Day 6

We left Vegas in our rearview mirror and headed towards Bryce National Park in Utah. It was my turn to drive so I was excited for my first desert-driving experience. I expected desolate open roads with a high speed limit and open views. My expectations were met at first as the speed limit was 75 and the open highway was my domain. Quickly, however, things changed. As we exited Nevada and cut through the NW tip of Arizona, breathtaking rock formations lined the horizon. They kept getting closer and closer and then I realized we would be driving straight into them! Of course we did not smash into the cliff faces, but we did start to increase our elevation dramatically. The road began to wind and with that the speed dropped considerably. The beautiful drive continued into Utah, where suddenly I noticed a lot more green around us. We continued to climb in elevation until we reached the summit of a plateau that was 9,000 feet above sea level. Forest and open grass appeared before us. It was surreal to transition through the different landscapes so quickly. We continued to drive towards Bryce through Dixie National Forest. Here I was surprised to see that throughout the forest was this freaky-looking porous rock that seemed like some kind of petrified soil. In retrospect, I think it was an old lava flow that had solidified and become part of the landscape. Red Canyon was the next surprise as suddenly the forest turned into this bright red rock with awesome rock formations, cliffs, and road tunnels. Finally, we arrived at Bryce after a 4.5 hour drive from Las Vegas. The drive was gorgeous and not once was I bored or ancy to reach our destination.
To try to explain Bryce is frustrating. To try to convey the experience through words, pictures, art, or other medium is futile. I want to put you there. All I can say is to go there. But, because I do not possess a teleportation machine or a fancy virtual reality device, I will explain the experience and share my pictures with you. The experience is whole. The views are vast, the canyon is extreme, and the rock spires are out of this world. The way they all interact to formulate this wholeness seems to supercede the reality of geology. We hiked a mile trail that hugged the edge of the canyon with frequent lookout points and photo ops. I also hiked a bit down a zig-zag trail to see the spires from below, which was a whole new experience. As we were leaving Bryce I looked over my shoulder one more time and shook my head in disbelief that this was reality.


We drove away from Bryce to our lodgings for the night: Zion Ponderosa Ranch, which was conveniently located just 2 miles from Zion National Park's entrance. It was located in Southern Utah about a 2 hour drive from Bryce. We checked in and had a mediocre buffet dinner that the ranch provided for 18 bucks (no other dinner options:(). After dinner we saw our Cowboy Cabin that we would be roughing it in for the night. No bathroom, no running water, a bunkbed with 2 double mattresses. Ok...so roughing it is an overstatement. 20 feet away was a structure with bathrooms and private showers. It also provided entrance to a swimming pool and hot tub! The temperature had dipped to around 60 degrees so our soak in the hot tub was a perfect way to wind down after the day. The girls requested to sleep in the bottom bunk as neither was a fan of being on the top, so Dan and I would be sharing it. Dan got up on the top and the girls began to shriek as the wood began bowing. They were convinced that if I joined him that the bed would collapse, thus ending our road trip! I ended up sleeping just dandily on the couch and disaster was averted!