Utah 14 and Bryce - The Money $hot

Yesterday and today definitely qualify as 'the reason we did this'! Incredible beauty to drive through and great opportunities to get out and do a loop walk and really experience what we'd been seeing.

Our side pictures have fallen all the way to the bottom in the post I'm looking at, scroll down to enjoy those, too...


We started out from Vernal, and of course, needed fuel:

look away if you're sensitive -
368 miles
42.352 gallons
$130.40
3.079/gallon
8.69 mpg - this is our best yet, and in the least likely of places!!!

On the road, some amusing signage - the first was the High School in the middle of nowhere that vowed TOGETHER * We will be Safe, Respectful and Successful.... I sure hope so.

The next was a store that was selling lots of stuff, but this one got its own sign -
L.D.S. Missionary Clothing.
Definitely not getting me to pull over like 9 floors of Western Wear did.

Perhaps the most cryptic - HELPER * Utah's Christmas Town. About 12 buildings at a crossroads.

Crossed a summit of 9910 feet on our drive, and saw for me what is the most incredible land and natural beauty I've seen - the 1st 1/3rd of Utah 14, headed South.

It's an alpine river valley, and rises to over 9000 feet. I feel sorry for Marge, it was quite a road, I don't know if she got to see as much as she should have.

The funny thing to is, our no-plan caught us again, when the KOA in Cedar City was full-up! We had had a shorter day of driving, so we spotted the Glendale KOA closer to Bryce and about an hour's more drive - that's how we ended up on my favorite drive, by accident.



Roadkill: Big Day
Jackrabbit or Coyote
Possum
Blue Shirt
Red Rubber Boot - child's
Rabbit
Grouse
Crow
Racoon

Live:
Goats
Prairie Dogs
Red Tail Hawk

Vanity Plates:
NUAFUS
ZOGDOG

Track of the day for me: It Ain't Over 'til It's Over by Lenny Kravitz; anything Emmylou Harris sings.

While we were out of touch on wireless, and last night's KOA in Glendale, UT was the most primitive of our choices thus far; the view from our site and the fact that we were in blissful nowhere more than made up for it - check the view.





Today - Wednesday - was an incredible drive as well... high alpine basin and range, and of course, the incredible rock erosion features that you only get here.

We got out of Glendale pretty late in the morning actually, but that's okay because it was just so beautiful there and we only had about 40 minutes drive to Bryce.

But of course, first, fuel:
300 miles
38.088 gallons
$125.65
3.299/gallon - yoinks!
7.88 mpg - not bad at all considering we climbed about 1500 feet through a mountain pass.

BRYCE - I'll let the photos tell the tale and just give you the facts. We visited the Visitor Center and got oriented, then we drove to Rainbow Point and did the Bristlecone Trail, about 1 mile. We drove back and stopped at many overlooks and turnouts. We made horse-back riding reservations for a full four-hour morning ride tomorrow through the canyons on Peek-a-boo loop!


Great Summit sign today - 7777 feet. We got as high as 9110, and spent almost the whole day above 8500 - it made the walking a little more exciting and exerting.

Roadkill:
Deer
Bicyclist - pending

Live:
Bison
Stellar's Jay
Raven - theres' a photo absurdly close-up
Hawk - probably red-tailed

Vanity Plate
TOURLDY

Great moment: realizing the RV in front of us in the parking turnout had Duetschland EU Plates, then checking their stickers; Spain, Morocco, Canada, Alaska, Portugal, and more. They caught us in the act, and were really nice. They brought their RV from Germany to Halifax, NS, and drove to Jackson, WY across Canada. Then, up to Alaska, down the Pacific Northwest, and now the SW. They were out for a year, will go back to Germany for a month, then fly back to LA, drive through Mexico, and over to Baltimore, where they'll ship it back. Pretty cool!

At the end of our day touring Bryce, we decide to stay at Ruby's Inn RV Park and Campground, www.rubysinn.com, about a mile from the park. They have afforded us wireless - yeah - and also a pretty fun experience. They are technically full of RVs, but are letting us boondock (using our generator for power, no hook-ups, and we just basically made up a spot). It's a beautiful place to do it, and we are getting to use all of the campgrounds facilities. Right now we are huffing fabric softener as the Laundry Room get's the wifi and has power, and is available.

I'm really glad we've made it here, the last few day's drives have been beautiful and this is what we paid for. Now we get to relax and enjoy it for a few days before we have to decide what else to do.

Track(s) of the day: Generals and Majors by XTC; we bought a Marty Robbins CD today, and Big Iron is such a great tune...

I'll be thinking of you all on the trail tomorrow, I hope I get a Dapple, not a Roan.

Harve