Woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel (really good breakfast, glad we are staying here 2 nights). We then got ready and headed out for the long day of park exploration. First we get to Bryce Canyon, which is beautiful and an awesome park. We hiked around a bit to the different overlooks to see the canyon and surrounding areas before heading out towards Zion.
Take 89 down between the 2; it is a really pretty road, especially as you get more south. Take the eastern entrance into the park, which I think is hands down better than the southern one, as it provides some nice views with switchbacks, tunnels, and a really great hike (canyon overlook trail or something like that) that had a great view at the end (overlooking the switchbacks), but whose real beauty was the hike.
Beautiful stone, both underfoot and overhead, with outcroppings you get to walk underneath, and a lovely crevasse below; I recommend this hike to anyone going by this entrance. Get into the park and take the trolley up to the lodge stop to do the lower pool hike; very anti-climatic as summer is almost over so the falls are piddly droplets coming over the edge. Walk back, take the tram back, get in the car and head to Sonny Boy's BBQ, which is decent Texas BBQ for being a ways away from TX. Meat was good, but I thought the real winners were the sides; I got the hush puppies and the mac and cheese, both of which I thought were really good (some of this may come from the fact that this was the first meal we ate since breakfast – I had some peanuts and a banana throughout the day). After feasting, we come back to the room and make plans for the next day of driving.
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| Crinkly enjoying the red rock formations you drive by as you get close to the park. These are the views on the road trying to get to the park. Wonder what the park has in store for us. |
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| Plateaus of the park. Just hanging out for a bit. |
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| Crinkly is liking how this day has turned out already. |
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| My dad and I went down there a bit as we couldnt resist. Wish we had our camping gear to just keep on walking. |
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| Series of paths intermingling down in the canyon. Crinkly is going on a quick jaunt I think. |
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| Just think how huge this is and yet, is nothing compared to the grand canyon a couple hundred miles south. |
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| One of the walls of the canyon. |
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| The canyon in all its glory. Take it in world! |
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| Crinkly, do not go down there, you will get lost! |
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| I would like a day or 2 to do what those people are doing and walk among all these formations. |
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| Crinkly seems to not have a big fear of heights like yours truly. |
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| Look at the color striations in the rock. |
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| Just beautiful scenery to enjoy. Crinkly is loving it. |
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| Just looking across the way as there is a rock isthmus that juts out. |
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| Crinkly just looking at all the divets in the rock. |
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| Crinkly with his surrogate and parents. One of these days Ill get the handle on wearing my sunglasses instead of them resting on my head. |
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| Should we play is this earth or alien planet? |
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| This (among the other pictures) is why people much visit Bryce Canyon. |
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| Just crinkly taking in the different colors/formations in the rock as we explore the canyon. |
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| Crinkly wants to go sandboarding. Dont know if thats a good idea here. |
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| Crinkly taking in the formations in the canyon. |
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| Dont know if the expansive nature of the land in the picture is truly captured here. |
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| Crinkly is thoroughly impressed with the view of the canyon. Bryce is truly phenomenal. |
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| Crinkly taking in the views from this tip of the plateau we drove across. |
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| Crinkly looking down through the arch. |
Take 89 down between the 2; it is a really pretty road, especially as you get more south. Take the eastern entrance into the park, which I think is hands down better than the southern one, as it provides some nice views with switchbacks, tunnels, and a really great hike (canyon overlook trail or something like that) that had a great view at the end (overlooking the switchbacks), but whose real beauty was the hike.
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| These beautiful rock formations are the first thing you see as you get into Zion from the East. Pretty cool designs. |
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| Crinkly living on the edge as we hug these rocks on our hike to not fall down into the valley. |
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| Part of the hike goes through an exposed cave in the rock formation. Watch your head Crinkly! |
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| Crinkly wants to keep going up even though the trail ends here. |
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| Crinkly taking in the view after a pretty steep hike to get to this overlook. Worth it! |
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| Crinkly looking at the cool wavy formations at the top of the hike. |
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| Crappy panoramic view from the top of our hike. |
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| Crinkly wanted to be as tall as that rock. |
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| Crinkly looking at the formations through the trees on our hike. |
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| People take rock climbing vacations to come here and scale these cliffs. Crinkly and I are not these people. |
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| Crinkly enjoying some shade while taking in the views. |
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| Its amazing that different rock formations in the same area are such drastically different colors. |
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| Crinkly taking in the views of the rock from inside the valley. |
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| Pretty butterfly resting for a little bit on the stained rock. |
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| O'Brien Clan exploring the waterfall we hiked to. |
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| Crinkly is unimpressed with the Zion waterfalls. I dont blame him. |
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| Spotted some deer in the river below our hiking trail. |
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| Crinkly posing with his deer friends (see what I did there :)) |
Beautiful stone, both underfoot and overhead, with outcroppings you get to walk underneath, and a lovely crevasse below; I recommend this hike to anyone going by this entrance. Get into the park and take the trolley up to the lodge stop to do the lower pool hike; very anti-climatic as summer is almost over so the falls are piddly droplets coming over the edge. Walk back, take the tram back, get in the car and head to Sonny Boy's BBQ, which is decent Texas BBQ for being a ways away from TX. Meat was good, but I thought the real winners were the sides; I got the hush puppies and the mac and cheese, both of which I thought were really good (some of this may come from the fact that this was the first meal we ate since breakfast – I had some peanuts and a banana throughout the day). After feasting, we come back to the room and make plans for the next day of driving.
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