Part of my goal in Zion NP was to find the incredible light that I had read about in so many photography articles. As the sun starts to rise, the sunlight hits the canyon walls. That light is so harsh and bright that it is pretty much impossible to capture on camera. However, when that light is reflected onto another canyon wall, the result is awesome. You get an incredible orange glow that fills the canyon. The Virgin River becomes a mix of emerald green, blue, orange, yellow, red........just a feast for the eyes. It was around 1 in the afternoon and I was on my way out of the canyon when I turned around and saw this. It was so completely amazing. The light stayed just long enough for me to snap a few shots, then it was gone. I remember wondering if this is what it would be like one day. You close your eyes for the final time, breath your last breath...and suddenly you are standing in this wonderful place....the air is so cool and clean.....water running at your feet........the cares and worries of life are long gone. Then you see an amazing light.....and as you walk towards it, you hear a majestic voice calling to you "Well done, good and faithful servant..........and Welcome Home". Pretty awesome thought. :-)
This is Wailua Falls on the island of Kauai. It’s easy to get here by car and there is a really nice vantage point where you can view the 85 foot falls from above…..but the view from the bottom was just screaming out to us, and we found this really steep path through woods that got us down there. It took about 20 minutes, some ropes and some trekking through mud but we made it. At the bottom, we licked our wounds and stood there being pretty impressed with ourselves……. until we started noticing lots of other people down there…..people than looked like they had much less of a workout than we did. Come to find out there is a pretty easy walking path that gets you there too. I guess we could have done that…but then I wouldn’t have had this overdramatic story to tell.