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 Mesaâ€, a huge Rock mountain with square carvings making it look like it’s ready to host the world checkers championship.
Instead of proceeding with highway 89 straight to Bryce, we took a little detour to the south to check out Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. This is an interesting phenomenon, because usually you don’t get sand, not to mention dunes, at such high altitudes. Even stranger is the fact that pine trees grow right in the dunes. Call me picky, but for me dunes are 40 degree heat, Bedouins and camels. The other neat thing about the sand is that it is, as they promised, pinkish. Unfortunately, Ron wasn’t having a great day, he is a bit sick. So we did not get the same excitement as last month in Death Valley’s dunes. Shir was sleeping, and Orr did not appreciate all the sand blowing in her face. After a short photo session in the sand, we returned to the RV for a tasty spinach kabab lunch that Paola prepared.
We then returned to highway 89 and drive north in the Bryce direction, passing through small Mormon villages along the way. We stopped at Panguitch (Piute Indian word meaning Big Fish) for grocery shopping. Ron was asking if this is Sandwich.
From Sandwich to Bryce is just a 25 minute drive but lo and behold, another natural attraction just miles away from the turnoff to Bryce, Red Canyon.
Red Canyon is a state run little park, but still that does not explain why the visitor center was closed at 4pm. Nevertheless, we took a nice stroll/hike on an easy path alongside some very weird and beautiful rock formations. Their strong red color combined with the green pine trees and ultra blue sky provided some great photo opportunities.
We arrived at our campground around 6pm and proceeded to prepare a hearty steak dinner. Now belly full and a bit light headed from the bottle of wine we have been toting from California, I bid you all good night.
-Hemi
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Big Trip, North America RV 2007, Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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