Bryce Canyon

Friday, July 2, 2010

Before I start typing my story of yesterday I have to put in this little note;
whenever you see a word mis used, or mis spelled, its because my 'editor', has over looked it. He and I comprise these blogs together and it is his responsibility to check my typing. My responsibility is to upload the pictures and type. However. sometimes, most times, he does not. Sorry about that! (Just enjoy the pictures, I guess!) oh, and I'm trying a new photo bucket thing today so I can try to post more than 5 pictures at a time. Hope it works!

So we started out yesterday with a packed lunch and headed to Bryce Canyon. It is approximately 1 hour from where we are staying. The ride along the way takes you through 3 very, very small towns. One of them is named 'Orderville". That cracks me up. Its as bad as Hicksville. It is in a county named Kane, so of course when we saw a dummy sitting in a police car, I had to stop and take a picture.

Once inside the park we stopped at the welcome center. We watched a 15 minute film about the park and how it became, and also toured the museum. It is put together well and extremely informative. We then walked the rim for about 1/2 a miles and decided before entering down in the canyon we would eat lunch. They have a beautiful picnic area under tall pine trees and its keep very,very clean. There are signs posted on the bathroom walls to beware of rattlesnakes and other wild animals. The film told us of mountain lions.....that's as bad as bears - to me!

After lunch, we hit the trail called Sunrise. It leads you down 320 feet into the floor of the canyon. 320 feet is nothing to us. We have climbed close to 1000' before so we thought this was a piece of cake. We both had our walking sticks and a bottle of water.

Going down was not so bad - and absolutely beautiful. Once in the canyon we were astonished at the colors and and the pathways, and the chipmunks and massively huge rocks.

The story behind these rock formations, according to the film is this; The Legend People, lived here millions of years ago, before the dinosaurs and the floods and the ice age. The were 'bad' people so there was this trickster coyote who little by little turned them into stone. If you look closely you can see some people were taken by surprise and are sitting down. Others are holding hands. The coyote has never been found. An actual person named Ebenezer Bryce had settled her first and hence the name.

The trail is only 2.2 miles and makes a loop down, through the canyon, and back up to the Sunset trial. You can enter the canyon from either side. It looks very deceiving. It took us almost 3 hours to do the 2.2 miles. There were alot of people along with us and most of them were European. Everyone says hi as you pass and every face spells out the same thing....do I have to climb back up there???

As far as all the places we have experienced so far, being; Arches National Park, Canyonlands, Zion, Moab itself, and everywhere in between. This is, by far, the most picturesque place to date. This is a must see. Put it on your bucket list!

After leaving the canyon we stopped in a town called Punguiesch - or something like that. Everything is named for Indians and even if you can spell it correctly you cant pronounce it. This town was a decent size and we needed to replenish our liquor cabinet. It took a while but we did find the one and only store that was state approved to sell alcohol.

When we arrived back to the RV we had new neighbors. There were 2 little boys, age 8 playing ball outside our little area. When they saw Sire, the immediately started to wear him out. They must have thrown the ball 2000 times to him, in which he was more than happy to go retrieve. They were the cutest kids. Carson, was with his grandparents and Ceon was his best friend. Carson's grandparents were taking the boys on a 3 week vacation. They live in Tacoma WA. It ended up that the ate dinner with us and stayed until dark. We watched TV outside, which they thought was the neatest thing. We had a lot of fun with them. And I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed the break. Its amazing when the kids are not yours and you do not have the everyday pressures of bills, and work, and sports, etc. how much more fun kids can be.....

Today, we are taking the Polaris to this place called Pink Sand Dunes. It supposed to be pretty. Ill take pictures.

We altered - not alternated - (Tommy), our plans once again! We are forgoing Lake Havasu for the 4th (its just too hot there, 115 degrees),and Saturday we will head down to a National Forest on the North Rim of Grand Canyon. We hope to stay there until Tuesday and then drive around the canyon to the east past the painted desert and onward to the south rim where we will meet my sister either Friday or Saturday.

Thanks for reading and have a great 4th of July weekend.. Be safe!!!