Guest Post: Kim's crazy notion

Our second guest poster is none other than one of my favourite bloggers, Kim of the ever quirky and oh-so-fabulous Fill Your Well! Be sure to visit her and read all about her big move from San Francisco to L.A., plus all the other exciting things just around the corner for her. Picnic wedding? Ride on an elephant? Yes indeed!

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hello lovely readers! it's kimbirdy from fill your well. i was super excited when erin asked me to share one of my favorite vacations with you all. it's actually hard to pick a favorite {i mean, aren't all vacations, by definition, wonderful?}, but when i think about it, my favorites are always the ones that include big adventures.

so i'm going to share with you my biggest adventure! it was the summer right before i started grad school and dannon and i got this crazy notion to backpack thesouthwestern national parks. our first stop was the sequoia national forest. we played in the kern river and hiked up into the woods where we pitched our tent, only to find ourselves surrounded by free-roaming cows in the morning! they were so cute and we bonded over the fact that i'm a vegetarian and would never eat them.

our next stop was death valley. did i mention it was august and that we arrived during the hottest part of the day? yeah, it was about 130 degrees. we could only stay outside for a total of 10 minutes before we started feeling our blood boiling. death valley went like this: sit in the car with the ac blasting, douse ourselves with cold water, and hide ice cubes in our clothes. then jump out! seriously, 5 minutes later we were completely dry. it was the most beautiful, magical place i've ever been, but next time, we're going in winter!

next up was the grand canyon. we backpacked down to a mesa in the middle of the canyon. that night i awoke to discover the august meteor shower! we had no idea when we planned our trip, but it was completely magical to see so many shooting stars from inside the canyon! the trail we chose was one that was no longer maintained by the rangers and it turned out to be a pretty risky climb. on our way out we hiked even deeper into the canyon to find the river that was supposedly there for more water. but no, no water anywhere! so we found ourselves a couple miles down, far away from any living soul, having to hike out in the heat of the day with no water. if i've ever experienced a miracle, it was that hike out!

our final stop was zion national park. this one was a really lovely way to end our big adventure. after so many hot backpacking trips it was amazing to hike through the cool canyon river. there were so many pretty places along the narrows, where the canyons twisted and the colors glistened. just beautiful!

i highly recommend each of those places for any future holiday plans you might have and thanks for sharing those memories with me lovely readers!

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Why am I not surprised that Kimbirdy's favourite vacation is as unique and fantastic as she is? Thanks so much, Kim, for this wonderful post!