Bryce Canyon Day 2
We had breakfast and checked out of the motel, not sad to leave it behind. Today is a travel day, but first a few things in Bryce to finish up.
On the way to the park is the trail to the Mossy cave and waterfall - on the "easy" list, which I have learned not to trust. But, in fact, this trail was not that bad. It followed the Virgin River and led to a mossy cave:
Back in the car, we drove into Bryce Canyon and headed to the Sunset Point overlook. There is a rim trail that starts at Sunset Point and ends at Sunrise Point (or vice versa). At Sunset Point is also the beginning of the Navajo trail that descends to the bottom of the "canyon". One look at the steepness of the path, and we knew it was a no-go for me, but Andy went down on his own.
Here's his photo of the formation called "Wall Street".
Here's his photo of the formation called "Wall Street".
His round trip took about 20 minutes; in the meantime I took photos of chipmunks and squirrels (so far the sum total of the wildlife we've spotted, plus ravens).
We walked the super easy rim trail to Sunrise Point - a paved sidewalk!
We were in time to listen to ranger talk about the geology of the park and how it was formed.
The Queen's Garden trail starts at Sunrise Point. We had hopes of doing some part of it, but one look at it was obvious that was not going to happen - somewhat less steep than the Navajo trail, but that's not saying much.
So it was time for lunch. Turns out the lodge was a short walk away. We finished our visit to Bryce Canyon National Park with food.
The drive to Zion was a couple of hours - the challenge, as always, is figuring out the pit stop. Good news! The last turn before Zion is at the "Mt Carmel Junction" with a marvelous selection of gross gas station bathrooms to pick from!
We didn't actually figure this out till the next day, but we drove through the eastern section of Zion National Park on the way to Springdale to find our hotel. The mountains are spectacular
The Queen's Garden trail starts at Sunrise Point. We had hopes of doing some part of it, but one look at it was obvious that was not going to happen - somewhat less steep than the Navajo trail, but that's not saying much.
So it was time for lunch. Turns out the lodge was a short walk away. We finished our visit to Bryce Canyon National Park with food.
The drive to Zion was a couple of hours - the challenge, as always, is figuring out the pit stop. Good news! The last turn before Zion is at the "Mt Carmel Junction" with a marvelous selection of gross gas station bathrooms to pick from!
We didn't actually figure this out till the next day, but we drove through the eastern section of Zion National Park on the way to Springdale to find our hotel. The mountains are spectacular
Plus we went through 2 tunnels. The second one turned out to be the Zion-Mt Carmel Tunnel, which is 1.1 miles long - completed in 1930 before huge trucks, buses and RVs were invented. So, when one of these huge things has to pass through the tunnel, they have to pay an extra fee and the Rangers stop all traffic in the tunnel to allow the behemoths to drive down the middle of the two lanes. All this we learned later; in the meantime, we sat waiting our turn for quite some time.
This is a glimpse of what we saw coming out of the tunnel:
This is a glimpse of what we saw coming out of the tunnel:
Since we were passing by it anyway, we stopped off at the Visitor's Center to get a jump on the Ranger questions. Stepping out of the car, we noticed the rather dramatic difference between Bryce Canyon and Zion - about 20 degrees hotter.
It didn't help that the Ranger was not helpful - the first truly non-helpful Ranger we've met. He basically repeated the info in the newspaper handout we picked up at the entrance to the park. This being our 4th park, we've gotten quite good at reading these things. It's a matter of - are these "easy" trails actually easy? What are the most important things to try to see if we only have 2 days? Zippo. No help.
Except that now we know that we MUST use the park's shuttle bus - no cars are allowed in the center of the park. So how did we just drive through what we thought was the park? Ah, that's the East section. Of course.
Never mind. It's the end of the day, it's hot, and we have a hotel to find.
The parking lot is confusing, and we make a wrong turn somewhere and end up entering a campground. At least the Ranger at that point was helpful - turned us around and heading in the correct direction.
Springdale is a small National Park town, slightly bigger and somewhat more commercial than Tropic, UT (thank goodness!). We are looking for the Quality Inn - what's confusing is that it is also an RV/tent camp ground. Interesting combination.
The front desk person has all the personality of a robot - with minimal interest, she gives me directions to where our room is (around back in building "A"), where breakfast will be (around some other corner), and the wifi info.
Finding building A is easy enough - right next to the RV and tent camp. Our electronic keys seem to require a special touch or something. One of our keys doesn't work on the front door, and the other's key doesn't work on the room door.
BUT - it is freezing in the room, which is very good news (considering our luck with A/C in hotel rooms. BUT - the TV listings has no HBO! Oh no! When we call to the front desk to confirm, once again they are not particularly helpful - not seeming to be able to say "No, we don't have HBO". This means we will be watching Game of Thrones on Andy's computer again.
After plopping down our stuff, we get back in the car to find dinner. Google brings up a Chinese restaurant - when we find it, it is confusing as to what is going on: is it in fact the restaurant for the "Pioneer Lodge and Restaurant"? But the restaurant is called "Bamboo". Never mind, we figure it out and have a some really good Chinese food.
We watch GoT as soon as we get back. Then plan our our hikes for the next day.
Our last National Park!
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