October 5, 2019 Bryce Canyon National Park

Day 2

State Forest Road 410 Cannonville, Utah

Sometime after midnight, the moon set. The sky was so completely dark. The stars were scattered like diamond dust across the heavens. It was so lovely that I had a hard time going back to sleep. I wanted to keep watching the sky.

This morning it was pretty cold in the RV. I heard Tim get up but I elected to stay under the warm blankets. It was 49 degrees inside! Tim started the generator and the furnace. When I woke up again at 8 it was nice and cozy!

With our breakfast and sandwiches packed, we were on our way to Bryce.

17 years ago, we took the boys on a car trip out west. Bryce was one of my favorites then and it is still one of the prettiest parks in my opinion. This park has more than 29,000 hoodoos or “irregularly eroded rock spires. These limestone pillars are intricately carved by the passage of time. The spires appear ornate and delicate…fairy castle formations.

They say that if it is very quiet, you can hear the clattering of stones among the hoodoos. This is a dynamic, everchanging environment. New hoodoos are being formed as other are dissolved and crumple. The drive into the park is 18 miles. The park rangers like to encourage visitors to use the park shuttles to see all the sights. We wanted to go in our Jeep so that we could travel at our own pace. The park was fairly crowded. We were told to drive to the end and then visit each of the overlooks on our way back down. The drive is along a plateau and Bryce Canyon is below on the eastern side.

We cheated once and stopped at Swamp Creek Overlook.

Forest fire damage.

Rainbow Overlook is at the very end. We were gathering our breakfast things when Linda approached on her bike. She and Dominik had taken the Rainbow Bus Tour. This tour allowed them to take their bikes. They were going to explore the park also at their own pace. I keep thinking that each time we see them, it might be the last time we run into one another…and then it is such a pleasant surprise to see them again!

The pictures that follow, are taken along the park road. From the roadway, you really cannot see anything. You have to get out of the car and look. We stopped at most of the overlooks and hiked to see the canyon. Unfortunately, the pictures are only tiny pieces of the whole…come visit to see it for yourself!

We have always known that you should not feed wildlife. We learned today that when chipmunks have access to human food, they take it and store it in their burrow along with the rest of their winter stockpile. Human food rots and when the chipmunks try to eat it…it is no good. It can sicken them or they can starve to death because the food that they were relying on to get them through the really cold months is not edible.

On our way to Bryce Point, we saw a guy coming out of the woods with an overnight backpack. We were the first car by and he had his thumb out. Tim pulled over. Till was from Berlin. He loaded his stuff into the back of the Jeep.

He is in the US on a business trip and decided to extend his stay to tour around. Last night he hiked into Bryce canyon. He spent the night at one of the campgrounds in the backcountry. He needed a ride back to his rental car. As we arrived at Bryce Point, Till said he was going to prepare himself a proper lunch and then take a car tour of the rest of the park. How fun it is to meet new people and hear about their adventures! As we hiked to Bryce Point, he hiked along the ridge. I could see him in the distance as we hiked out. It looked like he was doing yoga poses…