15 June 2008 Bryce Canyon

Day 2 of our trip was spent in and around Bryce Canyon.
Bob's Notes: Day 2 out of Vegas and we find ourselves in Torrey Utah, the gateway into Capitol Reef National Park and Butch Cassidy hideout country. Here is how we got here: After a restful night in Hatch we had breakfast at the Cowboy Inn Restauant and journeyed just below to take a peak at a beautiful trout stream. We took the short ride into beautiful and inspirational Bryce Canyon National Park famous for its Hoodoo's (sculptured spires and Grottos (cave like indentations in the rock formations). We visited the lodge, and various vistas along the rim. Tom and I hiked into the canyon along the 1.3 mile Navajo loop. For a short time we walked behind an Asian Gasser (65 yr old Japanese tourist who was passing wind). We wandered among the towering hoodoo's into places like 'Wall Street' that includes 2 tall Douglas Firs and the 'Twin Bridges'. Stosh read while we hiked. From the rim we saw in the distance smoke from a wildfire north and east of Bryce. We saw the intense smoke from the fire for most of our journey as we headed east on highway 12 for the next 90 miles all the way to Torrey. We passed through Ebeneezer Bryce's home town of Tropic and if you look on a map this road is a scenic byway that goes through Grand Staircase National Monument - Escalante filled with mesas and canyons all viewed from a winding road that eventually took us up 9600 ft and over Boulder Mt. The Alpine forest was a lush green and the temperature cool. Tonight we have dignity at a Days Inn. Hi to all.