Day 10 – Bryce Canyon – Why do they call you Bryce?

 Daylight broke and we were parked in the middle of a valley in cattle pastures. Not a car, building, or telephone pole in sight. Just us and the mountains! I feel I didn’t do too shabby for not knowing where the heck we were last night. I parked it, knowing I still had about an hour and fifteen minutes to Bryce. I just couldn’t keep my eyes opened. Now refreshed, I was glad I parked where I did.

We didn’t do anything from a cooking or coffee perspective this morning. Bryce was on our minds this morning and we wanted to make our way there. Plus, I really needed to get online and do some work. With the cell signal being absolute no existent in most of the areas where we have been at, it’s been a bit of a challenge. I’ve been trying to do as much as I can offline and then as we hit a populated center or manage to get out of a park, we link up for a bit to get messages, emails, and blogging.

The drive to Bryce was awesome! It was a very little traveled road and we had almost zero traffic. The route winded its way through a farming and cattle valley. Sometimes we were driving parallel to a stream with cattle on the adjacent side. Old-timey grain silos and old ranch homes – just beautiful! I don’t think I ever breached 55 mph, even though the speed limit was 65. My eyes just gazed at the countryside. All I kept thinking was – How lucky are we?

Got to Bryce Canyon City around 10:30am and stopped and the biggest and only country store in town. Linked up and got online right away. Anna headed into the shop and looked around a bit, while I worked and got some things done. Made a few calls and then both of us went into the restaurant and grabbed some lunch. Bellies full and we were off to the park! Stopped at the main entrance and had to do the good old picture at the sign poses.

Decided to drive to the furthest point in the park. As we rolled in, the first few parking lots and areas were packed. Understandable seeing today was Easter Monday. Being on the road for the last week or so, we kind of forgot about the whole Easter holiday. We have been spoiled for the last week not having much of any civilization around us and most all the parks we’ve been to have been relatively empty.

Rainbow Point was our first spot and then we ventured back towards the entrance. One of the most beautiful and breathtaking views is Nature’s Bridge, an arch about halfway through the park. There are a lot of trails throughout the park, some long, and some pretty short. We wanted to hike the Navajo Loop which was located near the front of the park. We debated doing a few others prior, but decided against and kept to our original plan. Glad we did – Navajo Loop was insane. I feel sorry for the guys of the Army Corp of Engineers who had to carve this trail out. THANK YOU!!

After the hike, we made our way back out onto UT-63 and headed down the road about 5 miles to a dispersed camping site I saw earlier this morning. Got settled in and Mama made a fantastic steak dinner. Yummy, yummy!! Man if life could be like this every day, no one would ever complain.