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Ruby’s Inn RV Park, 2 miles from Bryce, Utah. Tachometer – 1349 miles

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I got up at 5:30am for an early morning hike in the canyon. The campground is 3 miles away from “sunrise point” where I planned to start the 5 and a half mile hike. Luckily I didn’t have to walk all the way to the starting point and after a few minutes walk on the road leading to the park, I got a ride with a young Hungarian couple. Kusenem. The hike is called Fairyland Trail, and it weaves through the various rock formations up and down the canyon from sunrise point to Fairyland point. It was very scenic and quiet. Only after 2 hours did I start to see some people coming down from the opposite direction. The blend of colors and shapes is really unique. These “hoodoos” are something that is supposed to be geologically unique to this park. Click here to see hike pictures.

After completing the hike, I walked 2 miles back to the campground. It was 10am and we took the kids in the RV back to the park to complete yesterday’s list of viewpoints. In between it was naptime and lunch. We returned to the campground complex, which is also part of a Best Western hotel around 2pm and took the kids to the indoor heated swimming pool. No pictures because ALL of us were in the water. Orr was first to jump in, she is like a fish. Ron entered cautiously due to the water temperature. And the happy surprise is Shir, who willingly put out her hands and let me take her for a swim. Paola got in too, and we had a fun time jumping around and playing in the pool. After 20 minute Orr and Ron were getting cold so we got out. Shir seemed fine though, and did not complain or seem to be shivering.

We got back to our site and had an unsuccessful steak dinner (too hard, low quality beef). We got the kids in pajamas and headed back to Bryce for late afternoon / evening views and photo session. It was worth the hassle because this park is just so beautiful. You can spend hours dazing at the strange and lovely rocks and colors and still be in awe.

Tomorrow morning we head out to our next adventure.

Good night

Hemi

Ruby’s Inn RV Park, 2 miles from Bryce, Utah. Tachometer – 1322 miles

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Today we explored Bryce Canyon, named after a Mormon settler who 150 years ago tried to live in this area and gave up after 5 years because it was too harsh. He had a famous saying “It’s a hell of a place to lose a cow”. The sights are spectacular as you can imagine. If you can’t take a look at the picture gallery. The problem for us is that there are no trails that we can hike with the kids. They all lead down from the rim to the canyon, so it’s too dangerous to do with our threesome. Similar to the situation we had in Grand Canyon last month. Zion was ideal because everything was happening at the canyon bottom. Here it is at the top. (more…)

Ruby’s Inn RV Park, 2 miles from Bryce, Utah. Tachometer – 1279 miles

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Today we parted with Zion National Park. We got off to a blessedly late start due to the fact that all three of the kids slept till almost 9am! The first part of the drive was through Zion park, from south entrance to the east exit. This required driving through a 1 mile tunnel. The tunnel was built in the 1930’s and is relatively small, so RVs like ours need to drive in the middle lane. No problem. You pay $15 and the “tunnel ranger” (I swear that’s their job title) closes off the tunnel to oncoming traffic, turning it to a one way passage. Neat. Ron loves tunnel driving so this was a big high for him. After the tunnel the scenic road continues within the park for another 6 miles. A nice viewpoint just before the exit is “Checkerboard Mesa”, a huge Rock mountain with square carvings making it look like it’s ready to host the world checkers championship. (more…)