21 SEP 2010

This morning we woke early which was unusual for us. Wes had wanted to see a sunrise and he awoke around 530 which meant I woke up as well. He looked at the paper and read that sunrise was around 7:15 so we decided to get up and wonder down to the Mather’s Point to watch. We got up and decided that even though it was still an hour away, why not head there now which turned out to be a good thing. Wes misread the paper, the sunrise was 6:15 and we were on the Mather’s point at 6:05. Perfect timing. Wow is all I can say and my pictures can not do justice but it is all I have.

Now we are ready to leave and head off to Bryce Canyon – only 4 hours away but we are going to take the scenic route. As we leave we know that our gas is low so determine to fill up at Desert View which has a gas station. Upon getting there, we noticed that the price of gas was $3.30 per gallon and normally it should be around $2.75 so I looked at our gas gauge and the distance to the next town and decided we would be close but fine. Wes worried all the way but of course I was right. The other thing we are watching is that tire. Over the time we stayed at Grand Canyon the tire lost about 5 lbs pressure so we need to have it looked at but we are not in any areas for tire stores. We will continue to monitor it and after Bryce will take a day in Las Vegas to deal with car maintenance – including an oil change.

As I said we decided to take the scenic route which means we were able to stop at the Navajo Bridge which is the first bridge built to cross the Colorado River at the beginning end of the Grand Canyon. This bridge is a real feat and was built by cantilevering from each side and bolting the two cantilevered ends together in the middle once they met. This strategy worked so well that when they decided they needed to build a bridge that could handle the weight and traffic of today, to build the same design beside the old one. Today we use the original one as a walking bridge providing great opportunities for photographs.

Along the road there are so many little leantoos set up where first nations are selling their crafts and wares. We stopped to look at one by the bridge and I absolutely loved many of the designs and decorations applied. In particular red clay pots are what I think of, but the white clay pots were even more dramatic with the white base used for the painting. At any rate, I resisted the urge to buy anything but reserve the right to do so in the future.

We did enjoy the drive on the scenic route but also were aware that we had to get a tent site in the park so did not want to be too late. Of course we are not sure of what the time is in this state since we have now moved into Utah. We arrived to Bryce Canyon at 4 decided to get a campsite before going shopping. There are some park stores in the park, but 3 miles from the campsite is a larger one outside the park gates. This turned out to be very fortunate decision since we got one of the last sites available in the park. There is only a first come basis.
We have settled in and of course had to go back out of the park to shop. The store is well stocked and when I realized they also had hiking sandals (and boots) I had to check them out. My hiking running shoes started to give me blisters so I have not worn them. The only option I have is a full light hiker boot and it has been so hot that in Grand Canyon my feet were sore and bothered me because they were over heating. I needed to find something suitable to wear that would provide hiking structure and cooling options. The sandals were well priced and hopefully will work, so I bought them. I will let you know tomorrow how that worked out.

Once we finished the domestic chores, we walked over to have a look at the rim of the canyon. Wow is all that I can say. It is too late to have seen the sunset but we will work on that later. While we were shopping we stopped at the Visitor’s Center and picked up a park map showing the trails down into the canyon that we could do, so Wes immediately has started plotting plans. Of course it appears that we will be extending our stay by another 2 days making it 4. I suggested hold off on that decision until we have experienced a hike and checked out the weather.