My first camping experience took place at 9 months old and I’ve been enjoying and exploring the great outdoors ever since. As a Tucson native, I grew up surrounded by the beautiful Sonoran desert. My older sister and I spent our formative years building a fort under a Palo Verde tree and running around barefoot in the backyard “like wild banshees,” my mother always remarked. While other girls were stealing their mother’s lipstick and chasing boys in elementary and middle school, I was stealing away outside and chasing squirrels, butterflies, lizards and nearly anything else that moved and sparked my curiosity. Nature was a place to seek wonderful adventures, explore the unknown and learn first-hand how the nonhuman world worked. Thanks to my outdoorsy parents, family vacations always involved lengthy road trips to visit natural wonders, both on and off the beaten path. It was during a summer break in high school when I first met Zion National Park. After hiking in the Narrows with my mom, I was awestruck by Zion’s grandeur and felt compelled to return someday.

Throughout high school and college, my relationship with nature deepened as I continued to explore unique and wonderful local landscapes by hiking, camping and mountain biking on my weekends. After a stressful week at school, it was refreshing to wander out into open spaces to de-stress, recharge and gain perspective on life when things seemed out-of-control. I loved - and still love - the way the grand scales of nature make me feel insignificant - not in a degrading way - but just in how we can oftentimes take ourselves too seriously and get caught up in everyday distractions and annoyances. With its beauty stemming from infinite arrangements of life, earth and water in organized chaos, Nature’s “messiness,” unpredictability and real hazards stood in sharp contrast to the precise, sterile, urbanized lifestyle I was leading. I gained a deep respect for the forces of nature that have provided both inspiration and reflection for whenever I return to built environments and human-made organizational structure. 

During my last semester of college, I took courses in global warming and resource geography (dealing with peak oil) which dramatically changed my worldview and my relationship with my fellow humans, my environment and myself. My overall awareness grew exponentially while I began to realize exactly how interdependent we are on each other and our environment to meet basic needs. These courses, in conjunction with my continued outdoor activities, renewed my appreciation of the countless interconnections that people have with the natural world and allowed me to see the relationship between my own actions and their consequences. This awareness has been essential to my motivation in striving to ensure that our needs as a species do not continue to outstrip the earth’s natural limits.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing many beautiful natural areas. These special places have become sacred to me; they are sanctuaries for nonhuman life, quiet recreation, solitude and spiritual renewal. Author Edward Abbey said it best when he remarked, “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.” Today, I enjoy using my camera to record the ever-changing dance of light and life upon such wild places. Through my photography, I wish to expose the beauty of the natural world as I see it and inspire others to share my desire to cherish and protect our environmental treasures.

I tend to seek out opportunities where beauty in nature and beauty of the human spirit converge, so that I may be sustained by them and experience the happiest, most-fulfilled version of myself. Thus, I am thrilled to join the Zion Adventure Company team this and I look forward to the adventures that await as I surround myself with beautiful scenery, good company and plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation. When I’m not working in the shop, I enjoy a variety of activities including hiking, backpacking, camping, mountain biking, canyoneering, rock climbing, rock collecting, spelunking, stargazing, exploring and nature photography.