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Twice, in as many months, I have heard the title of this post uttered and have now adopted it as an essential descriptive phrase to use when beholding beauty that nearly hurts my eyes.

I first heard it in the British Virgin Islands when the transparently blue/green water and the scores of rainbow fish got to be just too beautiful to see over and over again (yeah, I am really not complaining here…) and one of my travel partners on that trip longed to see “the grayness of Newark” (well, she said that, but of course no one longs to see Newark)… anyway… I uttered the same phrase again while in Zion.

I’d like to think I have visited epic locales– oceans, cities & mountains known for their beauty– but I had not yet seen anything like Zion National Park.
Let me tell you now, any pictures you see, even the professional ones do not capture, in the slightest, what you will witness in person.

The Park, that welcomes three million visitors a year, is divided into 4 sections–all with gorgeous views, scenic drives and hikes for every level of mountaineer.

1.Zion Canyon containing: the Emerald Pools (that Jean, Rachel and I hiked), Angels Landing (the steepest hike in the entire park and upon your completion, if you have the energy to to make it back down, can buy a t-shirt proclaiming your victory ascent and The Narrows which has been voted by National Geographic as in the top 10 of their best 100 hikes in the Nation.

2.Kolob Canyons known for the famous Kolob Arch that is shown in many Zion pamphlets.

picture courtesy of First Light Photographs

3.Kolob Terrace: with the well known, yet challenging Subway hike. Parts of this hike travel through naturally made mountain tunnels and in some parts require partial or depending on the time of year (like last week while I was in Zion) total submersion and swimming into cold water.

photo courtesy of zionnationalpark.com

4. Highway 9 that includes the Tunnel– a spectacular scenic drive that leads to the South side of the Park.

Zion is a massive area and my time there was for exploring the park, but also for my friend’s wedding (which was IN the park and was GORGEOUS) which did not allow me excess time to get all of the hikes in I had wanted. Next time I go back, the Subway hike is first on my list.

Now that you know a little bit about Zion, and my original purpose of the trip… let me display some of my favorite pictures and accompanying stories.

Hiking around various areas of the Canyon we found ourselves in dry river beds full of … sand? Yep. Some of the softest sand to ever have passed in between my toes! The mountain rocks are all Sandstone (some of the largest amount anywhere in the World actually) and the Virgin River, over time, has eroded parts down into, well, sand.

We came across a family of Mountain goats while hiking and I didn’t zoom on this shot–we were this close.

This was the lodge we stayed at, just outside of the Park. The views were incredible and a free shuttle ran every 10 minutes to take you either into town or into the Park (of course we had our stealth Hybrid (see part 1). Us 3 girls shared a giant room with 2 queen beds, a queen sleeper sofa a nearly full kitchen and a deck overlooking the heated pool.

On one of our hikes…

Scenery shot! Too much beauty!!!!

I swear– it was not easy to climb up here even though it looks like it’d be pretty easy…

This concludes part II of the Zion trip… but there is more to come… and take a read of part I if you haven’t yet.

Fact: The band Iron Butterfly wrote an epic musical number called In the Garden of Eden.

Fact: the lead singer, during rehearsal, was intoxicated (shocking, I know) beyond belief and slurred the title, making it sound like In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. In their inebriated state, the band members all thought this was awesome and decided to change the name of the song to this officially.

Present day (well about a month ago): While leisurely boating our way through the British Virgin Islands, we were fortunate to hit great weather. This allowed us the ability to visit the barely touched, remote island of Anegada (see where I am going with this?)

the guys looking for places to dive

Anegada, the furthest north island in the BVI chain, is also known as the drowned island as you don’t really see it until you are nearly right up on it. The tallest point on the island is 27′ and I am pretty sure after exploring the entire island–that that measurement was obtained by one of the only 200 year round residents standing on top of a beach bar with his hands raised in the air.

The island has more goats than people

With nothing to guide an incoming boat by sight, perfect weather is required to visit the island as it is surrounded by AND made up of coral reef and navigating a boat through the coral when the water is not calm and clear can be dangerous. In fact, many charter companies actually forbid their boats to be taken to Anegada because the seas around the island can be so volatile and the reef so damaging if struck.

the boat population viewed from the beach bar

As I mentioned, we had perfect weather and anchored in the harbor for two nights. We explored the island by foot, a rented Datsun truck and by dinghy. It was on Anegada that we felt the most isolated. The beaches were empty and while there were a handful of restaurants on the island, unless you had your dinner order in by 4pm, you didn’t eat.

(note: As with many places in the BVI’s, the menu is caught shortly before it is cooked so the orders had to be in early. The menu choices didn’t vary much from lobster or prawns on any of the islands both are plentiful. The seafood was fresh and delicious for the most part–but by the end of the trip we were ready for some hamburgers).

our waiter/chef/fisherman/restaurant owner

our truck

Anegada is home to the third largest reef in the world: Horseshoe Reef. We spent our days snorkeling and diving off the shore. We swam with sting rays, swam away from barracuda and interacted with very playful turtles. The underwater coral formations were gorgeous with swim through caves and caverns and although I didn’t see as many colorful fish here as I did on the other islands, the stingrays, turtles and bathtub warm water made up for that.

Each night we’d all head back to the boat for happy hour and talk about the day (this was a regular occurrence every night in the BVI’s and I miss it so much now that we are back at home).

Nightly view

And although some may deny it–every member of our party was guilty for at least once humming/signing/doing air guitar along to the song In a gadda da vida when ever the island Anegada was mentioned by name.

When I returned home and once again had access to a steady internet connection, I learned of this Iron Butterfly story and I put two and two together. Anegada the island does have garden of eden qualities: beauty, peacefulness, desolate white sand beaches (Eden had beaches, right?) like the original name of the song that was changed to sound kinda like the island…

Did those guys in Iron Butterfly know something back then? Was their drunken slurring actually insightful musical genius beyond even their own comprehension?

Hmmmmm.