May 19, 2013 - Bryce Canyon

We spent the morning in Bryce Canyon. Really beautiful vistas. Ran into another couple from Polk County (Lakeland). After lunch we headed north to Otter Creek State Park in Utah and then headed south again to Bryce Canyon. In the morning, we'll head to Zion National Park and then on into Grand Canyon for several days.

May 18, 2013 - more Utah

The day started out raining and ended clearer but cool. We headed to Antelope Island from Layton (north of Salt Lake). What a great place to run or bike or hike if the weather were better. But we did run into some bikers who braved the 49 degree weather and rain. For some reason I expected a flat island. I guess after yesterday and miles of flat salt land I was not prepared for Antelope Island. Lots of mountainous areas as well as flat lands and beaches. The visitors center offered a great deal of insight into the history. Shortly after...

May 6, 2013 - Bryce Canyon NP, UT

We left Zion and headed to Bryce Canyon National Park. We have been told for a few days about people who left Bryce because it was very cold. The park is at about 8,000ft, which accounts for the colder temps. From Zion we traveled north on I-15 for about 100 miles, and then turned east for another 40 miles to reach Bryce. Along the way we passed through Red Rock Canyon, a part off the Dixie National Forest. This entire region has red rocks, and locally they have eroded and formed hoodoos. Hoodoos are strange vertical formations. Red Rock...

May 3, 2013 - Long haul

We drove a fair distance on Wednesday, 441 miles (+-680 km) all the way from Visalia CA down Highway 99 to Interstate 15 way past Las Vegas. We did not stop in Las Vegas because we felt we had seen enough of this city. We stayed overnight in Mesquite NV another gambling town in Nevada but much smaller than Las Vegas. We decided to drive the same route through Southern Utah as we did last fall. This took us through Zion National Park and we stayed in Hatch a small town in the middle of nowhere with maybe 300 people very run down except for...

Apr 29, 2013 - Queen's Garden Trail, Bryce Canyon

Today we started out on a loop trail. It's a trail that goes down into the Bryce Canyon amphitheater, something neither of us had done before. It starts at Sunrise Point as the Queen's Garden Trail down into the Canyon, then links with the Navajo Loop Trail to go further down, and all the way back up to the Rim Trail, and then follows the Rim Trail back to the parking lot at Sunrise Point. The Queen's Garden part of the trail is so named for the hoodoos that look like castles, towers, pillars, spires, minarets, etc. There is also a hoodoo...

Apr 28, 2013 - On to Bryce Canyon & The Legend of Meatball Tunnel

We bade a reluctant goodbye to Zion...many more things to do there but you just can't do them all. Leaving Zion heading to Bryce it is necessary to travel through the Zion - Mt. Carmel Tunnel - a 1.1 mile shaft drilled through solid sandstone between 1927 and 1932. The tunnelers created large roundish openings out to the Zion side every so often. And one of these openings created what we now know in our family as "The Legend of Meatball Tunnel." The following is Jonathan's recollection of the original of this piece of family lore. In...

Apr 25, 2013 - hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park

Moving day again as we decided after two nights at Zion it might be wise to head up to Bryce Canyon today (Thursday) to avoid possible weekend rush and grab a first come, first served campsite. We were heartened by the fact we passed a half dozen rigs leaving as we neared the park and sure enough we discovered they had tons of room. No serviced rv sites cull the "glam campers" as many choose to stay in commercial parks outside park boundries. We dropped our trailer and headed to see what the visitors centre could suggest for hikes. It is...

Apr 16, 2013 - Bryce Canyon Park

After we settled into our park in Hurricane we relaxed for a few days. Linda had a cold and Gwinny was not feeling well, it turned out she had a bladder infection. They began to feel better Tuesday so we planned to drive to Bryce Canyon National Park. However, as we drove north about 30 miles we encountered snow and freezing temperatures. Since we had more than 100 miles more to drive we decided to turn around and go to Zion Park. Although it was raining and many of the sites we planned to see we're shrouded in fog we were still impressed...

Apr 8, 2013 - Bryce Canyon NP

We had to go around the long way to get to Bryce Canyon which meant going via Cedar City then a bit further north before heading sort of south east into Bryce Canyon City. There was a shorter route via the tunnel in Zion NP but because of the length of the RV and Jeep we were unable to take that short cut. The weather was going to be a bit cooler (we had checked the weather reports) and there was going to be a large storm to the north but probably would not effect us very much in Bryce Canyon NP. Bryce Canyon is another spectacular park...

Apr 4, 2013 - Bryce Canyon National Park

We traveled thru the pass at Zion n.p. heading east and then north . The pass is great with many switchbacks and photo ops . Travelled thru a mile long tunnel and past many amazing rock formations. Traveled about 50 miles to Bryce . Doesn't look like much until you walk up to the first lookout point. Have I used the word amazing yet. You are standing on the edge of a cliff looking down at millions of years of erosion that has dug away 75% of the rock but the other 25% are tall spires that reach up to various levels . The only way to...

Mar 19, 2013 - Bryce Canyon National Park

I love it when a plan comes together! We were up, showered, and dressed in time for breakfast at 7:00 this morning. It was 8:00 when we headed north toward Bryce Canyon National Park, and we arrived at the entrance right at 9:00. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and roamed around for awhile, then began our drive through this beautiful National Park. We had noticed what appeared to be snow showers in the distance, as we drove toward the Park and sure enough, the snow began as we began our self guided tour. We decided to drive all the way...

Jan 4, 2013 - On The Road Again!

@@@@@@@ BACKGROUND Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks are reputed to be the most beautiful parts of the vast canyon lands in southern Utah. Two years after we married, Anil’s parents came to visit us in Canada and we had a three-week swing down the west coast of the US and then back through Nevada and Arizona to see the Grand Canyon but as it was summer, we skipped seeing any more of the canyon lands because of the heat. Over the years, we made three more trips south to Denver to visit family and managed to take in the beauty of the...