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| Miles Traveled:
411 Total miles: 5392 Stops: Music selections: Click on highlighted words for pictures... |
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I left Las Vegas around 11:00, wondering if my decision to drop my
second day there and go onto Bryce Canyon would be a good one... The
temperatures in Vegas were supposed to hit 107 that day.
So I jumped on I-15 North, and headed off into Arizona.... Oh my god, what a beautiful drive. The highway runs right through the middle of the Virgin River Gorge, so once again I'm back in a landscape of towering cliffs and canyons.... I really love this scenery. It was only a few minutes later when I saw the "Welcome to Utah" sign.... I noticed the picture of Delicate Arch on the sign... and you know.. I am really beginning to love southern Utah. This has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. I used to think that the drive from Trinidad, CO to Raton, NM was one of my favorites... but it's pretty pale by comparison. As I headed up towards Cedar City, I noticed that for the first time on my trip, my temperature gauge was reading pretty high.... probably because of all the hill climbing that has to be done to get there, not to mention that it was well over 100 degrees outside. So I shut off the A/C, and cranked up the heater to cool the car down.... The temp in the car is broiling, and I'm sweating my ass off... but the car is running cool again... After the road leveled out, I kicked the A/C back on... whew. Then I took the turn off for Highway 14 out of Cedar City. The first thing I see is a sign that says: "Warning - This road contains grades up to 25% and numerous 20 mph curves. Not recommended for semi trucks." Youch. This should be fun... After about 30 minutes, the temperature gauge was climbing even higher than before... so off with the A/C, and on with the heater again. I'm cooking, but the view is DEFINITELY worth it! Coming down the mountain presented lush views of old lava beds, beautiful valleys and lakes... This has to be one of the more scenic roads I've ever been on. Highway 14 goes for about 30 miles, and then meets Highway 89... I headed north towards Bryce, and then jumped on Highway 12, which leads up to the canyon... little did I realize that this was another ultra-scenic drive. The area around the canyon is very beautiful also, and there are actually two National Parks, and many other National Forests and State Parks in the area. Personally, I think the whole southern part of Utah should be one huge park. It's that amazing. I arrived at Bryce Canyon at about 4:00 pm (I'm back on Mountain time again), and what do you know, it's my lucky day. Seems today is the 85th Anniversary of the National Parks Service, so they're giving free admission to all the parks nation wide... which saves me the $20 entry fee and makes up for what I lost in Vegas... COOL! I only had about 4 hours of daylight left to check out the park... so I went through it kinda fast, but I managed to see a TON of absolutely breathtaking views. To give you an idea, while I was at the Grand Canyon (supposedly one of the most awesome parks for visuals), I took about 120-130 pictures. I took 183 at Bryce Canyon, 174 of which made it to this web page. I think the Grand Canyon was kind of boring by comparison.. all it has on Bryce is size, but Bryce is 10 times more scenic. Sunset Point - Navajo Loop 1 - Navajo Loop 2 The drive through the park is very relaxing.... I took a little jaunt down the 1.6 mile Navajo Loop trail around Sunset Point, and took a whole mess of pictures on the way. Inspiration Point 1 - Inspiration Point 2 - Inspiration Point 3 As I was heading towards another viewpoint, I came around a corner to find an entire herd of deer grazing in one of the valleys in the park... What an awesome sight. I snaked my way through the park, but the sun was starting to go down and I wanted to make it to the end before dark... Bryce Point - Paria View 1 - Paria View 2 About halfway through the park, disaster struck. Seems my 35mm finally decided to give up the ghost. I'm not surprised, though... that camera is over 15 years old, and has literally taken thousands of pictures. Still sucks it didn't make it through to the end.. but at least I have the digital to capture the rest. Farview Point & Natural Bridge - Agua Canyon & Ponderosa Canyon I managed to make it to Rainbow Point just as the sun was starting to set over the mountains. Oh my god, what a Kodak moment. The sky lit up in brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges, and the red rock of Bryce Canyon glowing in the light of it. It was so beautiful, I felt myself getting choked up. What a fabulous memory to add to my trip. Rainbow Point - Yovimpa Point - Sunset over Bryce Canyon I snapped a few more pictures before the light got too dim to shoot... and started to head back to the car... as I'm walking, two female deer cross the path no more than a few yards in front of me. Sweet. I drove out of the park, and as I hit the Highway 89/12 junction, night had fallen... I could see the sky was still totally clear, and there were a zillion stars out. I stopped the car, got out, and sat on a log at a roadside stop, and just stared up at the sky for about half an hour. I can't remember the last time I could see so many stars at once. It was quite inspiring... It was starting to get late, so I deciced I needed to find a place to stay for the evening... I ended up driving another hour or so, and stopped for the night in Beaver, UT... at the Motel 6 of course. This one is really nice, though... it's only a month and a half old... Very clean, very comfortable. I can already feel the pain setting in from all the hiking today... I know I'm gonna be in serious pain tomorrow... so I grabbed some Advil and settled into my hotel room for the night. The rest of my trip is just gonna be driving... no real stops, unless I find something interesting along the way... I doubt it, though. So there probably won't be a ton more pictures. I'm just trying to get back home now.. But I guess there's some good news there.... Once I get home, I'm going to embellish this website quite radically.... and upload nearly all of the 800+ pictures I've taken on my trip.. But for now, I need some rest. Off to somewhere tomorrow... I'm thinking Boise will probably be where I end up, but I'll be trying to get as close to home as possible. <<previous ----- <<schedule>> ----- next->> |
