Day 42 - 17th June 2012

Photograph 1 - On Road 12 bewteen Torrey and Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.



Photograph 2 - Not far from Escalante, Utah. The road follows a narrow neck - not for the feint-hearted.



Photograph 3 - Potential road kill. Taken in a narrow gorge near Escalante, Utah. We tried to coerced these grazers to go home to no avail.



Photograph 4 - Looking back to the southern Utah counties near Escalante. The view is awesome as we reached the heights.



Photograph 5 - Priarie Dog or Chipmunk???? Taken inside the Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.



Photograph 6 - From Sunset Point, Bryce Canyon National Park. These unusual features are called "hoodood"...true! They are prominent sandstone features that jut out from the canyon floors and walls.



Photograph 7 - A panoramic view from Bryce Point, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.



Photograph 8 - Taken at one of the many lookouts (lookdowns - as the locals call them). Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.



Photograph 9 - They call this feature "The Grotto". Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.



Photograph 10 - The Natural Bridge (yes - another arch), Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.



Photograph 11 - What can we call this feature???? Let me know?? Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.



Photograph 12 - Who has right-of-way?? The deers naturally. The rangers and state troopers actually book speeders in the National Park. This is one way to prevent unecessary road kills.



Photograph 13 - Unfortunately this bear cub was knocked down and killed in the park. Now is an exhibit in the Visitor's Museum. Very sad we thought. This is the closest we have got to a bear so far!



Photograph 14 - Not a road kill ......but Calamity Anne. Taken at Ruby's Inn, Utah.

We are now at a place called Ruby's Inn, Utah. Actually the location should be called Bryce Canyon National Park Village as many locals call this area. Ruby's Inn was settled by a person called Reuben (Ruby) Syrett back in 1916 and created lodgings so visitors can see the Bryce Canyon located nearby. His descendents still own and manage the Ruby Inn and believe us it is a huge complex consisting of 17 buildings just for accommodation, a huge restuarant and a general store. We in are the Elk Lodge which has 26 rooms as an example of size. We departed Torrey at 9:45am and headed south to Bryce Canyon. The journey took three hours and we had lunch in the National Park after paying the regulatory entrance fee of $25USD. We now make our lunches first thing in the morning by buying bread rolls and cold meat. This saves us from stopping at cafes/diners and to stop eating fatty foods such as MacDonalds, KFC, Burger King and alike. Actually we are very proud of ourselves in not having any fast-food offerings and we even haven't entered a Starbucks joint There are plenty of those establishments around the States. The journey along Road 12 is amazing, one minute you are in desert country the next you are ascending a steep inline in a deep forest. Just as we are enjoying the different scenery around the next corner we are entering desert again - crazy stuff! After lunch we visited all the vantage points inside the National Park and seen "hoodoos". They are prominent features that attract visitors to this park - unusual and awesome. By now we are canyoned-out and now look forward to other delights western USA can show us. For tomorrow we are off to Salt Lake City - the Mormon capital. It will be a six to seven hour drive and we are looking forward to see the marvelous tabanacle church the City has to offer. Now for something funny that we witnessed today. In the Bryce Canyon National Park there were many huge RVs (the US are full of these monstrocities that crowd the highways) also there are many bikies riding huge (and we mean huge) Harley-Davidsons. There was one such monster with a bearded rider who was carrying a pillion passenger on the back. Now this bike was big and the rear seat was raised higher than the rider. The person sitting as a passenger was a dead-ringer of Hyacinth from Keeping Up Appearances. She was not wearing a helmet (they don't have to over here) but a straw hat - and the look she gave as she was passing everybody - looked exactly like Mrs Bouquet from the show - hahahhahaha. We guess you had to be there to see the funny side of this. That's about it for today, we just had dinner at Ruby's Inn Restuarant and had a $18USD all you can eat buffet. Very delicious and for some reason we have just put on weight. Cheers.