Southern Utah: Home of the Most Amazing Views In The World

I haven't been running much lately. I figure after lots of running over the past year I'll take it easy for a month or so and not push the running so hard. BUT I've still been getting my feet dirty on lots of trails. Here are some of the really cool places I've been over the last few weeks:

PIONEER PARK 
This little gem in St. George Utah is a blast to hang out at and explore. Usually when we're here it's with the kids but this time I went alone.

SNOW CANYON STATE PARK 
There are lots of places at Snow Canyon that I've yet to explore. We took the kids there on a Sunday afternoon and checked out the Petrified Dunes trail.

For the first time we visited this cool overlook where we could see most of the canyon stretching out below us.

HURRICANE RIM TRAIL 
This trail still gives me a little bit of PTST from when it was part of the course of the Zion 100 the first year. It is a more technical trail but has some pretty cool views. I took Jackson and Aunt Jackie for their first time on the rim. This is one of the very few smooth sections.

Aunt Jackie LOVES, I mean LOVES to go out on runs. Any time he sees me putting on my running shoes he acts like I'm about to feed him a plate of meatloaf.

Jackson + Aunt Jackie:

LITTLE CREEK MESA
This mesa is absolutely enormous. It's a spiderweb maze of trails. I followed a long dirt road that had the added benefit of views like this:

For years I've been trying to find an overlook on the edge of the mesa and finally found it! It was completely spectacular.

And finally what may be one of my favorite jumping pictures ever. It was taken from a distance so it looks way scarier than it actually was. You should have seen the 10 second dash that was involved to get this picture after pushing the self-timer to take the picture!

The crazy thing is that the views in all these places are completely amazing.......and there are 10,000 more completely amazing places like this in southern Utah. All of us photographers around here are cheaters. With scenery like this it's impossible to take a bad picture. Utah: home of the most amazing views in the world!