the long overdue post

The title says it all. Last year in September, I took a road trip to Yosemite with some friends. Now half a year later, I have finally found some time and motivation to write about it.

The trip itself was a long overdue one. Ever since I moved to LA in 2015, I’ve been dying to pay the infamous national park a visit. For some reason, I’ve found a chance to visit Arizona and Utah before I even got to visit the park in my own state. When my schedule cleared up over labor day weekend, I knew I had to go to Yosemite.

Early Saturday morning, we set off in two cars towards Yosemite. Since it was a holiday weekend, I figured traffic at the main entrance would be a total nightmare, why is why we decided to enter from the east entrance that is closer to Mammoth Lakes. Below is an obligatory shot out my car window, speeding down N-395.

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As we got onto Highway 125 that led us straight into the national park, we got news that our friends in the other car accidentally set their GPS towards the main entrance. So for the rest of the day, my friend Nicole and I explored on our own.

Here’s Yosemite at first sight. We were so excited we couldn’t even wait to pay to drive inside the park to jump out of the car. We pulled up to the side of the road just before the entrance and ran towards the vast amount of land to get a breathe of clean air and a view of the surrounding landscape.

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After we sat on the grass for a while, mesmerized by the refreshing scenery, we got back onto the car and drove into the park. The entrance fee is $30 as usual, and surprisingly, there was no line at the Tioga Pass (east) entrance!

We drove along the windy Tioga Road and stopped at a few scenic turnabouts before we parked next to the Tuolumne Meadows for a walk. There is only one major trail that you can’t possibly miss that will take you around the meadows. Even though it was certainly a busy weekend at the park, we barely saw anyone else wandering around the flat lands. In fact, we even got to see some wild deers roaming around! (although you would know I have mixed feelings about deers if you’ve read my previous posts…)

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We kept driving down the road, just admiring the view, before we saw a huge granite dome of the side of the street. Nicole pointed out that there seems to be people standing on the dome, which we took as a challenge to conquer the dome. We later found out that the dome is named Pothole dome, and that to climb onto the summit, you simply walk onto the massive stone by foot, with no paths of guidance whatsoever. It might seem quite scary at first, but as soon as you step foot onto the dome, you’ll realise that the surface is very easy to grip. It took us a mere 20 minutes to climb to the top, which had a spectacular view of the meadows.

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At this point, sunset was just about an hour away and our friends were unfortunately still trapped in traffic at the Yosemite Valley. Nicole and I decided we would keep driving westbound in hopes that we would run into our friends at some point.

It was a beautiful coincidence that we reached Olmsted Point just as the sky started to change in color. Already exhausted from the walking, running and hiking we’ve done, we were hesitant to climb to the top of the hill which seemed a little steep. But oh am I glad that we did. The hike took us just 15 minutes, and I got to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witnessed in my life.

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I was in so much awe that I might have taken 500 photos in just 20 minutes or so. It was so utterly beautiful I just wanted to capture the moment to the best of my ability. Looking back, although it was half a year ago, I still remember every bit of that sunset as clear as it was yesterday. Everything was picture perfect.

– vivian

miracles or magic?

Let me begin by saying this is a longer than usual post because I have a bunch of photos that I absolutely love and need to post on here. It was the last day of our road trip, and we finally made it to the park that I was most excited about — Arches National Park.

Let’s back up a little. We hit a deer the night before and stayed in a motel in the middle of nowhere. After we woke up, we headed towards the closest town (around 15 miles away), got some breakfast, stocked up at a grocery store, and was on our way to Arches in no time. Below are a few photos from our drive (also my favorite photos from this trip), when we passed through some of the most beautiful sceneries I had, and probably will ever see in my life. My friend even joked about buying some land, building a mansion, so he can retire here in the future. To be honest — who wouldn’t want to live here?

One sideview mirror less but still going strong.

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The drive was around two and a half hours if I remember correctly, but I guarantee you it is more than tolerable because it is by far the most scenic drive during this trip. By the time we reached Arches, we had driven so far that we were only less than an hour away from Colorado.

After the ticket booth, we drove past the visitor’s center, picked up a map, and found a huge piece of rock with a good view. Sometime during that process which only lasted 10 minutes or so, I was so excited that I waved my arms or something and my BRAND NEW phone flew out and cracked on the pebbled ground. As if hitting a deer wasn’t enough. I was completely heartbroken (especially because my “friends” wouldn’t stop laughing at my stupidity) but thank god the rest of the day made up for that little tragic incident.

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Here’s Arches at first sight — no stone arches yet, just giant rock monuments scattered across endless amounts of land. Thanks to the rain, a huge puddle formed at just the perfect location to catch the reflection a rock that kind of looks like a glove.

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Moving on, we stopped at the Balanced Rock, which was shockingly magnificent. I can’t help but wonder if it’s about to fall apart sometime soon. The photo looks super cinematic thanks to the blob of cloud behind it. I swear it wasn’t just the effect of my fisheye lens; the dark clouds were actually hovering above the area, circling around the miraculous creation.

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Despite being the most dysfunctional group of people at the park (as shown in the selfie), we made it to the Double Arch to see what we’ve came so far for: massive stone aches. It would have been impressive if someone had carved holes in these rocky mountains to create these arches, but the fact that they are entirely natural make them even more majestic.

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We managed to climb up some rocks to sit on an elevated area underneath an arch. It felt great. It’s as if we were sitting on god’s windowsill, hence the name of the area — The Windows Section. On one side, we had an astonishing view of the entire cave created the arches, and the other side was nothing but stunning amounts of land.

When we asked a photographer-looking tourist to take a photo for us, he ran towards the other side of the cave, pretty damn far away, and snapped this shot of us. We look like ants in the photo but hey it’s prove that we visited the legendary stone arches!

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Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the famous Delicate Arch due to flash floods triggered by the rain. But we did drive until the very end of the road, where Devil’s Garden is located. It was only a few miles away from where we were, and the road is surrounded by weird (but cool) looking rock statues.

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At this point, we were already getting pretty exhausted (especially from the sun), but I insisted that we hike the Devils Garden trail. Did my friends whine the entire way? Of course, but the walk was by no means difficult and we even spotted some desert bunnies!

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This is the Landscape Arch, which stretches elegantly across two rocky mountains. It looks like a mini version of the Island in The Sky Arch at Canyonlands. Sadly, we couldn’t get any closer to the arch, so we just stared at it from a distance before we followed the same trail back. The sun was about to set, which meant it was time to get on the road again.

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We watched the sun set on our drive towards Cedar City, which was more than 200 miles away on I-70. It was an interesting drive: we drove for 120 miles without passing a single exit, gas station, or car. There were no streetlights, no signs, and no service on our phones. That section of the interstate has been named “the loneliest freeway in the U.S.” I can’t even imagine what it would be like to drive that road alone.

Well, that was pretty much it. The next day, we drove from Cedar City all the way back to LA. 6-hours of driving but it wasn’t too bad.

1900 miles, 4 states, 4 days.

It’s a road trip that’s gonna be really hard to beat.

– Vivian

surprise!

We arrived at Bryce Canyon at around 3pm. The drive there was roughly two hours; all along we passed through gorgeous fields of grasslands. As usual, the entrance fee was $30 and you are allowed to drive through all areas of the park. Bryce Canyon was a lot smaller than I had expected. Of course, Bryce is nothing compared to the scale of the Grand Canyon. However, it is in no way less magnificent. Bryce is not just a canyon, but a large collection of natural amphitheaters that stand like peculiar looking columns. They almost look like an army of soldiers — neatly lined up in layers. It just so happened that the sun was shinning directly into the canyon, making everything look extra perfect.

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We seem so happy but he’s really just smiling to hide his fear of falling down the cliff. It doesn’t look that scary in the photo but the area we were standing on was actually a small platform that hangs just off the edge of the cliff. One step backwards and we’ll be at the bottom of the canyon.

We continued to walk along the rim of the canyon until we found a path that cuts directly into the canyon. If you look at the following photos, you’ll see the trail that can take you to inspect the amphitheatres in closer distance. The trail begins at Sunrise point on the map, and leads deep into the canyon. You can even climb on to some of the rock columns (which of course I did, until my friends got angry at me, afraid that I’ll fall). It’s a very pleasant walk down the sandy path and definitely not a difficult one.

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All along our walk, we got to see isolated thunderclouds which was really cool for all of us. But it wasn’t long before we noticed the clouds were drifting closer and close towards us (uh-oh). We hiked back up immediately, and actually had to run a little to get back to our car before it starting pouring… and then hailing! We hid in the car for a while to watch the craziness before heading to the nearest town for some dinner.

Behold the absolutely out-of-this-world beautiful view we saw on our way to Bicknell, where we spent the night. For hours, we did not see another car on the road. Thunderclouds surrounded us left and right while the snowy mountains stood directly ahead of us. It was so sublimely unreal.

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And then… surprise! We hit a deer.

I had never even seen a deer before, less to say worry about ever hitting a deer. Whenever I saw the deer sign on the side of the road, I would get excited and hope I actually get to see a deer. Well, not anymore. Hitting a deer was not a good experience. Thank god my friend jerked the car towards the left and slammed the breaks at the same time. The deer missed the front of the car and slammed into my right sideview mirror, which flew out and shattered into a million pieces. Luckily, we were all safe (other than being shocked to the soul) and the deer missed all the mechanics of the car. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we actually hit the deer head-on.

After the incident, we drove at a constant 45/mph because we were deathly afraid of hitting another deer. Look at the insane amount of deers roaming around the freeways. We didn’t see a single car or person until we reached our motel, but we probably saw around 200 deers and other roadkills on the freeway. Definitely a night I’ll never forget.

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Just blogging about this makes me anxious. I’m incredibly honored to of the 1/206 people in Utah who experiences a deer collision accident per year (according to Desert News), but hopefully this will never happen again.

Last post on Utah will be up real soon!

-Vivian

zion: take ii

Our second day at Zion began with fresh smoothies and hearty sandwiches from a little café near Hurricane. It looked like one of those family-run places, and has a great selection of pastries too – from cinnamon rolls the size of my face to chunky scones and cheesy quiches. After we placed our orders, we walked through the backdoor and were surprised to find several tables lined up along the edge of a cliff. Yes, we had breakfast on the edge of a cliff! There’s a canyon below lined with trees and a small river that runs through the valley. It doesn’t look that dramatic from my fisheye lens but it was really something else.

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So back into the park we went. The weather was absolutely beautiful – blue skies, fluffy clouds and the occasional sunshine accentuated the greens and the reds in the park.

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I forgot exactly which day it was but it was a weekend, so there were even some traffic at the front of the park. I absolutely can’t stand waiting but I promise you it’s worth it! Round two of stunning views:

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This time, we parked right where the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive began. I got a little excited and started running towards the gushing river. The water wasn’t crystal blue as I had expected, but it was still clear and cool nonetheless. Next to the river is a sandy beach-like area where shrubs and cacti grew. Cacti next to a river? I don’t know if that’s common but it sounds quite unusual to me.

We walked along the river for a bit — you can choose to walk on the sand or on a nicely paved road further inland. If you love a scenic walk, forget about your city’s nicest parks and check out Zion. The river runs several miles within the park; you are more than welcomed to walk along the river and make frequent stops at some of Zion’s most popular attractions.

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We had already seen Zion from above the day before, and it was getting insanely hot outside, so we decided to skip the whole bus tour and do a little exploring on our own instead. A couple minutes off the highway (where there’s a lot of overflow parking on the side) and past some trees and bushes, we found this secluded little gem.

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We sat on a huge piece of rock that stood in the middle of a little stream of water, just enjoying the shade and the sound of water flowing. I even caught a photo of my friend (who never smiles in photos) laughing! So candid.

It was a little past noon, after we agreed it was time for us to move on to our next destination, that we found another unmapped gem. This series of mountains are found on the drive towards Zion’s east entrance, probably just a 10 minute or so drive past the tunnel. As you can see, the rocks are dynamically layered in different colors. The rough pattern makes the rocks easy to climb on, so we decided to take a little adventure and hike up the rocks. It’s a really enjoyable hike because you feel like you are literally just conquering a mountain. No trails, no signs, nothing to guide you on your way up. We simply packed some water and a bluetooth speaker, and began our climb up.

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We didn’t get to the top, (I wanted to — but it was about to rain and my friends convinced me it’s probably not a good idea to be on top of a bare mountain in the rain) but we did get high up enough to see a nice view of the bumpy landscape. As we walked down, I got a better glimpse of the patterns on the rocks and found them to be just magical. They remind me of expressionist paintings where paint is applied in thick layers. The texture of the rocks are truly peculiar too; if you kick them, they actually shatter into pieces that look much like ceramics. Nature’s full of wonders, isn’t it?

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Last view of Zion before we left the park. Read about the rest of our day in my next blogpost!

Next up: Bryce Canyon & a little surprise.

– Vivian

an oasis in the desert

When we finally arrived at Zion, it was nothing like what we had expected. While Utah is basically a rocky desert, Zion is an oasis with various shades of blue and green. Cliffs layered in red, orange and yellow are surrounded by trees, shrubs and rivers of gushing water. The entrance fee is $30/ per car like most national parks, but you are only allowed to drive down one road that crosses the park east-west. Visitors are recommended to take a bus that takes you to the north of the park, with stations at some of Zion’s most well-known attractions.

It rained all afternoon when we drove through Nevada and Arizona, but the sun started to peek through the clouds just as we entered the park, highlighting parts of the rocky mountains. Here are some photos:

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The color contrast is so refreshing after driving in primarily orange soils for such a long time. Since we were planning to spend the next day in Zion as well, we opted to just drive through the park, without taking the tour bus.

The following photos are not taken in the famous Angel’s Landing, but on the Canyon Overlook trail — a much shorter and manageable trail on the east side of the park where you are allowed access in your own car. The trail starts right after the tunnel, as shown in the first photo below.

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The hike is a simple 1 mile walk that should take about 20-30 minutes depending on your speed and the weather conditions. The trail follows the edge of cliffs, and is made of rocks, soil and even a little bridge (that is actually kind of scary). Due to a large amount of rainfall in the area on the days before our visit, little puddles had accumulated and parts of the trail had turned into mud. On the bright side, we got to see streams of running water as well as some waterfalls.

The trail ends at a cliff with a 90 degrees drop. The elevation is around 7000 ft., which makes it one of the most scenic points in the park. It started raining just as we reached the overlook, so my photos turned out to be dull and hazy. However, a little Photoshop magic helped me recreate the views to the best of my memories.

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Absolutely stunningly unreal. We followed the trail back shortly after sunset and drove back to Hurricane, where we stayed the night (due of cheaper hotel prices).

For the rest of the night, we sat on a little hill with beers in our hands just staring at a sky full of stars. I don’t think I had ever seen more stars before that I did that night, and I was even lucky enough to catch a few shooting stars. It’s really hard to not feel insignificant and humbled against a sky that is brighter than the ground. I was not equipped to shoot the night skies but I had to try — and here are the results.

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I’ve always found peace in the stars. What about you?

Stay tuned to read more on Zion in my next post!

– Vivian

dead week adventures in red

For those who don’t go to school in the U.S., dead week is that week after the end of classes and before the start of final exams — a.k.a. study-leave. Since there’s no way I could possibly study for 7 days straight, I decided it was time to take another road trip. (yay!) I pinpointed a couple national parks in Utah, and planned out a route from LA to Utah. This time, we drove across 4 states in 4 days, traveling a total of around 1900 miles.

We took off on Friday night, after our last classes of the semester, and headed towards Las Vegas. It was raining lightly and there was even some traffic on the way, but we made it to Vegas a little after midnight. The rest of the night consisted of a quick tour of the Sunset Strip (in the rain), late night Denny’s and some much needed sleep.

Here’s how rainy Vegas look like in at 2am, if you’re wondering.

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We woke up the next morning energized (more or less — obviously coffee helped) and ready for the first stop on our trip: Valley of Fire State Park. You’ve probably never heard about the park before, which is not a surprise since Nevada is not quite known for it’s parks. I was skeptical about stopping by the park at first, but since it was only an hour away from Vegas and in the direction towards Utah, we thought: “oh well why don’t we just check it out.” I’m so glad we did.

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Look at those fields of orange and red! It looks so unreal but I swear it’s all real. Everything is colored a brilliant red, which resembles flames — hence the name Valley of Fire. It started raining a little when we were touring the park, but the rainwater only darkened the color of the rocks to draw out shades of crimson red. The overall landscape is gorgeous too. Dots of green shrubs are evenly spread out on lands where piles of rocks haven’t taken over. The contrast of red-orange and green paints a vibrant image that is not typically what comes to mind when one thinks about a desert.

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That’s my crew for the trip! Many more photos of them to come in my following posts. These boys are literally the best people to road trip with.

Now for the best part: the rocks have caves in them! Some are huge — large enough to fit a few people, while others are tiny little holes. According to my friend who has an interest in geology, the form of the rocks are created by the change in sea levels over millions of years. To think that all of the land we walked across was once underwater is really quite fascinating.

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And that’s not it — a short drive deeper into the park and you’ll witness rocks that look like bacon! The different minerals in the rocks produce distinctive stripes of meaty colors that look just like pork belly. We walked around for a bit but was sad to learn that the best view is at the end of a 3 mile hike. Since it started to rain quite heavily and the area is known to have flash floods, we decided it was time to get out of the park.

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The drive out was beautiful. The sky turned white and foggy, leaving only blobs of red-orange scattered across the land. Valley of Fire is definitely a place worth revisiting.

Next stop: Zion National Park.

Next blogpost will be up tomorrow, I promise!

– vivian

desert things: sand, rocks & cacti

Our last stop before returning to reality: Joshua Tree.

If you’ve never been to Joshua Tree, here’s a couple of quick facts about the state park:

It’s a desert.
There’s a variety of strange and interesting vegetations.
At one point, there’s a bunch of rocks which you can try to climb on.
You probably won’t be able to find a better place around to stargaze.
Every part of the park is picture perfect.
If you live in Los Angeles or the greater LA area, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t visit Joshua Tree at least once.

If you ever do decide to visit Joshua Tree, enter from the south of the park and you won’t be charged an entrance fee. It’s about 50 miles to drive through the park, which would take about an hour and a half if you don’t make any stops (which is highly unlikely). Although the road is very curvy, the drive is definitely enjoyable because you are constantly surrounded by strange looking desert plants. They’re super ugly but that makes them kind of cute too. Judge for yourself.

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Here comes the rocky part that I was talking about. Its super cool how the rocky hills consist of hundreds of individual boulders that pile on top of each other like they are purposefully placed there. I still have no idea how the landscape had been created naturally overtime, but it’s so fascinating to see (and climb) these rocks. There’s also a huge rock with holes/caves in it, which I believe is called the Skull Rock. Scary, but it really does look like a skull. It’s fun to try to scramble your way up the rocks to get a better view of the area – just make sure you can get down.

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Our very last stop in Joshua Tree is a hidden gem on the north of the park. If you exit from the northern entrance and continue to head northwest, you’ll find this little museum in the middle of the desert. It’s called the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum and it’s absolutely amazing.

For about the last fifteen years of his life, Purifoy lived in Joshua Tree to create assemblage sculptures from scrap that he collects. The scale of the museum is incredible. It feels like a deserted little town that is built from the imagination of the artist. Every piece of sculpture that Purifoy created is also extremely thought-provoking. The emptiness of the constructions contrasts with purposeful details to create a paradoxical combination of simplicity and complexity. There’s a strong sense of wistful nostalgia for a simpler time. It’s also free – so do pay this little gem a visit if you’re ever in the area.

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Annnnnd that’s a wrap. Last photo is of the amazing view we saw on our way back to LA when we drove past Big Bear Mountain. Shout out to Brandon for being the best road trip buddy and for driving most of the trip.

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Shot on Olympus EM-5 Mark II with 9mm Fisheye

1700 miles / 4 days / 3 states

Yeah that was fun.

– vivian

the grand canyon

On the third day of our trip, we finally reached the legendary Grand Canyon. To be honest, I really didn’t expect much. Growing up, I believe it’s safe to say that we’ve all heard about or seen photos of how magnificent the National Park is. I guess I was pretty cynical – what is so great about a huge ditch in the center of Arizona?

First of all, the canyon is huge. Not that I didn’t already know it’s big, but seeing the size of it still amazed me to the soul. There’s a trail around the canyon that tourists are encouraged to follow, but there’s really no point in following the trail because the view doesn’t change much. It’s like an ant looking into an empty swimming pool. The juxtaposition is real.

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If you ever decide to visit the Grand Canyon, you HAVE to drive the extra 20 something miles to Desert View Watchtower. Hop across the fence, hike down a little bit and you’ll see the this priceless view. My friend and I chose the spot below and just sat there in complete silence. Neither of us knew what to say. It sounds strange, but the landscape was so inspirational. For hundreds of miles ahead of us, there is nothing but rocks, sand and trees. Not only is it so refreshing to take a break from the bustling fast-paced city life, I felt empowered and energized from just observing the broad horizons. I remember smiling and thinking to myself: “there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

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After the Grand Canyon, we took a detour to Phoenix to drop some of our friends off before heading back to LA. We spent the night in the city of Blythe, which lies on the boarder between California and Arizona. We arrived at a shitty little motel at 12am, and spent ten minutes ringing the bell at the front desk before a tired receptionist came out to give us our keys to a pretty rundown room. Yes, taking a road trip with a budget leads to less pleasant experiences like this, but all the beautiful things you see don’t look half as good without these rough experiences on the road. I guess that’s a part of the charm of road trips.

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Shot on Olympus EM-5 Mark II with 9mm Fisheye

Last post on our little journey will be up tomorrow: lots of sand & sun & smiles at Joshua Tree!

– vivian

city of rocks

As the efficient and productive people we are, we managed to visit one more spot after our day in Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend. For some reason, we thought it’d be cool if we drove across the boarder into Utah. An hour into driving, we noticed our phones had jumped an hour ahead because we had entered a different timezone. (Wtf?!! That was the first time I ever crossed timezones on land!) We continued to speed towards the valley as the sun began to set. We watched as the sunlight softened and transformed the land into a warm field of gold. Ahh I still can’t get over how beautiful that sight was.

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Monument Valley – I am at a lost of words. We had to pay ($20 I think?) to get into the park but it was so worth it. I sat on the same spot for an hour just staring at the stone statues against a changing backdrop. I’ve always found peace and joy in sunsets, but the sunsets in Utah are extra soothing. I’ll just let my photos do the talking:

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I really wish we could have spent the night at Monument Valley, but our schedule didn’t give us the liberty of time. But no regrets, because I am definitely coming back here soon in the future.

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Shot on Olympus EM-5 Mark II with 9mm Fisheye

Next stop: Grand Canyon.

– vivian

caves of red and rivers of blue

All along our road trip, we’ve been seeing some breathtakingly magnificent views. I’ve concluded that I’ll never get bored of driving in Arizona because the beautiful landscape will never fail to amaze me. It’s so exciting how there could be a drop-dead gorgeous scene waiting for us after every turn we make. Sometimes after driving uphill for a while, we’d find ourselves on a peak where every obstacle in sight is no longer visible, and we are faced with a vast amount of bare, flat, earth in a variety of magical colors (apparently because they possess different minerals). We also got to observe how the landscape changed as we sped down curvy roads. At one point, there was nothing but sand on our left, rocks ahead of us, and trees on our right. Seeing entirely natural patches yellow, red and green laid out so blatantly before me is a sight that I have never even imagined.

It doesn’t sound half as fascinating as it looks in person, and I’m afraid even my vibrant photos can’t possibly capture how it feels like to be there in the center of nature’s raw creations.

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Our first stop was Antelope Canyon. We had to join a tour group (which I don’t particularly like) to venture down to the underground world of red and orange but it was so worth it because the Lower Antelopes was nothing like anything I’ve ever set eyes upon before. Yes, the photos were edited and highly saturated but trust me when I say the rocks are actually colored a brilliant red.

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The best thing about the canyon is the occasional beams of sunlight that shine through the gaps between the rocks. They cast a spectrum of red on the intricate patterns printed on the rocks – apparently created by years of flash flooding against the sandstone rocks – which highlights the shapes and forms of the rocks. Somehow the patterns reminded me of ceramics; of smooth lines created by gentle pressure that is applied to a piece of clay on a pottery wheel. It’s been a week but I am still in awe of how this sort of meticulous conformity exists and is preserved in nature.

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Our next stop was the Horseshoe Bend: a crystal clear river of blueness in the middle of a rocky desert. Not to mention the shapes of rocks do present an uncanny resemblance of a horseshoe. The scale of this site is also unbelievable. My friend and I tried to climb on top of a hill of rocks to get a full view of the landscape but concluded that it’s quite impossible to see the entire canyon unless we’re on a helicopter or something. And yes, those are little boats docked on the edge of the river. How did people even get down there? I have no idea but I’d love to know. That place must look a lot like paradise.

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Shot on Olympus EM-5 Mark II with 9mm Fisheye

Check back in a few days for a post on Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon!

– vivian