Note: Skip to the end for my collection of pieces

Flying was so much better this time. I was way in the back so I was the last one off the plane but flying through the sunset was stunning. We got to watch as the sky slowly changed hue. As we flew over the mountains I said my final goodbyes to them for now. And then I landed in Pittsburgh. My grandmother and mother picked me up from the airport at midnight and I was immediately assaulted by humility and the 90 degree PA weather. I was racked with addrenalin from travelling so I talked their ears off about the trip for the ride home. I knocked out at around 3 am and then it was all over.

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Well not completely over. I still have plenty of ideas and photos from Utah. That first piece in the slideshow below was done a few weeks after getting back and there are more on the way. So many pieces are brewing in the back of my head. I won’t be done with Utah for a long while. However, the trip is over. It was incredible.

Throughout the entire trip Utah did not disappoint. Every time I thought I had seen all it had to offer, there were new sights. From the first view off the plane into Becky’s valley to going south into desert, nothing can describe the experience of traveling Utah without doing it yourself. I came back from Moab into the lush forest by a creek and then went up onto Snowbasin and saw the view from up top of the mountain. I headed into Salt Lake City followed by Park City, which appears to come out of a magazine with it’s beautiful houses on the mountainside, and to a calm spot on the water to paddle. There were even more rock formations but now in northern Utah and then snow and wildflowers on Powder. We could sweat to death one day and play in snow the next! We went from walking the Salt Lake by the Jetty to climbing on a sandy and rocky island and finished off on the Divide Trail and being able to see almost all of this from one spot.

The view is indescribable and so is the feeling of looking out over that tiny section of the world except it feels so big because it took a whole month for you to explore it. Finally you identify and say you’ve been everywhere you can see and more. The amount of places you have visited in the last month is staggering yet that trail puts into perspective how big the earth really is. Up there reminds you of just how huge mountains can be and how much there is to see in the world. Despite how the height might make you feel big, you are really just a tiny part of mother nature along for the ride.

I cannot wait to travel again, whether back to Utah to explore some more mountains and arches, or to a completely different location. The world is stunning. Utah has given me a completely new perspective of landscapes and strengthened my sense of connection to the earth.