Bryce Canyon - Thursday, June 9, 2011

Bryce Canyon - Thursday, June 9, 2011

It was a mite nippy outside and inside this morning. Tom said that when he went out it was 34 degrees. When I went out later it was 33 degrees. When Tom got up it was something like 45 degrees in the trailer. He turned the heater on when he got up so that it was about 54 degrees inside when I got up. Isn't he a honey? :o)

About 9:00am we went to Bryce Canyon. We decided that we would see what we could and then come back to the park. We like to go to the Visitor Centers in the National Parks. They have started to present an approximately 30 minute film/dvd about the respective parks. The films are very informative about the parks creation and what you can see there. We arrived just in time for the start of the presentation.

In May and for the rest of the busy season they have a free shuttle bus running to some of the more popular viewing points: Sunrise Point, Sunset Point and Bryce Point. But they miss some of the other viewing points that the views are just as spectacular and surprising. They started running the shuttles because in the Park's busy season there are four private vehicles entering the park for every one parking space. We decided that it was still early in the season so that we would not have a problem parking. And we didn't.

The thing they miss is most of the canyon. Bryce Point is only about 6 miles into the canyon area out of the 18 mile drive that is possible. The brochure says that on "most days" the shuttle will make two round trip tours to Rainbow Point, the furthest view point on the tour and also the highest at 9115 ft. The shuttles miss the 12-miles in between. We didn't.

One of the surprises was seeing one of the lesser known natural bridges. A natural bridge is when the middle of a rock formation has eroded away enough that it looks like a bridge. There is a viewing point that is called "Natural Bridge" and that bridge is very large with a large hole in the rock formation. But we found at least two smaller natural bridges at other viewing points. Pictures are better than words. You will just have to wait.

Another thing that you will have to wait for is the picture of a raven that was just about 6 feet from me and wouldn't go away. We had stopped at Auga Canyon and Tom went to take pictures while I waited in the van. Almost immediately with Tom closing the door of the van on the driver's side the raven landed in the parking lot on my side, stopped and looked up at me. And he continued to look up at me sitting there. He would walk to the back of the van only a short distance and then turn to look at me again. He was waiting for me to give him some food. Since we are not to feed the wild animals I didn't offer him anything and he was none too happy about that. At least 2 cars stopped as they were leaving the parking lot and watched this bird. Finally Tom came back with the camera and I took some pictures. I don't remember whether I took a picture of him when he ruffled his feathers and squawked at me. He was not very happy when we drove away and he didn't get anything to eat.

We drove down the 18 miles to Rainbow Point to see it's marvels of creation. Then we drove back stopping at all of the view points that we could. Finally we decided that it was time to go hunting for bread, milk and gas for our trip for tomorrow. Tom just told me that "The Man" says that it is a five and a quarter hours driving time to our next stopped over. But Tom thinks he can do better by getting on some interstate highways that "The Man" is ignoring. We shall see.

We checked on the weather at our next stop over in Ogden, Utah, and was surprised and dismayed to see that there is some flooding in the Ogden area. Tom called the RV Park tonight and asked if it was still okay to come. The woman who answered said that there is no problem at the park and the interstates are fine. So Ogden, here we come.

We have done some things to be ready to move in the morning. I'd like to get to bed early and get out of here early. But there is always something that pops up. We will try to avoid that.

Talk to you tomorrow night from Ogden, Utah.