Thursday, 24th
July
(Zion)
As we usually do when we must face a leg of our trip, we wake
up early. At 8.30 a.m. we're already driving through Zion on the
wonderful Zion-Mount Carmel Hwy. This
road offers so many dramatic views that we stop nearly each hundred
meters to enjoy the panoramas. A great stop is at the Checkerboard
Mesa, a strange mountain scratched by horizontal
and verticals lines that make it look just like a checkerboard.
While we leave Zion, the sky above us is bluer than blue.
Bryce Canyon NP
We drive on the UT-12 admiring the savage
and wonderful panorama where green fields with grazing horses
and streams alternate.
Already some kilometers before Bryce some of the famous hoodoos
appear along the road. Their color is something between red and
orange and it's difficult to imagine that Nature can create something
like that.
It takes about two hours to arrive to Bryce Canyon.
When we enter the park we get the usual guide and magazine and
we head to the visitor center. Bryce is not one of the most diversified
parks and the hikes suggested by the rangers are the same we'd
already planned. We decide to start from a viewpoints' tour. As
soon as we overlook the Bryce amphitheater we feel really shocked
by the view. It is one thing to imagine this view, but it is another
thing to look at it live. All the viewpoints at a first sight
are pretty similar but each offers something special with a more
careful look. It's surely worth touring all the viewpoints and
you can do it in a couple of hours if you are not in a hurry.
Magda’s muscles still hurt after yesterday’s Angels
Landing hike so we decide to postpone our first hike until the
afternoon. We leave the park heading to Tropic,
the nearest town. Our motel is in Tropic, just 20 minutes from
Bryce by car.
The Bryce Canyon Inn is a restaurant/motel
with nice and clean rooms in the back garden. We leave our luggage
and since the sky is getting cloudy we decide to stop in Tropic
and eat dinner here before moving again to Bryce.
We eat "at home" at the Bryce Canyon Inn. Their pizza
is very good and abundant. By the time we finish our pizza the
sun is already shining. We must just prepare our backpacks and
we're already driving to Bryce. On the way we stop at the Ruby's
Inn where we ask for some information about the
rodeo in the evening. We also leave our flash memory card to have
all our photos put on a CD.
Our schedule leads us to the Sunset Point. We park there and we
reach the Sunrise Point on foot. Here we start to slope down along
the Queens Garden Trail. We walk slowly,
intrigued by the wonderful scenery, much different and more captivating
than what we saw from the viewpoints. We decide to combine a leg
of the Queens Garden Trail to a leg of the Navajo
Loop Trail, probably the most famous trail at Bryce.
Once again, as it's been happening since our arrival in Utah,
the weather is very unpredictable in the afternoon. We're just
at the beginning of the Wall Street path when a powerful thunderstorm
starts. There is lightening and thunders and the red sand of Bryce
becomes suddenly slippery. Reaching the top of the amphitheater
is very difficult. One of the many lightening bolts falls quite
close to us. We're pretty scared since the lightening and it's
thunder came almost together and it means the lightening has fallen
not far from us. We leave Wall Street as soon as we can while
the rain gets stronger and stronger. When we reach our car we're
completely wet and dirty from the red sand of Bryce.
In twenty minutes we arrive to our motel where we can take a hot,
restoring shower. Once again, we're awaiting good news from the
sky.
Rodeo
Fortunately, the good news arrives and the sky is again clear.
This means that a rodeo is waiting for
us! It starts at 7 p.m. but we arrive half an hour early to buy
a few things at Ruby's Inn. We need some food and we also take
a...cowboy hat for Magda! Rodeo aside, this hat is needed as a
protection from the southwest sun, which becomes hotter and hotter.
The rodeo starts duly with the American national anthem. We enjoy
the next two hours following the traditional challenges: the bronco
riding, the bull riding, the lazo and many other entertainments
like the one where some children had to catch some "wild"
rabbits. At the end, we leave pretty satisfied. We know this was
a tourist show and not a true rodeo but that was enough to make
us enjoy it.
Because we ate some hot dogs during the rodeo, we go back to our
motel. Our flash memory cards couldn't be transferred. We'll try
again in Moab.
Friday, 25th
July
Wall Street, Thor's Hammer &
Peekaboo Loop
We abuse a $1.99 all-you-can-eat pancakes breakfast at the Bryce
Canyon Inn and we move early. We want to arrive as soon as possible
to spend the whole morning inside the park. Often, the afternoons
are cloudy and it's better to enjoy the sunny mornings.
We come back to Sunset Point. Yesterday, we couldn't see Wall
Street properly because of the thunderstorm. We
take this occasion to hike the whole Navajo Loop Trail. Wall Street
is really as spectacular as we heard and no name could fit better.
We're particularly impressed with the contrast between the hoodoos
orange and the sky blue. Even the loop's north leg is quite interesting.
There are two natural bridges connecting some hoodoo. At the end
of the walk we arrive near the famous Thor's Hammer.
Suddenly a hat falls down from above. We pick it up to give it
back to its owner who is a couple of curves above. The man is
a Chinese who thanks us very much with many bows and "prays"
for us to allow him to take a photo of us. The result of this
photo can be seen here on the left.
We decide to go back to Tropic for dinner and on the way we stop
at the only viewpoint we hadn't yet seen, the Fairyland Point.
We also stop at the Ruby's Inn to buy some souvenirs. What we
like the most is a bear lying lazily on his side. We eat pizza
again at the Bryce Canyon Inn and rest a bit, all the while making
a plan for the afternoon. Magda prefers to take a break today
since her legs still hurt a bit. On the contrary, I'm willing
to move and so I go back alone to Bryce Canyon for one last hike,
the Peekaboo Loop Trail. This trail
is very interesting. Its hoodoos have very strange shapes and
there is plenty of vegetation and wildlife. All along the trail
many hummingbirds fly around. This trail is peaceful and I meet
just a couple of people along it. As usual, the sunny sky gets
cloudy. It means that it's about 6 p.m. I barely have the time
to get to the car and it starts raining again. I leave Bryce for
the last time.
We eat supper at Dug's Restaurant where
the hamburgers and French fries are good. Magda also tries a broccoli
cream that she likes very much.
We would have liked to have participated in the ranger program
"Sky of Bryce". We come back to our motel where we watch
tv till late. Tomorrow, we can take it easy and maybe make a couple
of stops along the road. Just a traveling leg is scheduled for
tomorrow.
)
