It took a little longer than usual to get to the Grand Canyon. We entered the southern rim of the vast landmark and got into the national monument for free, my brother is active duty so we got in every national park for free. 

This place was amazing and quite windy. Unfortunately, there was a lot of tourists, which I sort of expected but nonetheless it was great. My brother and I camped a little ways away from the entrance of the national park and was a great spot to listen to nature and read a book at. 

Finding things to do while not having cell phone reception, which happened A LOT, can be a little tiring. Fortunately for me, I'm good at wood carving so I just kept picking up sticks and making spoons out of them, either that or faces. 

After the grand canyon we headed to Antelope Canyon, which is still part of the Grand Canyon but far away from the south rim. 

I took pictures of the whole thing and literally could not get one bad one. It was such a photogenic place that I didn't even need a filter.

Here is a picture of Antelope Canyon. Truly, it was beautiful. I took this with the camera on my phone, so it shows how wonderful this place was.

We eventually parted away from this haven and drove to Zion National Park in Utah. 

 This pace was a lot like Jurassic Park, if there were still dinosaurs alive, I'd imagine that is where they would live. 

That's all for today, but look for my next update about the rest of my trip!

Beautiful America is about finding the best places to go camping or backpack through if you're trying to travel.

Recently, I just returned from a two week trip through New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.

It was a trip my brother and I had taken while he had time for leave, he's in the military.

We originally started the trip in Dallas and traveled to Big Bend which was honestly amazing. From there we made our way to Carlsbad Caverns, huge cave in New Mexico check it out.

After Carlsbad we wanted to make it to White Sands NM but stopped in the Lincoln National Forest to setup the tent and rest. The best part about staying in the Lincoln National Forest was, believe it or not, waking up to the cold crisp air at 5:30 in the morning. I know some of you stay up until that time, but it was a beautiful site to see.

We left Carlsbad, but not before exploring some of what the small town had to offer. Heading to White Sands only took 2 hours since it was relatively close to where we were staying.

Once we got to White Sands National Monument we took a 5 hour hike in the desert, not as hot as you'd imagine, it was monsoon season, but I definitely did not put on enough sunscreen which sucks.
Our original plan was to camp there, but we took a couple hours break and headed into town to grab some food and once we got back they had closed off the entrance.

So we made the drive to Phoenix, AZ but not before stopping in Tuscon to see if we could stay at a hostel.

Bad idea.

As soon as we parked somewhere the first thing that happened was a hooker came up to the window and asked if we wanted a good time.

Drove the rest of the way to Phoenix and slept in the car for the remainder of the night while we waited for the hostel to open again.

Once we could book a room, we cleaned ourselves and went to explore some of the more interesting parts of the city which include a couple museums, some brunch spots, and a lot of traffic.

For the remainder of the day we enjoyed the company of lovely foreigners and cooked dinner while swapping stories of our travels. It was one of the most memorable nights of my life.

The following morning we said our goodbyes and set foot in the direction toward the Grand Canyon.

Stayed tuned for the rest of the story in my next post!