Day 126

Bryce Canyon Today

Sep 9, 2013, 3:36 PM

I cannot believe how beautiful Bryce Canyon is. I thought I'd hit the jackpot yesterday at Zion, little did I know something even more spectacular was waiting around the corner. The colors and the spires, it was so amazing. It so reminded me of making drippy sandcastles at the beach as a child, but when God does it, it becomes a Masterpiece!!!!! These stone formations defy all the laws of gravity. It is amazing to see. My mind was completely inadequate when imagining today's sights. I was completely ill equipped to imagine such awe inspiring beauty. I could spend a lifetime here and never tire of it. It was a very pleasant drive getting here, although yesterday I said I want to remember to bring the iPod so that we could listen to music and I forgot. 

When we left this morning there was a 60% chance of rain and we had to take that chance. Although we are here for 12 days, there is so much in this area 24 days wouldn't have been enough. So we figured we'd go and hope for the best. We got pretty darn good too. We came to Red Canyon and it was shocking how beautiful. Of course I had to get some pictures at the scenic turnouts. This is why we never make good time on these little day trips, I am constantly making Steve stop at scenic overlooks (and anywhere that the car will fit without falling off the cliff on the right side and won't stick out in the road more than about 3 feet - this truth inserted by Steve). So there was this first conic overlook and one just down the road a quarter mile and a nicely paved path that went alongside the road, so while I walked and took pictures along the way, Steve got in the car and drove down. Of course by now it's lunch time, I'm starting to think we do this on purpose, so we found a nice place to get lunch. While we were eating, we watched several buses pull up and unload passengers and they all came into the restaurant. All of the passengers were foreigners. I am so shocked by how many foreigners come to our National Parks. When we are at these places we rarely hear American English. There are many British accents, there are German speaking visitors, French speaking visitors, Asian speaking visitors, much more than Americans. The National Parks are like a mini UN. After lunch we headed over to Bryce, Spanky got his picture and pin then Steve and I hit the scenic road. We stopped at the Sunrise Viewpoint, and walked over to the Sunset Viewpoint, we went to the Paria Viewpoint and the Bryce Viewpoint and each one got a little better than the last. We thought about doing some of the trails, but rain was definitely threatening and the altitude was killing Steve and I both. We have noticed doing the smallest things get us out of breath so easily. So we did what we could and I was thrilled with what I saw. 

As we were taking pictures at Bryce Viewpoint the sky was really looking ominous and then the thunder started to rumble. There was rain on the horizon and dark clouds on three sides. We were at a very high point with no shelter at all, it was time to make tracks back to the car. It had been a perfect day there was no reason to risk spoiling it. We are driving back to the park exit when Steve makes an abrupt U-turn. In the field to the left there were caribou grazing. He pulled over but we weren't in a good spot and the ranger was coming by trying to keep the road side clear, so we turned around and we got to a perfect vantage point, Steve let me out with the camera and went down the road to find a place to turn around. I was able to get some good shots of the caribou and Steve picked me back up again, PERFECT!!!!!!! He really has embraced my OCD need to get pictures, I married the perfect man, sorry ladies, he's taken. 

Now we are seeing evidence that it poured outside the park while we were in there. The Red Canyon scenic pullout that we'd stopped at this morning, now had a raging river running beside it. We'd walked in there earlier, it was not wet at all. It wasn't bone dry, but it hadn't been a river and now it had rapids. I'm glad we are on our way home. 

Now I'll have another evening of getting home downloading pictures, going through pictures, making dinner, eating dinner, going through pictures some more, exporting pictures, uploading pictures, and uploading the blog. Tomorrow the weather report is not good, so we have decided to lay low and relax. I'll be sure to have something to tell you so make sure you check tomorrow's blog too.