Once we had made our reservations to go to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, the natural next step was the beauty of Utah. We knew we weren't the brightest bulbs planning on being in Utah in the high heat of the summer, but we couldn't miss the opportunity to A) get our Utah sticker for our map and B) get to see some of the amazing National Parks there. This particular post is about our two weeks near Zion National Park followed by two weeks near Bryce Canyon National Park. As opposed to the Grand Canyon when we stayed IN the park, our campgrounds were in Virgin, UT (13 miles outside of Zion) and Tropic, UT (9 miles outside of Bryce Canyon). So it was an easy hop, skip and a jump to both places. Unfortunately, Mother Nature wasn't into making the game plan as easy as it seemed...
On our first day at Zion we got into the Park early (7:30AM) so we could beat the heat and get parking at the Visitor's Center. We soon learned that we were BEYOND BRILLIANT on both counts because that big-ass parking lot filled up quickly and the sun didn't mess around either! We decided we would take the shuttle bus throughout the park so that we could get the lay of the land. (Brilliant decision #2).
We got off at the end of the route at the Temple of Sinawava and walked on the Riverside Walk before returning on the bus. It was a scenic walk (a little under a mile) and the route brought you to the beginning of The Narrows. There we saw all of these people with very similar boots and tall hiking poles and soon learned that that was the gear NECESSARY to be able to walk The Narrows - and it was available for rent right before the entrance of the park. The Narrows takes you directly alongside and through the Virgin River in a narrow slot canyon. A lot of the time you are actually hiking IN the river; which is why waterproof hiking boots and long hiking poles are ESSENTIAL; as is keeping track of the weather and flooding possibilities! (The gear required in the non-summer months is even more intense so as not to freeze from the water!) We had heard rave reviews about this hike and it was definitely on our TO DO list. But our introductory hike down the Riverside Walk was beautiful. After having been looking down into the Grand Canyon(s) for weeks it was a whole different experience to be walking along the floors of the canyons and looking upward at the beauty... simply INCREDIBLE!
On another day we arrived even earlier and walked The Emerald Pools trail which takes you to waterfalls during waterfall season (of which this unfortunately was not - because of the drought conditions). It was still cool to see where the water was dripping from and see the amazing landscapes and views along the way. One day we brought Penny with us for a ride through the park and we drove through the Mt Carmel Tunnel (which connects the east side of the park to the canyon). That was fun and the landscape was quite different on the other side of the park (photos included). Unfortunately, that was pretty much the end of our checking out Zion because the weather in the area was crazy-ass HOT! We had every intention of doing The Narrows walk during our stay (with the stipulation of not being too crazy in terms of how far we ventured...). However, putting it off a few days to do it mid-week turned out to be a poor decision because the temperatures, even in the early morning hours, skyrocketed!
It ended up being between 100°- 106° for the full second week we were there. And, although it was dry heat, it was extremely intense. Poor Penny would usually like to sit outside of the trailer while Karl cooked breakfast on the grill in the morning, but she basically implied we were crazy for being outdoors and demanded to be IN the air conditioning (which pretty much ran 24/7 that week). Usually when there's high heat we try to take her for a good stroll first thing in the morning and/or around 8PM at night...Penny was having NONE of that! She was willing to go out to "do business" and take in a few smells in the campground - but then she hightailed it back into the trailer! One day towards the end of our stay we went for a drive up into the mountains where there was a lake and it was 20 degrees cooler. Our puppy enjoyed THAT and got to sniff around and even put her feet in the water which she never does!
Our next stop was to Bryce Canyon National Park. We arrived on Tuesday at our campground and settled in. We had dinner on site at the restaurant at the campground - since they had entertainment nightly and some pretty decent offerings! Wednesday we were off to to The Park for our reconnaissance mission. The lady at the gate was very helpful and when she saw Penny with us she made sure to mention which viewpoints and trails were good (and legal) for dogs to visit! (EDITOR'S NOTE: Bryce was probably the best National Park to date in terms of dog friendliness...insert 2 thumbs up here!).
We took a quick drive so we could walk up to look around briefly at the views and almost fell over at the intricate beauty of it all! Bryce has the largest concentration of hoodoos found anywhere on earth and the intricacies of the formations - both in texture, color, shape and style are L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y...BREATHTAKING!!! Some of them look like delicate crystals... yet they are anything but! The pamphlet that you receive when you enter the park describes it as "Poetry in Stone"...I'm going with that!
We were truly awestruck by the beauty and excited to see that they not only had an area of wonderful flat trails around the rim (where Penny could legally go) but lots of trails that looped down into the canyons and back up! There were a handful of these trail that were only 1 - 3 miles long...when you factor in the downhill and uphill nature of the trails - THAT was right up Kay & Karl's alley! Since it was late morning on our first visit, we decided we would return with Penny early the next morning so that we could walk the legal sections with her, and leave the following days for more adventurous hikes.
On Thursday morning we arrived at Bryce around 7AM and and walked the rim with our girl from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point and then back again. We passed by the Navajo Loop Trail and the trail that went down into the Queens Garden - both these trails are in the "Bryce Amphitheater" area of the Park. To see how they looped around on solid (red) dirt paths was purely magical and I couldn't wait for us to go down into the canyons on another day to obtain that vantage point of the "Poetry in Stone"! However, on Friday morning I woke up with a raging fever and...as "luck" would have it...I had CoVid. Karl would follow suit a couple of days later and we spent the next 10 days in our trailer/at our campsite. Once I was no longer contagious and Karl was down for the count I drove to a neighboring town to do some quick grocery shopping to tide us over - I returned feeling like I'd run the bleepin’ Boston Marathon... thanks a lot Mother Nature! So much for our 2 weeks at Bryce being able to take in all the beauty!... (Insert pitiful sad face here.)
However, on our final day in the area we DID return to the park to drive around the 18 mile road and stopped at the vantage points you could park at and got out to take in the views. It was so so soooooooo awe-inspiring! For some reason I kept muttering that "the architect" was a GENIUS!! And I think that actually says a lot because the formations were so mind-blowing that it HAD to be someone's genius and not the result of rocks and snow and ice and rain and wind and sand and time!...
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