Unfortunately, my cold managed to get worse over the course of the day in Bryce and I ended up with pink eye. So, we had to take a detour from Bryce to the Grand Canyon to stop at an Urgent Care. The detour wasn't that long and fortunately since we were up so early we were still on schedule for our arrival at the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
We drove through some very beautiful areas. On the way out of Bryce we drove through the Dixie National Forest and red canyon. On our way to the Grand Canyon we drove through Kaibab National Forest, and some Native American tribal lands.
The north rim of the Grand Canyon is very remote. We felt like just kept driving and driving with nothing to see other than forest. Even once you reach the visitor's gate you still have to drive 12 miles before you arrive at the rim. The Grand Canyon definitely lived up to it's name. It was indeed Grand. The down-side to the north rim is that the hiking opportunities were kind of far away and I think both Matthias and I felt that Bryce was more beautiful. So, we didn't do much at the Grand Canyon other than relax and enjoy the view.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Bryce National Park
Today we drove from SLC to Bryce National Park. And when I say "we" I mean Matthias; I slept for at least half of the trip, if not longer. But when I woke up we were driving down a highway with mountains on both sides of us and not much else in between other than open road.
We arrived at Bryce and quickly bought our National Parks pass and hoped on the bus to head into the park. We stopped at the visitors center and watched a video about how Bryce Canyon was formed. Then we took the bus to Bryce Point for some amazing views of the canyon, hoodoos, and "windows". We decided to hike the Rim Trail from Bryce Point to Inspiration Point. It was a nice walk (~1.5 miles). We wished we could have been healthy enough to hike some of the trails into the canyon but it was not to be. The rim hike was nice though. We saw some deer along the way and watched the hoodoos as they changed shape before our eyes. We named many of them by their shapes - a chameleon, two guys playing chess, a woman carrying a child on her back. It was fun and beautiful. Inspiration Point was also a very nice view. We had planned to hop on the bus from there but figured out that the next stop was just another .5 mile on the rim trail so we set out to walk again, this time to Sunset Point. Sunset Point had a hiking trail that led down into the canyon and we followed that for a short distance just to experience it. We then took the bus to Sunrise Point and stopped in the lodge shop there for a cold beer and some ice cream.
After that we headed out of the park to our hotel. I will say that there were more German tourists at Bryce than there were Americans. It was hysterical. At every stop we were surrounded by German-speaking hikers. It was bizarre to be in the US but feel like we were in Germany, with me not able to understand anything. Even at the restaurant in town this was true!
Since we had hiked so much that day and I wasn't feeling to well we went to bed fairly early. We decided to take advantage of it and get up before sunrise and head back to the park. We went to Sunrise Point to watch the sun rise and cast shadows on the canyon.
We arrived at Bryce and quickly bought our National Parks pass and hoped on the bus to head into the park. We stopped at the visitors center and watched a video about how Bryce Canyon was formed. Then we took the bus to Bryce Point for some amazing views of the canyon, hoodoos, and "windows". We decided to hike the Rim Trail from Bryce Point to Inspiration Point. It was a nice walk (~1.5 miles). We wished we could have been healthy enough to hike some of the trails into the canyon but it was not to be. The rim hike was nice though. We saw some deer along the way and watched the hoodoos as they changed shape before our eyes. We named many of them by their shapes - a chameleon, two guys playing chess, a woman carrying a child on her back. It was fun and beautiful. Inspiration Point was also a very nice view. We had planned to hop on the bus from there but figured out that the next stop was just another .5 mile on the rim trail so we set out to walk again, this time to Sunset Point. Sunset Point had a hiking trail that led down into the canyon and we followed that for a short distance just to experience it. We then took the bus to Sunrise Point and stopped in the lodge shop there for a cold beer and some ice cream.
After that we headed out of the park to our hotel. I will say that there were more German tourists at Bryce than there were Americans. It was hysterical. At every stop we were surrounded by German-speaking hikers. It was bizarre to be in the US but feel like we were in Germany, with me not able to understand anything. Even at the restaurant in town this was true!
Since we had hiked so much that day and I wasn't feeling to well we went to bed fairly early. We decided to take advantage of it and get up before sunrise and head back to the park. We went to Sunrise Point to watch the sun rise and cast shadows on the canyon.
Utah
I traveled for work again this month, this time to Utah. I was in a city north of Salt Lake. Utah is beautiful. I enjoyed some good food and wandered down to SLC on night to meet a coworker for dinner at a terrific place called The Red Iguana, featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. They have awesome Mole!
Unfortunately, shortly after my trip to SLC I came down with a horrendous cold. Just in time for Matthias to join me in Utah and for us to head out on a vacation in southern Utah.
Unfortunately, shortly after my trip to SLC I came down with a horrendous cold. Just in time for Matthias to join me in Utah and for us to head out on a vacation in southern Utah.
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