Bryce Canyon National Park

We arrived at Bryce Canyon Pines RV Park on Saturday.  We took Highway 22 through a valley between the mountains making for a pleasant and pretty easy drive over to Bryce City.  We ate lunch and then decided to make the short 10 minute drive to the park.

We weren't quite prepared for the awe inspiring view of the canyon.  I can only compare it to when I saw Grand Canyon, it just takes your breath away for that split second when you first see it.  Again, pictures just can't show its total beauty, but I'll try. :)

We were only going to drive around a little, but we kept walking to the next view point.  This is even higher at Sunrise Point.

 We spent several hours at the park, then decided to call it a day and head home.  We decided the next day we were going to take the trail down to the bottom of the canyon, across, and up to the other side.  It would be a little less that 3 miles.

The skies were beautiful Sunday when we arrived at Sunset Point about 10:00 to start our hike downward.  As you descend into the canyon, you get a feeling of just how large the hoodoos (rock formations) are.  You can see people at the bottom center of the first picture and bottom left of the next to get the perspective.

We got to the bottom and couldn't get over how the hoodoos tower over you.  The trees were also gigantic, but they were dwarfed by the rocks.

We walked across the bottom even passing through some of the formations carved out for the path.

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to complete the trek through the canyon, but it was worth every climb and out of breath moment I had.  This hike is listed as one of the top 20 in National Geographic National Parks Hikes and it is definitely a hike we will not soon forget!

We went home to grab a quick lunch and then returned to the park to finish the driving tour to the tip.  There were many beautiful stops overlooking canyons and more formations.

 This is Fairyland Canyons and that is just what it reminds you of, either a giant fairyland or giant sandcastle formations.

 This is Natural Bridge.  It is actually an arch carved by wind and water and not a bridge that was carved by water alone.  It really doesn't matter, it's just gorgeous!

Since we had seen most of the canyon, on Monday we decided to take the Scenic Byway on Highway 12.  Our first stop was the short hike to the Mossy Cave and waterfalls.

We proceeded on Highway 12 through Escalante and then towards Boulder.  Before you get to Boulder, you come across or I should say through these giant red rock mountains.  This was another way we could have come from Torrey, but we were real glad we didn't when we saw the curvy roads and 14% grade signs.

We made it to Boulder, then turned around to see the magnificent scenery the other way.  Today, we are pretty much stuck inside with rain that is forecasted to last all day.  It does look like it will clear out before we leave tomorrow.  Next stop, Zion National Park.

Making Repairs and Capitol Reef National Park

We spent a couple of peaceful days at Pleasant Creek Ranch.  Jim had to drive almost back to Salt Lake City to get another tire for the fifth wheel.  He went to Camping World thinking they would be more helpful with our Good Sam Road Hazard Warranty, they were not.  They fixed the tire, but said we would have to take care of the warranty issues, they would not even call the toll free number, so when I did,  I was told I could file the claim, but they had many questions that would need to be answered about the tire (meaning they probably would not honor the claim since Camping World did not call them before replacing the tire).  So, right now we are not very happy Camping World customers. 

Anyway, we got the new tire back on the fifth wheel in order to continue on to our next destination, Torrey, Utah.  

We arrived at Thousand Lakes RV Park and had this view from our front door.  We don't get tired of those big colorful mountains.

The reason we were here was to go to Capitol Reef National Park.

We arrived at the Visitor's Center and watched the film about the park learning it is one of the newer national parks, being designated as that in 1971.

This area had included the little town of Fruita, a Mormon settlement with 10 families that farmed and raised fruit to sell and trade.  The fruit trees are still here and we stopped to pick some apples.

 The mountain colors and shapes were spectacular!

We literally went through mountain walls through some of the drives in the park.

We took the 2 mile hike to Hickman's Bridge climbing over and through the mountains to see it.   There is no better way to see a national park than to get out and take some of the hikes on their designated trails.  You can see Jim below to get a perspective of how large everything is.

And here's Hickman's Bridge.

This is a rock formation called Egyptian Temple.  From this perspective, that's just what it looked like.  The rocks are massive.

We spent two days here and were glad to be able to visit another wonderful national park.  Our next destination, Bryce Canyon National Park, about 120 miles south.

Salt Lake City, A Little Family History, And POP!!!

We left East Canyon Resort last Monday heading to another Coast to Coast Resort in Henefer, Utah.  We had an eventful drive when we made a wrong turn and headed up a mountain with an 8% grade.  I followed Jim uphill, both of us with our flashers on going at times about 30 mph.  When we were almost at the top, we stopped at a Visitor's Center where we got directions to go back down the mountain and head another way.  We got our practice driving that mountain.

We made it to Henefer, a little town about 40 miles from Salt Lake City.  We spent a few days there and then headed into Salt Lake City on Thursday.

I spent Thursday and Friday at the Family History Library looking up some family records there.  I'm definitely not an experienced genealogist, but I'm learning.  The Mormon Church keeps extensive family record collections from all over the world in the Family History Library and people from all over the world come to research.  It's free and you do not have to belong to the Mormon Church to use their facilities.  Everyone in the library was friendly and helpful.  It's been described as a Disneyland for genealogists.  There was also a free shuttle from our campground to the library so I made great use of that.

After spending a few days going through books, microfiche, and microfilms, I was ready to get out and do something else.  Saturday, we headed to Temple Square.  It is in the center of Salt Lake City and was is the heart of the Mormon church.

We toured the Church History Museum, then walked across the street to see the Assembly Hall built in 1882.

This is the Salt Lake Temple built by the Mormon pioneers between 1853 and 1893.

After seeing Temple Square, we headed over to the state capitol building which is only a few blocks away.

We went inside to see this beautiful rotunda with murals painted all around.  The walls and staircases were all made of marble.

We had a quick lunch, then headed south of town to the Kennecott Utah Copper Mine.

It took awhile to get there, but we were not disappointed.  It is gigantic!  Pictures just can't show the vastness of the mine.  One of the displays said if you could take the roads inside and lay them straight, they would reach across 500 miles.

There are giant trucks so far at the bottom they look like little toy trucks.

I took this picture from a picture on the wall showing an overview of the mine and the mountains around it.  It is so large, it could be seen from the space shuttle in space.

 We finished the tour and got back to the bottom of the mountain just before a big storm came in.  We got caught in a heavy downpour and hail.  We stopped at an In N Out for supper to wait out the storm.

On our way home, we were rewarded with a sunset lighting the clouds and a rainbow.  The sky was absolutely gorgeous!

On Sunday, we went back to Temple Square to the Tabernacle.

Each Sunday, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir records their 30 minute TV show, Music and the Spoken Word.  This was the first Sunday back in the Tabernacle.  During the summer, they perform in the Conference Center because the crowds are so large.  Today, the crowd filled the Tabernacle.  Thursday evening, we had gone to their choir rehearsal, so today was the finished version.  Both the choir rehearsals and Sunday tapings are open to the public free of charge.  The choir was magnificent, hearing them with the organ and in the Tabernacle was a wonderful experience.

After the taping of the show, we headed to Antelope Island State Park at the Great Salt Lake.  There is a causeway that takes you across the Great Salt Lake to the state park located on an island in the middle of the lake.

It was a beautiful day and we were rewarded with this first view of the Great Salt Lake.

The Antelope Island Stampede was also taking place this weekend, so we headed over there to see the festivities.

There was a really neat precision stunt kite demonstration.  It was amazing how this group could literally make these kites dance.

There was also a BMX demonstration and giant bubbles being blown throughout for the kids to pop.  We stayed there a little over an hour watching all the events, but then headed on to see the other views.

 We snapped this picture to prove we were here. :)

There are many bison on the island.  Even though we have a lot of pictures of bison, we didn't have one of them in front of the Great Salt Lake.

We were heading over to the day use area for lunch when we spotted this coyote that then proceeded to cross the street in front of us.

 While we were eating lunch, we saw this herd of Pronghorn Antelope cross the street in an orderly fashion.

We had a wonderful time in Salt Lake City.  We headed out Monday morning towards our next destination in Mt. Pleasant, Utah.  It was only a 100 miles so we got a late start.

We had only gone about 25 miles from Salt Lake City when I heard a loud POP and then saw rubber flying across the highway.  The back right tire had  blown out on the fifth wheel.  Jim was able to get it onto the side of the interstate.  I pulled behind him with my flashers on hoping no one plowed into the back of me.  Thank goodness we have Good Sam Road Coverage.  I called the 800 number and they had a truck out in about an hour.  It took the young man about an hour to change the tire, but we were back on the road again to our destination.  We were certainly glad we had the coverage and did not have to find the towing company ourselves.

We have to go back to Draper tomorrow to get another tire.  We have some damage on the side of the fifth wheel over the tire, but we will wait until we get back to Texas in October to have that fixed.

Here's a picture of the tire, it's totally destroyed.

We made it to Mt. Pleasant and will be here recharging a few days before we head to the national parks in southern Utah.