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It’s also for waterfalls! A short hike and a steady tripod was all that it took to get a shot of this little waterfall.

The Narrows in Zion is great place for a hike through the cold water. During a flood the rocks are lifted up and pushed into unique little pockets carved out of the wall. It almost looks like someone has carefully selected and stored each individual rock there.

I was heading to another spot for sunset when I saw this landscape and had to stop. The hours before the sun goes down can be just as picturesque as the sunset itself when you are surrounded by crazy rock formations such as these.

Hiking up The Narrows in Zion requires getting wet. I’m normally looking for any excuse to get in the water with a tripod to get a shot of water like this flowing by, but for this hike it was required instead of optional.

A trip to Iceland should start with some ice. While much of the country is very green, I wanted to make sure I got to see the glaciers. This boat tour of Glacier Lagoon, or Jökulsárlón got us up close and personal with the glacier and the many icebergs that break off from it and float in the water. It was crazy to see this pure blue ice moving around the lagoon, and knowing that these were just tiny chunks of the massive glacier.

Zion has many amazing spots, and this place is no exception. The bridge over the river provides the perfect viewpoint to take in the sunset and see all the dramatic beauty that Zion has to offer.

Seeing lava flow into the ocean is a rare sight, but my timing was just right to see it on a recent trip to Hawaii. The lava near the Kilauea Volcano at the Kamokuna ocean entry produces a lot of steam as it hits the cool ocean, and at night you can see the red glow of the lava when the sun goes down

Hiking in Pinnacles National Park leads to many great views such as this panorama taken from the center of the park. The climb up here has some interesting steps carved in the rock along the way, and once you complete those you can look back on the trail that got you here in the center of the frame.

This steep set of stairs on the high and narrow trail in Pinnacles National Park is a good reminder to keep on climbing up and up in the new year!

I started off the new year with a great hike at a place that is close to home but new to me, Pinnacles National Park. An afternoon hike led us from green valleys to high peaks, through talus caves and right over these rock pinnacles where it looked like there couldn’t possibly be a trail at all. A great adventure to start a new year!