil’s Garden and a nearby slot canyon.
We visited both new and familiar sections of Zion National Park. In the northwest corner, Kolob fingers, the fog, rain, snow and sun visited us in turn as we took a couple of small hikes. We were forced to warm up at the Zion Brewery after being soaked to the bone.
In the main Zion Canyon, we hiked the Emerald Pools trail. Nathan and I had done a portion of it years ago, on our way back down from the epic Angel’s Landing trail. After that, we didn’t have the energy to climb more stairs to the upper pool, so it was cool to see that this time, partially iced over.
A major highlight of the trip was finally getting to hike The Wave in the Coyote Buttes section of Vermillion Cliffs. There are only 64 spots available for this hike each day, obtained through a lottery system. Beau-Père managed to win us some passes. What an opportunity to finally experience this totally unique stretch of land together. Our hiking companions, wild sheep, were a bit better suited than we were for the terrain. After some wet snow, we were again cold and wet, and the road out was barely passable. We made it, and it was 100% worth the challenges to get there.
The other highlight of course was getting to spend some quality time with family. We don’t see them often enough and it was great to be able to relax for a longer visit. In Vegas, I also got some good time in with my boss and partner of over a decade. We laid out our strategy for the next year which will be shaping my travel plans. For now, we’re off to California!