Bryce via Zion

Another horrible Holiday Inn Express breakfast and then we checked out to head to Bryce Canyon. I didn't know much about the trip - not having done it before - and had a feeling it would be rather a boring 4 1/2 hours. And an hour out of Vegas it looked like I was right.

We stopped at St George, just off the I-15 for some gas and a quick lunch - Subway again!

We were taking I-15 north-east from Nevada, across the corner of Arizona into Utah. The first few hours were long, straight and relatively flat. However we found ourselves heading straight toward a mountain and there didn't seem to be any deviation on the horizon. Intrigued, it only became apparent when we got quite close that the road ran into a narrow gap between two high mountains. It was a rather spectacular entrance which continued for about 11 miles, snaking its way along what was in some places little more than a crevice with towering walls of rock either side.

Farther along our way the GPS indicated we should turn off I-15 rather than follow it towards Cedar City, which looked the obvious route on the map. We started to see signs pointing toward Zion which I'd heard about but hadn't planned on visiting. The landscape grew increasingly spectacular and we found ourselves at the gates of Zion National Park.

Either just outside or just inside - I can't recall - we stopped for "gas" and a Ben & Jerry's ice-cream. Cookie dough ice-cream with a brownie base and covered in chocolate. Not quite as nice as it sounds.

Once inside the scenery was spectacular. We pulled over to the side to take photos many many times through the park, which slowed our progress somewhat but of course we didn't mind. An unexpected bonus on our trip! And out the other side, IIRC, was Red Canyon, rather aptly named with the brightest orange-red earth I have even seen.

From there it wasn't too long to Bryce. We arrived about 2 hours later than planned, and checked in to our hotel about 5 mins outside the park. We'd read mixed reviews but had little choice as there's not a lot of options near Bryce. Turns out our room was quite nice and in hindsight, there was nothing we could complain about.

After checking in we raced down to the park to catch the visitor's centre before it closed, only to be pretty cheesed off that with an advertised closing time of 6pm it was closed at 5:20pm. More on that tomorrow!!!

There wasn't a lot else we could do by then, so we returned to our hotel to unpack. Soon after we went out again to look for food. The choice around there is pretty limited, and we decided the restaurant in Ruby's Inn was too expensive, the diner food looked disgusting, and we simply couldn't face Subway for dinner. That left no other choice but our hotel restaurant. We had a burger & fries each - and it wasn't half bad! So we wasted about 45 mins for nothing.

It had been quite a day of driving, with some pleasant surprises, and just enough time for a quick episode of Will & Grace before hitting the sack. We had to be up at 8am tomorrow so we could ring the horse-riding office right on 9am to book a ride.

---

---