Bryce Canyon Day Two

Today was a partial work day for me.  With a fair internet connection I was able to work on the company payroll and some other bookkeeping chores.  Later we explored some of the area outside the park boundaries by driving out highway 12 to the area called Escalate National Monument.  This is more a geographic area than a single spot.  It is popular for back country hiking and riding ATV's.  Once again we got lucky on the weather in spite of the forecast.  It was pleasant, no wind, no rain (on us anyway) and traffic was light.  Here are three pictures of what we saw today.

For a change, looking UP at Hoodoos.

Bryce Canyon

We made our way into the national park this morning and were not disappointed.  Although there was a threat of snow last night (it was 34 when we got up) it did not materialize.  We had a forecast for today that included rain but we were lucky and could only see it off in the distance.  The threat of snow is back on tonight along with possible thunder storms and 25 degree temps.  The crowds of people like us have been modest (for a place like this) and we have always found a parking place where we wanted to stop.  We are grateful for that because it makes the visit much more pleasant.

Here are a few pictures from today's excursion.

Canyon Overview

The first up close Hoodoo

A whole lot of Hoodoos.  (I like that word - can you tell?)

My favorite for variety and texture.  God was having a good year (or two) when this was created.

As usual what is missing here is a feel for the scale of all this.

Zion to Bryce Canyon

We left Zion this morning but got one last treat when we realized that last night was the full moon and it was the closest it would be to earth all year.  We walked up to a small embankment on the perimeter and waited (with a bunch of other people who apparently drank their dinner.... they were having way too much fun for as chilly as it had gotten)  Anyway, I digress.  We waited and were rewarded with a nice view.  I took my camera and telephone lens but Arlyene had to act as my tripod - and she was cold - so this one was the best I could do.  My friend Frank would have done a lot better.  Sorry Frank.

We are in our campsite now near the entrance to Bryce Canyon and hope to go see the HooDoos tomorrow.  That should be our next post.

LAST DAY IN ZION

People with a Death Wish ?

This picture may be a little fuzzy depending on your computer and whether you are viewing in the blog or email.  If in the blog click on it to enlarge.  Those arrows are pointing to rock climbers at various stages of assent.  They are pretty small because the formation is so BIG.  

We saved the best part of Zion, the actual canyon itself, for the last day.  It was more 'fun' because there were more people than on Thursday.  That made it more 'interesting'.  With me on the mend Arlyene and I did two hikes, one level (and paved) trail that was just over 2 miles round trip and a second that was only one quarter of a mile but much steeper.  I went up like a Marine, my knees almost buckling at the top, then came down like a sissy.  I have dozens of pictures of formations looming over our head like 1000 story sky scrapers.  'Big' seems like too small a word in Zion Canyon.  A unique place.  We look forward to coming back prepared for some of the longer, more remote day hikes, where there will be fewer people.  We will find a way to make some more pictures available when we get an internet connection where it does not take the length of a Mariners nine inning loss to get the post to go through.  Things should improve tomorrow when we get to Bryce Canyon and we are looking forward to both a lot.

If you have never been here they have a very efficient system for moving people around inside the park and in the small town just outside the park entrance there are a number of nice hotel/lodges.  There is also a lodge inside the park.  There are two public campgrounds in the park.  One on a first come first served basis and another were you can make reservations.  They are rustic.  We are sissies.  We must have our creature comforts.  I don't think they can accommodate rolling condos anyway and we would feel out of place with a lot of tents and campers.  The jeering as we had to be towed out a place we managed to get into but can't get out of would be painful.

Tomorrow on to Bryce Canyon and something different. 

Zion Update 1

Still in Zion.  Mr Sicko is improving.  Arlyene is being patient, anxious as she is to get in some hiking.

The major part of the canyon in the national park is only accessible via the park's shuttle system.  No private vehicles.  Yesterday we just drove to the areas that we could go with the truck which included a very dark 1.1 mile tunnel.  It is so narrow and low that when a tour bus or motor home comes along they switch to one way traffic then the big rigs can drive down the middle of the tunnel to avoid hitting the ceiling.  We will not be going that way with the coach.  We will do the shuttles tomorrow. There is another canyon in the northern part of the park called Kolob Canyon and you can drive your own vehicle there so we will do that today.  It appears to be between a 75 - 100 mile round trip.

 It is hard to find one picture to represent what we saw yesterday but the extremely slow internet connection we have prevents me form uploading more than one so this is the one I picked.  Hopefully when we have a better connection I can post a better sampling of what Zion looks like.  If you are viewing this in the blog (vs e-mail) you can click on the picture for an enlarged view.

Zion River RV Park

Just a quick note to say that we arrived from Vegas in good time at our RV park near Zion National Park and are all set up and taking it easy.  Yours truly is a little under the weather right now so not pushing it.  Might just be that I have not been hydrating like I should have been and it is catching up with me.  Hopefully 100 gallons of water and some Motrin will clear things up.  It is beautiful here, 84 with a light breeze and lots of shade trees.  I will attempt to add a picture to this post later.  I am using the campground's free WIFI and so far it has been pretty good.  I have added our Location to this post so can see where we are if you are interested.  If you are reading this in e-mail form you can log on to the Blog by clicking on title at the top of this post and then you can click on the Location to see a map.

View 1 from the park.

View 2

 These pictures are nothing spectacular but they are all I can manage this afternoon.  It to a very long time to upload them so there may not be a lot more until we get a better connection.

ON TO ZION

After a great time visiting family we have said our good-byes here in Las Vegas and put our outdoor stuff in the truck so we are half way to being ready to set sail in the morning for Zion National Park.  On the map above our route is between numbers 11 and 12 and is only about 160 miles cutting across the northwest corner of Arizona and into Utah.  We should be there by early afternoon.  We will only have cell phone/internet access part of the time and don't know if we will be able to post pictures or not.  But sooner or later they will come.