This really doesn't seem like Sunday. Not even if your family went for a ride on Sunday afternoons. We started at 7:45 this morning and arrived at 5:45. We have passed many kinds of beautiful scenery and have been up and down to lots of different elevations, up to over 8,000 feet. This picture was from fairly early in the morning. I can't add others taken later, due to mechanical difficulties. I'll have to wait until we get home to send some of our best pix.
We stopped in Hanksville, UT for two things. One was to pick up cinnamon rolls that we ordered yesterday. We were told they were big, and they were. Each one was about 7" in diameter. I'm not crazy about cinnamon rolls, and the taste of this one didn't change my opinion. But it was a good excuse for a rest and socializing. The other reason to stop was to see the gas station called Hollow Mountain. The shop part, including the rest rooms, are in a big rock. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all rock.
Capitol Reef National Park has many-colored rocks that we drove between. You could only the see the tops of the biggest ones through the glass ceiling of the bus, we were so close to them. This park also has areas where fruit trees grow. At one stop we saw petroglyphs. The picnic area has grass and trees. Since we sit at the back of the bus, by the time we got out, all the picnic tables were taken, so we ate our lunch sitting on the grass under a tree. Between that and absolutely perfect weather, it was heavenly.
On all the previous picnics on this trip animals come to beg for food, different kinds of animals each time--squirrels, chipmunks, Stellar's jays. Today it was a deer. We don't feed them though; our tour director says that many people feeding them kills them, because they don't learn to fend for themselves and they die in winter.
About 3 hours after we left Capitol Reef we got to Bryce Canyon National Park. While driving we saw lots of animals: bison, cows (some right on the road), sheep, prairie dogs, horses, and more.
I was so tired of being in the bus and seeing so much scenery I had little enthusiasm for yet another park. And then I walked up to the rim. All I could say was WOW! This is the most unusual place we've seen, and it is unbelievably beautiful. (It kind of reminded me of Gaudi's cathedral in Barcelona.) I got up the courage to walk down to a platform two switchbacks down from the fenced rim trail. For a person unafraid of heights it was insignificant, but for me it was an extremely brave feat.
Our tour guide had us smell the bark of a ponderosa pine. It smelled like vanilla to us. It's an accelerant that is heat activated, so when a fire comes, it causes the fire to flash up the tree, saving the heart of the tree.
We spent the night in Bryce Canyon. Not the park. The town, population I dunno, maybe 100. It got into the 40s during the night.
This evening we went to a cowboy humor and music show, and had dinner there too. The food wasn't all that good, but we had silly fun. And Bill and I waltzed together. Nice way to end the day.
We stopped in Hanksville, UT for two things. One was to pick up cinnamon rolls that we ordered yesterday. We were told they were big, and they were. Each one was about 7" in diameter. I'm not crazy about cinnamon rolls, and the taste of this one didn't change my opinion. But it was a good excuse for a rest and socializing. The other reason to stop was to see the gas station called Hollow Mountain. The shop part, including the rest rooms, are in a big rock. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all rock.
Capitol Reef National Park has many-colored rocks that we drove between. You could only the see the tops of the biggest ones through the glass ceiling of the bus, we were so close to them. This park also has areas where fruit trees grow. At one stop we saw petroglyphs. The picnic area has grass and trees. Since we sit at the back of the bus, by the time we got out, all the picnic tables were taken, so we ate our lunch sitting on the grass under a tree. Between that and absolutely perfect weather, it was heavenly.
On all the previous picnics on this trip animals come to beg for food, different kinds of animals each time--squirrels, chipmunks, Stellar's jays. Today it was a deer. We don't feed them though; our tour director says that many people feeding them kills them, because they don't learn to fend for themselves and they die in winter.
About 3 hours after we left Capitol Reef we got to Bryce Canyon National Park. While driving we saw lots of animals: bison, cows (some right on the road), sheep, prairie dogs, horses, and more.
I was so tired of being in the bus and seeing so much scenery I had little enthusiasm for yet another park. And then I walked up to the rim. All I could say was WOW! This is the most unusual place we've seen, and it is unbelievably beautiful. (It kind of reminded me of Gaudi's cathedral in Barcelona.) I got up the courage to walk down to a platform two switchbacks down from the fenced rim trail. For a person unafraid of heights it was insignificant, but for me it was an extremely brave feat.
Our tour guide had us smell the bark of a ponderosa pine. It smelled like vanilla to us. It's an accelerant that is heat activated, so when a fire comes, it causes the fire to flash up the tree, saving the heart of the tree.
We spent the night in Bryce Canyon. Not the park. The town, population I dunno, maybe 100. It got into the 40s during the night.
This evening we went to a cowboy humor and music show, and had dinner there too. The food wasn't all that good, but we had silly fun. And Bill and I waltzed together. Nice way to end the day.
