Riding in Bryce Canyon

Up at 8am on the dot and showered ready - hopefully - for our ride. Karina rang the office at 8:45 to book the 1/2 day morning ride. They were only running afternoon rides and told us just to turn up at 12:30pm for the 1pm ride.

After a couple of breakfast bars and an orange juice for breakfast the first order of business was seeing about getting the slow leak in the tyre fixed. We suspected it had been flat since we hired it, as the handbrake warning light had always been on - until the tyre was flat enough for me to notice and I pumped it up. No warning light! By now I had put air in twice, and noticing a large car service centre at Bryce, we decided to get it fixed. Only 15 mins and we browsed the nearby souvineer shops while they fixed it. They like selling rocks there.

When paying for the tyre I noticed the clock on the wall said 10:15am, not 9:15. Asking if that was the right time, the woman said "You came up from Vegas - right!?!". Apparently they were on "Mountain Time" and we had lost an hour! No time now to explore any of Bryce before our ride.

We drove into the park and bought our ticket and went to the visitor centre. I asked about the "night program" and was told there was a talk abot the moon followed by viewing in a telescope. Cool - I'd heard about this and luckily it was scheduled for tonight. We ducked into the park lodge to see where we needed to be at 12:30 and headed back out - to Subway - to get lunch before heading straight back in.

It was always questionable whether I'd be able to go riding with Karina. There was a "strict" 220lb limit on the rides, re-inforced by a sign at the desk. When I checked in Vegas the day before, I was 232lbs. Karina bought the tickets whilst I made myself scarce and we headed up to the horses without any word of a weight limit. No-one seemed particularly concerned about my weight.

Karina was assigned to "Sassy" and, after some consideration, I was assigned to "Ruby" - a mule. That meant I was riding!!! Yah!! No more worrying about not being able to ride. No more worrying about eating American rubbish. I could drink alcohol again!!! Yah!!!

After mounting our rides and a short walk to the canyon rim (I was behind Karina) we rode over the rim - and we hadn't seen the canyon yet - to be confronted with an absolutely stunning vista! Overlooking the Bryce "ampitheatre" and well beyond over the raised mesas and into the distant mountains, the view was comparable to the Grand Canyon!

The ride took us down to the canyon floor - navigating narrow and sometimes steep trails that almost always had a very long, steep drop on one side. But there was always something to look at - often _too_ much to look at, despite the tendency of Ruby to walk on the outer 2 inches of the track. We were warned that some of them liked to walk on the edge, and they assured us that there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. That was exactly what they said in the documentary about the grand canyon mules.

No point worrying about it, so I found myself perched upon a mule literally inches from a precipitous drop, holding the reins with one hand whilst I tried to photograph 360 degrees around me with the other hand. The rock formations were amazing, and as we climbed in and out of the canyon we went from gazing up at the rocks towering over us to looking down on the valley below us.

After 2 1/4 hours we stopped for a rest break and water. Then it was back on for the ride out, about 1 1/4 hours it turned out. Mostly flat then up-hill, the saddle become a little harder as the afternoon wore on. We emerged from the canyon at about 4:15pm. An unforgettable experience!

We had a few hours to kill before the "night program" at the lodge, so we set off to see a few of the lookouts where we had seen people looking down at us during the ride. The 1st, Inspiration Point, looked over the ride tracks and into the vally beyond. Simply stunning. The 2nd, Bryce Point, gave a view over the land leading into the canyon as well as the canyon itself, so you got a sense of the sudden drop-off that makes it so spectacular.

We headed back to the motel for burgers - I could finally have a beer (Budweiser) before heading back to the lodge. Tonight's talk was on the moon, about 45 mins. Interesting to some degree. Then we headed up to Sunrise Point for the viewing through the telescope.

"Could I see your tickets please?" we were asked as we arrived. WHAT!?! I was _not_ told anything about tickets when I _specifically_ asked about the astronomy this morning!!! I was _NOT_ impressed to say the least.

Back to the motel for a show or two on the Eee PC and bed.

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