Sep 29, 2006 - Bryce Canyon - Grand Staircase

Sometimes the word Inspirational is the only one that fit's the scene. The Bible says that the heavens declare His glory and the firmament his power. Last night the neighbor, who was from Salt Lake, was a star gazer and had a 16" mirror telescope, and this incredible set of special binoculars. To see the millions of stars that cannot be seen by the human eye, the colors of red, blue, and amber, and to see other galaxies with their multitude of stars and trailing dust storm tails was truly inspirational. Then to leave the next morning and...

Sep 20, 2006 - Long Travel Day

Today we traveled from Park City to Bryce Canyon National Park. Along the way we reviewed our reservation schedule and found out we were a day early! Well--it was snowing in Park City with more expected for the next few days--so charge on. We got to Bryce and the RV park was out of spaces. So we dry camped in an open space--no electricity but we had water in the RV. Everything was OK until about 4AM when the heat went off. Outside temps were about 28. So we got out more blankets and at 7am--I hooked the truck to the RV to get power and...

Sep 9, 2006 - Panguitch UT - Scenic Byway 12

We spent several days at a park near Red Canyon, a beautiful, small part of the Dixie National Forest (known around Utah as "Utah's Dixie"). From there we could drive to Kodachrome Basin State Park on the east and Cedar Breaks National Monument on the west. But first the drive there: We drove the steepest grades we have yet seen on this trip (or anywhere, for that matter). One was 12% and another was 14%. Only downhill grades are marked, but I'm sure the uphill grades were comparable. After all, we began and ended at approximately the same...

Aug 26, 2006 - Bryce Canyon

Before we arrived at Bryce Canyon, we stopped for lunch at restaurant on the road side, we were amazed to see cod and chips on the menu, considering we're in the desert! We both ordered it, as we are missing our normal diet quita a bit, we were surprised when we got 2 pieces of cod and a plateful of crisps! It was a bit weird eating crisps with fish and ketchup. We are staying 3 miles outside Bryce Canyon in a roadside motel. Bryce Canyon is a very spectacular place, probably more so than the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon is just to...

Aug 13, 2006 - Las Vegas, NV to Panguitch, UT

We left Las Vegas as the sun came up. What a beautiful sunrise over the desert. After briefly driving through Arizona, we arrived in Utah. We stopped in St. George for a quick breakfast in the motor home and a short walk for the dogs. Next stop, a small town called Panguitch, where we'll be staying for 2 days. After settling in, we drove to Panguitch Lake and went for a short hike with the dogs. For my gardening friends, the wildflowers here are so beautiful. Because the summer is shorter here, the wildflowers bloom later and luckily, we've...

Aug 9, 2006 - Breathtaking Bryce Canyon

We entered Bryce Canyon park and caught the free shuttle which runs every 8 minutes. Bryce Canyon is not a canyon at all. Extending for 18 miles along the edge of a plateau this fairyland of stone is a series of horseshoe-shaped amphitheatres carved by riverlets. Time, wind and water collaborated to create the fanciful rock formations known as hoodoos. Making this kaleidoscope of color even more dramatic are the vast backdrops of stands of evergreen and a cobalt blue sky.

Jul 22, 2006 - July 22-25 - Bryce Canyon National Park

We drove from Mountain Home ID to Brigham City UT, where we stayed for a couple of days. It was very hot there, but otherwise nothing of note. Although there are things to see there (among other things, the Golden Spike Historical Site, where the first transcontinental railroad was joined together), we chose to take it easy and concentrate on laundry, housecleaning, etc. The drive was interesting, with lots of fields of golden grain next to green grass or other crops. Other areas looked just like parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Max loved...

Jul 21, 2006 - Moved Again To Panguitch, Utah This Time

Hi Everyone, Well I'm sure you are all surprised to hear we have moved again. We left Moab on Friday, July 14, driving up highway 191 to reach I-70 and then heading west. We went through a couple of small towns quickly, but after we passed Green River we saw a sign that warned there were no services ahead for about 100+ miles. Usually the only exits we saw were ranch exits that the government had to provide in order to build the interstate across the land. Finally after driving 140 miles we exited to highway 89 at Richfield and had lunch...

Jun 21, 2006 - Day 5

Off to Bryce. We awoke early in an effort to get to Bryce Canyon National Park by lunch. We wanted to spend some quality time enjoying the scenery. The drive through the backroads of Utah were very pretty. We followed some streams and bright blue lakes. We had to take the pass through the mountains which took us to an elevation at the summit of almost 10,000 feet. There were beautiful red rock formations approx 20 miles outside of Bryce Canyon National Park and than the area turned flat. Not much there. We were very surprised. We arrived...

May 17, 2006 - Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon

May 16, 2006 This morning, Dave woke up with a cold. Our plans today include driving to a campground near Bryce Canyon and we went ahead with our plans. Dave will suffer through his cold. We left our campground and headed for Red Canyon RV Park in Panguitch, UT. We arrived there at lunch time. We ate lunch and decided we still had time to visit Bryce Canyon. We drove a mile to Red Canyon, which is before Bryce Canyon. Red Canyon is "red". There were two tunnels to drive through that were made out of the Red Canyon. We drove on to the...

May 15, 2006 - Zion National Park

Left Vegas early this morning and passed through 3 states to arrive in Zion National Park. This is because we began in Nevada, then went through about 20 miles of Arizona before crossing into Utah. (Also took another little detour along the way that we weren't meant to - although the Arizona bit was correct!) What an amazing place Zion turned out to be!!! The canyon walls were absolutely stunning with the base being covered with a type of fir tree and then higher up the slopes a red layer due to iron oxide staining and then white at the...

Apr 29, 2006 - Just another pretty place

We've now spent over two weeks ascending the Grand Staircase, a leisurely journey through northern Arizona and southwestern Utah. There's little argument that this is some of our nation's most stunning geography and geology. We're glad to see many foreigners enjoying this part of our country - so different from our coasts and cities. But we're now becoming almost jaded in our reaction to more and yet more gorgeous cliffs, mountains, spires, slot canyons and natural arches. It's kind of like growing up in Carmel and no longer being...