Bryce Canyon

9/16/2008 Bryce Canyon, Utah
Last night we stopped at a rest area, about 30 miles north of Beaver. I had to run the generator for about an hour to recharge a set of the batteries. We used all three sets from both camera yesterday. Can you say lots of pictures?

Today we complete our trip to Bryce Canyon. Our trip from the rest stop will continue on I-15, then east on 20, south on 89, east on 12, then 63 and Bryce Canyon.

Carmen:
We are on Rt. 15 and there is a sign to Chain Up for the upcoming 3 mile incline and following 3 miles of decline at 6% grade. We have seen quite a few of these Chain Up signs along our travels because there are a lot of real long inclines and declines.

Before the town of Beaver is farm country with cattle, corn, hay, cutting for hay, beautiful country with plains, and mountains. You can see for miles and miles. Just outside of the town of Beaver we just did another 3 1/2 mile incline to 6,500 feet and coming down is beautiful, mountains, sage brush, and juniper, you really have to see it because pictures do not justify the beauty.

Getting onto Rt. 20E on our way to Bryce Canyon, you can see the sagebrush for miles with a backdrop of mountains. Along the road are yellow flowers similar to our daises and also another yellow flower that grown in a clump that are gorgeous. We have gone up a long incline reaching 7,920 feet and then an 8% decline with "S" turns with a speed limit of 25 miles per hour. But, it is absolutely beautiful: mountains, valley below and some of the trees have turned for fall foliage. This is just a beautiful drive and to think this is not even a scenic byway.

10 AM onto Rt. 89S lots and lots of beautiful farm land and old corrals. We are in Panquitch at 10:15 AM nice little town fixed up with a western theme. Population 1,623, elevation 6,560 feet. (23 miles to Bryce Canyon). Outside of town there are lots of crop fields, we are following the Servier River with the Aspen trees turning to yellow, it is just breathtaking.

10:30 AM taking Rt. 12E our last leg to Bryce Canyon and we are going through Red Canyon, we are going up another incline onto a plateau with sage, yellow flowers. The evergreens growing in the red dirt on the mountains are a striking contrast.The elevation is 7,777 ft.

11:00 AM We are now parked at Ruby's Inn and RV park. We dropped the levelers, hooked up the electricity and plugged in the batter charger to charge camera batteries. We are now on our way to visit the canyon and hike the Navajo trail about 1.3 miles. We walked through the canyons and saw the hoodoos, it really is hard to explain how different it is and the colors are beautiful, from cream, tan, orange, red, so many colors.

We drove along the Bryce Canyon road and saw the planned burn, it was actually burning at this time and it included 200,000 plus acres. It would take about 4-7 days to complete the burn. You could see the smoke for miles and some of the trees on fire along the road. There were a few fire fighters and rangers patrolling along the road.

At one of the overlooks we saw Ravens looking for hand outs. These Ravens are pretty big birds and are a shiny jet black. Oh, by the way we saw a group of antelopes on the way to view the parks from the overlooks. On the way out we saw 5 doe and 4 baby deer. One of them was laying down and all you could see was it's head and big ears. He was really cute.

Per usual it is around 7 p.m. by the time we get back so we op to eat at Ruby's Restaurant.

Bob:
What else can I say that Carmen hasn't already said. The driving out west here has been fairly easy. There is such beautiful scenery that the time and miles seem to pass by quickly. Anyway, as Carmen said, the views from the road have been extraordinary. Just after we get onto RT 12 we enter Red Canyon. The sights here are a precursor to what we will see in Bryce and it is great. The rock is red and white and tan all in layers.

We get to Bryce and was just going to hike see the sights then leave heading for Zion. We had parked the motor home and was heading out to see Bryce Canyon when we were passing the RV park. Our plans changed after asking the price for camping at Ruby's Inn RV Park. The price was quite reasonable and all of our rechargeable batteries are dead so it gives us a chance to recharge them.

We traveled along the park road, stopping at the turnouts. As Carmen said, at Sunset Point, we hiked the Navajo trail which loops with part of the Queens trail. This trail, and probably all of the trails in the park, had so many views of the hoodoos and cliffs, and on and on. As Carmen said earlier, it is just a fantastic place to be. The colors, Carmen told me what they were, are bright and layered through the tall columns of rock. They truly look like candy and upside down ice cream cones. That's the best way I can describe them.
After the hike, which by the way goes down then back up about 600 feet using switchbacks, we head along the remainder of the road only stopping at turnouts. Well unless the hike is short as we had to do on at least two occasions. We must see it all.

Tonight, while Carmen was writing her part of the blog, I was outside. Picture this: I'm outside in the Wyoming night, the sky is clear and not a cloud to be seen, the full moon is just coming up, and I have started a fire that I am sitting by. How great is that?? It reminds me of the cowboy movies I used to watch. I have seen three satellites go by in the night sky as well as several high flying jets. You can see a lot when the sky is clear. I would probably see more stars if the moon wasn't full or up yet, but I can still see many.

Tomorrow, I plan on getting up early to view the sunrise. Hope it is great.

We leave Bryce Canyon for Zion NP tomorrow morning after I get back from the sunrise. We will visit the park then start to head down I-15 towards Las Vegas. We'll probably stop at a rest stop along the way since we'll more then likely be kind of tired. See you later.