Bryce Canyon & Capitol National Park

Sept 04   Las Vegas, NV - Bryce Canyon National Park, UT   275 miles   7 hrs

We made a couple of stops along the way so it took us about 7 hours to make this drive.

Camp site #4

We're staying at the North Campground located inside the park for 2 nites. It's dry camping at $15.00 per nite. Very nice park that can accommodate our motorhome.

We took a short hike this afternoon along the rim. Probably about
two miles. Bryce Canyon is absolutely amazing.

Sept 05

I have a very busy day planned for us. We woke up early this morning to see the sunrise at Bryce Point. Was very cold, probably around low 40's. There were a lot of people already there waiting for the sun to come up. This was the best time of the day to see the hoodoos. The shadows and different lighting from the sun was pretty cool.

At 9:00, we got on the Rainbow Tour Shuttle. It's a three hour guided tour that goes to most of the look outs. Our guide Skip, was pretty good. The only negative was there was a lot of slow moving seniors that took forever to get off and on the bus at each stop. After the tour we were exhausted. We ate lunch and took a nap.

The top of the trail. Switchbacks all the way down.

This afternoon we drove out to Sunset Point and did the Navajo Loop hike. It's a short but steep trail. Joe and I felt so out of shape. Going down was easy but coming back up was a killer. We had to stop numerous times to catch our breath. The hike took us about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Looking up at the hoodoos from the bottom is really different from seeing everything from the top.

Going up the switchbacks on the other side

Joe taking a break

Another break

Almost to the top

For dinner we drove out to Ruby's Inn. We had the buffet for $21.95. Worth every penny! Excellent dinner. We got there about 6pm and went right in. When we finished around 715pm the line was real long, so the timing was good. We had a very full day at Bryce Canyon, really enjoyed ourselves.

Sept 06   Bryce Canyon - Capitol Reef National Park, Torrey, UT   112 miles   3 1/2 hours

Today we're traveling on National Scenic Byway 12, Utah's first All American Road. This exceptional 124 mile route negotiates an isolated landscape of canyons, plateaus, and valleys ranging from 4,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level. Very scenic, at times kind of scary. The roads would get very narrow and no shoulder. Also traveling along the mountains means cliffs sometimes on both sides of the road at the same time. We just took our time. Joe was pretty quiet and had to concentrate while I enjoyed the scenery.

Start of Byway 12

We're staying at the Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey. Nice park, Good Sam discount rate $32.25 for full hook ups.

Nice views

Joe cooking dinner

View from our site

We took a drive to Capitol Reef National Park located about 10 miles down the road. We did the scenic drive and made a few stops. Very nice park, I wish we could spend another day exploring but we need to get going. The next few days will bring a lot of rain to the area.

Twin Rocks

Petroglyphs on the side of a mountain

The Castle