Saturday – July 4

Day 30

3 Hours can make a huge difference.  We left hot hot hot weather in Zion National Park.  It was over 100 during the day and 80’s at night.  Your only solace was to find the river.  Bryce Canyon is at over 8000 feet altitude and that makes a lot of difference.  It is in the mid 70’s and beautiful!  Feels amazing!

Bryce Canyon is unique.  It is one of the smaller national parks.  We are here four nights, so we don’t feel rushed to see what it has to offer.  Today we drove to Rainbow Point and drove back the length of the road stopping at various viewpoints.  The Hoodoos stand like an army in the valley.  It really isn’t a canyon, though named as such.  It is more of a natural amphitheater created by erosion leaving precarious hoodoos to guard the landscape.  Tomorrow we get to hike among them!

America celebrates Independence day.  Sadly, one year I was in Canada on the 4th of July…. long story.  There was a noticeable absence of fireworks.  No one was setting off bottle rockets.  There were no Roman Candles.  There were no mortars going off in the distance.  And you couldn’t find a fireworks show anywhere.  It was sad.  Not so in Utah.  It wasn’t the Stars and Stripes Spectacular of Spotsy county.  But it did the job!

Itinerary: Rainbow Point, Bryce Point

Sunday – July 5

Day 31

Cicadas are everywhere!  We were hiking the loop and kept hearing this clicking sound echo through the Hoodoos.  A little investigation and we found our culprit.

Bryce Canyon is a mix of Grand Canyon and The Badlands, yet accessible.  We didn’t try any hikes in the Badlands, and maybe there are some interesting ones.  The only hike you can take at the Grand Canyon is down to the canyon floor.  That is 9 hours round trip and several liters of water.  The lower you go in the Grand Canyon the hotter it gets.  Bryce Canyon feels more at your disposal.  You can hike down into the Queens Garden (that is Queen Victoria 4 pictures down) and continue onto Navajo loop to enter Wall Street.  Wall Street is The Narrows of Zion without the long hike and without the water.  The walls envelope you.  But, as with any good hike, and as we have learned many times on this trip, what goes down must come up.  Zig zag zig zag like ants up their tunnels.

Water in this place is surprising.  Yes, it has been raining every evening.  That isn’t normal. Nor is having to wear a jacket on 4th of July.  But still, finding a river in this terrain feels out of place.  It was a beautiful and refreshing.

Itinerary: Queens Guarden Loop, Navajo Loop, Moss Cave

Monday – July 6

Day 32

Cows are loud.  We headed out to fish today (yes in the rain, and no we didn’t catch anything).  On the way we got caught in a cow-jam, hundreds of cows on a drive down the road.  They were more interested in watching us do our thing than being part of the drive.

Itinerary: Fishing at Tropic Reservoir