West Rim of Zion National Park = AMAZING!!!

I'm under the belief that a picture is worth 1,000 words. So by my calculations, this post will be worth exactly 13,000 words. The following pictures are from a trip to the West Rim of Zion National Park last week.

I have this little problem when I'm out on trails. I. CAN'T. PUT. THE. FREAKING. CAMERA. AWAY. So I probably took a couple hundred pictures. Woops. And the thing is that Zion National Park is freaking amazing. And you pretty much can't take a bad picture even if you try. But here are my 13 favorites.

Let's begin with the drive to the West Rim. Even the drive is freaking amazing.

I love the solitude of trail running. I love the fact that I didn't see another human being the whole time. All I saw were insects. (And a gigantic horny toad. Yep, I took a picture of him too. But I'll just stick with an insect picture.)

Now, let me give you 3,000 words worth of tree pictures:

After running 135 miles through Death Valley during Badwater last month I was shocked how quickly my body seemed to recover. The soreness was completely gone within a two days! I definitely didn't expect that. But since then my body has seemed to have a hard time getting back into the groove of running. Things don't seem to be clicking quite yet. So this "run" was closer to a hike than a run.

The fuel for this adventure was Tailwind. (And a gigantic sugar cookie nearly the size of my head afterward.)

It was UNBELIEVABLY hot outside. I kept thinking to myself "You just ran 135 miles through Death Valley! How is this heat wrecking you so much?" But the heat did in fact wreck me.

Despite getting utterly demolished by the trail, it was still so great to breathe in the fresh air of southern Utah while being surrounded by this amazing scenery.

So I got back to my car, ate the previously mentioned million-calorie sugar cookie, then headed for home. But I had to keep stopping on the way home. The sunset was hitting everything just right and the colors were incredible.

They say you should never live life looking through the rear view mirror. And I think that's true. Unless the views in the mirror look like this.

AND......my book "Nowhere Near First" comes out Monday, September 5th!!!!! I'm so, so excited. Check out www.coryreese.com for more info.