Day 32: Bryce Canyon to Lehi

Since Ruby's was the only motel on this trip that did not provide a complimentary breakfast of some sort, we got an early start and arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park at 7AM. We decided that this was the perfect time to arrive at a national park. No crowds, no traffic. This park has a shuttle, but it was nowhere in sight and you can drive to all points of interest. So off we went to Sunset Point. We found ourselves on the rim of a canyon some 8,000+ feet high looking over a vast sea of hoodoos. I think they should call it hoodoo canyon. It was just amazing.

There was a path that lead down among the hoodoos, but we decided to do that on our way back since the sun was good for pictures and we wanted to stay ahead of the crowds. We passed a tour bus coming in as we exited. Bryce Canyon is not just one canyon but a series of semi-circular canyons with brilliant colors and spirals, balanced rocks, and all sorts of formations. All the view points were from the rim, looking down at the cliffs.

We stopped at a natural bridge formation and saw a raven sitting on one of the fence posts. I gingerly rolled down the window and snapped some pictures. But as we got out of the car, the raven stayed put. So I got closer and closer. He still stayed put. Having read somewhere that animals that are not afraid of humans are dangerous, I stayed back about 3 feet, but he wasn't budging. Instead of "never more," we named him "never move." He was still there when we left.

After getting our fill of canyon views, we went back to Sunset Point to take that path and get an up close and personal look at some hoodoos. The Navajo Loop sign said that it was 1.3 miles -- didn't sound so bad. So we started down into the canyon. It was very, very steep and windy trail with a number of switch backs and great views along the way. I kept stopping to take pictures and Jim kept saying, "you know we have to go back UP sometime." And, "Everybody is going down, but nobody is coming back up." We kept going until we finally reached the floor of the canyon and the trail leveled off. We took a break in the old river bed and turned around the bend. And then we encountered the UP part. The trail had about a 10% grade, was in the sun and at 8,000 feet gave a new meaning to the "breathtaking view."

We went slow and rested every few switchbacks, but it was a long climb back up. As we finally surfaced and were sitting on a short wall resting, along came a bus-full of Japanese school children with guides and a video photographer bringing up the rear. We decided to wait until they passed us, but I think we still ended up in their video.

Having exerted more than our daily ration of physical activity, we took another rest at the Visitor Center and headed out of the park, on our way home. We passed through the Red Canyon State Park. Just more beautiful Utah scenery. Also passed the exit for the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. According to my AAA book, hundreds of movies and TV shows were filmed there.

It was only 20 miles to the Interstate and we were back in the groove. After viewing the beauty of the national parks, the views from the freeway seemed desolate. Trees were gone and we were in desert hills all the way to Lehi (just north of Provo) where we pulled off for the night.

At our first stop in Arizona we noticed that the motel room clock was an hour earlier than Jim's watch. I just knew we couldn't be in the Pacific Time Zone. We checked my cell phone and it agreed with the motel, so we changed the watch. The only thing I could figure out was a daylight savings time change -- but we encountered it on a Tuesday or Wednesday -- we have trouble with what day it is too, but I know it wasn't Monday. Anyway, when we got to Lehi, the motel clock was one hour later -- back where we started from. So we threw up our hands and now just look at the motel clock when we check in to see what time it is.

We went over to the grocery store across the street from the motel and bought some TV dinners and tried to buy some beer. That's when we found out it was Sunday.

It's homeward bound tomorrow -- should take us about 3 days to get there.