Last I checked, you all were running around packing your bags to rush off to take your own pictures of Antelope Canyon. Hmm, right? No but seriously, if any of you are now curious about Antelope, I highly recommend it. Just be a little more prepared than we were for the intense afternoon heat. (As in, sitting around a sandy campsite is not ideal especially after walking all day. Either go sit in the lake or go sit in air conditioning) But the canyons themselves are naturally MUCH cooler than the ground above so you could potentially just walk around in those all day.
Anyway, after two nights in Page, Arizona we packed up camp again and hit the road. Since we knew the drive to Zion National Park in Utah was going to be pretty quick (3 hours tops?) we had already decided to stop over basically wherever looked cool. Previously we had decided to stop at some pink sand dunes but after seeing Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon(s) I had a bad case of canyon bug and needed more. A lot more. We had been chatting with people for the past couple days who were also touring the area and they all had stopped over at Bryce Canyon so we plugged that into the GPS and set off.
What's amazing about this part of the country is how drastically the scenery can change just within a couple miles. I think I was finally getting used to desert landscape and total lack of green when we hit this part of Utah that was absolutely beautiful - huge caves, rolling green hills, awesomely tall tress, and - as we got closer to Bryce Canyon- some crazy land formations....
Yes that's a natural tunnel. No big deal. Also, don't even begin trying to imagine how distracting it is to drive on that road, I can already tell you: very. This scenery led us up to Bryce Canyon and we promptly rolled out of the car, threw on appropriate hiking attire, lots of sunscreen, got a waiter to fill up our water (actually, that was all Jimmy's clever mind that led to that solution) and set out on a path to take a peek at this canyon that neither of us knew anything about.
Hint: before you scroll down I'll tell you that my initial reaction to it was "it looks like a SandArt project." Remember those things? No? When you let us kids fill up random clear plastic shaped like animals, castles, etc with different colored sand and then poke different points down to make crazy zigzag patterns that could INSTANTLY be ruined if we shook the thing up like an etch-a-sketch? Yeah, well I remember them. And this is what Bryce Canyon looked like at first. But no really. It looked like this:
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| jimmy reading some woodpecker braille |
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| look for: the people all the way at the bottom- then you'll understand how tall the walls are |
If you're looking at those closely, and since they are in chronological order then I will confirm what you're already thinking that YES, we did hike all the way down to the bottom and then all the way back up to the top of the canyon. The bummer is, as much fun as the walk was and how amazing those colors are, the place was a mob scene. Tour groups everywhere, multiple groups of annoying french teenagers on a school trip, sad and sweaty looking bros and one mom wearing her ipod while trying to walk with her three kids. Riddle me this: how do you hike safely with three kids while listening to your omg favorite tunes? Don't answer that. Just ponder.
ANYWAY, as you can see, Bryce Canyon was a nice little stopover. Not Jimmy's favorite but I think we both enjoyed it enough to take lots of pictures (as you probably noticed) After roaming around a little bit more, we finally got fed up with the crowds so we jumped back in the car and set off for Zion.
And following in suit with the rest of the drastic changes in scenery, Zion was equally completely different in an awe-inspiring sort of way. After entering the park we had to drive another 12 miles on a ridiculously winding road that worked its way around tall peaks, down a cliff face and UNDER a mountain. Jimmy got this leg of the drive and I'll admit I'm honestly really glad he did it. Those winding roads get really stressful when everything you value is in the car with you and the road does a series of 4 hairpin turns within 9 yards of each other. And to his credit, Jimmy drove it very well. Also it should be noted that it was beautiful enough that he was driving even more slow than necessary and I just sort of hung out the window and snapped pictures of this entirely amazing park. Just like with Bryce, we had no idea really what Zion was going to look like.
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| check out those turns |
We stayed in Zion at the Watchman campground for three nights. Because there was a LOT we were planning on doing in this neck of the woods. Next up: day trip to the Grand Canyon. Yep, THE Grand Canyon.
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