Bryce Canyon Trip, Part 4

Vistas along the way

The Castle at Capitol Reef

Hieroglyphs at Capitol Reef

After stopping briefly at the visitors center, we headed up the road to Goblin Valley State Park. Then it was up to Green River and on to Price. We had a nice enough dinner at a Mexican restaurant on the outskirts of Price, and then back on home.

Formations on the way to Goblin Valley

Goblin Valley

We named these formations Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Pronghorn antelope we saw as we were leaving Goblin Valley

Final formations on the way home

It was a nice trip and fun to show DeeAnn some of the beauty of the state. in some cases if you drove less than an hour the geology and topography completely changed. Amazing!

Bryce Canyon Trip, Part 3

The next day we packed up and headed out for some more unique Utah sights. First was some wonderful sights of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument followed by Capitol Reef.

More amazing sights

More rock formations

Overlook along the way

Roads cut out of the rock

Rock formations

One of my favorite roads, out of Boulder. Notice the drop off on both sides.

Bryce Canyon Trip, Part 2

It was then back on the shuttle to Sunset Point. from there we took the trail to Sunrise Point and then back to the Bryce Canyon Lodge. It was at the Lodge that we had lunch to experience awful service from our server (others around us were very good and efficient, ours was lame).

Sunset and Sunrise Points

Panorama of Sunset and Sunrise Points

Overlook at Sunrise Point

Sunrise Point

Local flowers

Rent a horse to see the canyon from a different perspective

Back on the shuttle to the Visitors Center then back to the campground. We ate stir-fry that evening. Evenings were nice and cool, making us use the heater in the evening and the air conditioner during the day.

Stir-fry

Bryce Canyon Trip, Part 1

Having returned from another camping trip, we discovered we took a lot of pictures! So here is our look at our 3-day trip. Please remember that you can click on each picture to get a larger version. Some are very pretty!

Red line shows our route, more or less.

We left early Friday morning, timing our trip so we could make it to the Beaver cheese factory. After gathering the requisite curd (very good) and sample bag (again, very good), we made our way to Cedar City then up the canyon. It was here I introduced DeeAnn to her first show of natural beauty, Cedar Breaks National Monument.

Coming out of Cedar City and up the canyon

Overlook - Large mountain in background is from Zions National Park

Panorama picture of Cedar Breaks National Monument

Getting closer to Bryce Canyon National Park

It was then on through the wonderful mountain passes, and pretty much up to the top of the mountain to Ruby's Inn. It was here we set up camp and spent the next couple of nights. After a nice dinner at the buffet, we made our way back past the lodges, lake and into the campground.

Old Bryce Town shops

Minnie Lake, at Ruby's Inn

Harvey at Ruby's Inn campground

The next day was our exploring day. We started with riding the free shuttle provided by the park and up to Bryce Point. It was the first jaw-dropping moment. And the pictures really don't tell the whole story of the colors or distances.

Scenes from Bryce Point

Bryce Point panorama

Bryce Point

Nebo Loop

We recently took a drive to the Nebo Loop. I had never been there before so when we had the opportunity, I wanted to check it out. We really enjoyed the drive even though it was a little rainy. We even encountered snow when we were in the upper elevations, around 9,000 feet above sea level. We checked out every campground along the way and took notes of the sites we liked the best.

Not a whole lot to see from the overlooks

Ponderosa Campground. The pines were planted in 1914.

Free time

In our free time, DeeAnn finished a new Disney puzzle while I have been working on a new Lego set (Green Grocer).

DeeAnn's finished Disney puzzle

The first floor of the Lego set, still being worked on.

First floor finished.

Disneyland and Sea World, Spring 2010

We recently returned from another trip to Disneyland. This time, rather than flying, we decided to drive the RV down and stay in it. We figured the cost of driving and time would be worth it, especially since we had one of DeeAnn's former teacher friends and her husband and baby to come with us. Paul helped drive so it made the trip down much nicer, except for the strong headwinds and LA traffic snarls. We had a good time. The parks were a little more crowded than normal (lots of teens there), but the restaurants were fine. We enjoyed the Disney parks on Wednesday and Friday with a trip to Sea World on Thursday to break things up. It seemed to work well.

Fireworks, seen from the RV park

Paul, Tammy & Alex on Jungle Cruise

Paul, Tammy & Alex with Winnie the Pooh

DeeAnn and Tigger

It's a Small World

Harvey at the Anaheim RV Park Resort.

The park was pretty nice. There was a shuttle every 20 minutes or so to and from the parks. It did make for a long wait after a long day of walking around the parks, but it was pretty efficient. The shuttle route included the Gardenwalk in the evenings, so it may be nice to take advantage of that if we do this again.

Sea World, scene from one of the new shows

Shamu at Sea World

Pets Rule show at Sea World

Polar Bear at Sea World

Penguin feeding time at Sea World

Flamingos at Sea World