I wanted to title this post, "The Wild West," but I couldn't do it without giggling. Thus the "Not So" was inserted so that I could live with myself.

This is a collection of images from a 3 day trip from Colorado to Utah (specifically Arches National Park). While there are certainly areas of Colorado and Utah that are considered "wild," it's a far cry from the images of cowboys that were once conjured by the word West. Today, the areas we know as National Parks in America are flooded with tourists throughout the year, and it's hard to visit one without running into at least one other person. Go somewhere as popular as Arches National Park, and you're faced with traffic - both on the road and on the trails.

My boyfriend visited me in May when I was still living in Colorado, so we decided to do a little road trip and check it out. We found ourselves going off-trail as often as possible in order to avoid the crowds, and I captured these images along the way.

(Part 2 is forthcoming, when I take a trip to Zion & Yellowstone National Parks, and/or Sequoia National Forest in 2017).