We have continued our journey west and have stopped at several more national parks. Thursday was spent at Bryce Canyon which is very beautiful and completely different from the Grand Canyon even though they are both part of the "Grand Staircase" with the Grand Canyon at the bottom and Bryce Canyon at the top. Bryce Canyon is full of what they call "hoodoos" which are unique rock formations that look like free-standing pillars. What amazed me were the colors of the formations; there was red, orange, pink, coral, and yellow.
When we arrived at Bryce Canyon park we first went to the North Campground to grab one of the first-come-first-serve spots and ate our lunch. Then we drove south through the park all the way to Rainbow Point and stopped at most of the scenic overlooks on the way back north. Each one we stopped at was gorgeous. Before we could make it back to Sunrise Point where we planned to hike from it started to rain. So we hustled back to our campsite where we had left the tent open and got it closed up just as it was starting to really come down. Whew!
We waited out the rain then drove back to Sunrise Point for our hike. We did the 2.9mi Queen's Garden/Navajo Combination Loop which was a great hike. It took us down into the canyon where we could admire the unique rock formations from much closer. There was lots of great places to stop for pictures. Right as we were starting our ascent the sky started to darken and it seemed we were going to get hit with Round 2 of the thunderstorm so we started hustling up the canyon. This wasn't an easy feat since it was basically just a staircase straight up, but we made it to the top just as it started to sprinkle. Then it really started to come down so we huddled under a tree to wait out the worst of it. The whole hike took us just under 2 hours but that included lots of picture stops and hiding from the rain under a tree for 15 minutes.
We made it back to camp and made a fire which we enjoyed for the evening and cooked some hot dogs and brats for dinner. Then I made myself a s'more for dessert made with Nutella instead of chocolate and that was delicious!
Today (Friday) was mostly spent driving west through Utah which has been a fantastic drive taking us through canyons and by crazy red rock formations. It kinda seems like we're on Mars or something. During our driving we also made it to two national parks: Capitol Reef and Natural Bridges National Monument.
Capitol Reef was pretty. We stopped at Chimney Rock and we also drove around the Scenic Drive, part of which was unpaved. It was raining off and on so we didn't venture off on any hikes. We also saw elk grazing as we were driving so we took some pictures of them before we stopped for lunch.
A few hours further down the road we stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument (technically not a park). It's a nice little park and was practically empty when we were there so that was nice for a change. They also have a short Scenic Drive which takes you by the 3 main bridges so we did that and stopped at each one. One of them, the Sipapu Bridge, is one of the largest natural bridges in the world. There were also several small hikes and we choose one that took us to Horsecollar Ruin, a lookout where we could see an overhang where the ancestral Puebloans lived for a period of time.
You have to look closely to see the bridges since they blend in!
Here is the overhang where the Puebloan homes are:
That catches us up to the present! We're camping tonight in Blanding, UT and tomorrow we head to Canyonlands National Park.
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