You would think we've learned our lesson about getting behind on our trip blogging, but the internet connection at this campground has gotten us behind. Technically, since it's Mountain Time, if I get this post done in the next 90 minutes, we'll be caught up.
Today was a "take it easy" day. Since we have a long drive coming up tomorrow, we didn't think driving another couple hundred miles today would be a good idea. So sorry, Henry, we won't be making it to Capitol Reef National Park this trip. And we didn't make it too far up Route 12 either. After some of the hair raising drives we've had so far, I can't say I'm sorry to miss driving the backbone of a mountain with no guardrails and drop-offs on either side. But I bet the scenery was amazing, and Jeff would have loved it. Hindsight being 20-20, we should have stayed another night or two in Moab and driven to Capitol Reef from there. Another time.
Even though it was a take it easy day, I woke up early and drove into Bryce Canyon to see how Sunrise Point looked in the morning. I got to watch a group of people taking the horseback riding trail along the rim of the canyon. Not that wide of a trail, in my humble opinion...
I got back after an hour and got the kids breakfast. Jeff was doing P90X and then some work. He checked maps to figure out how we should make our way back east, since this is our most western point of the trip. There's no straight shot over to Monument Valley in Utah from here; we'll have to head south to Arizona and then east to get there. Jeff is excited to see Monument Valley, where many westerns were filmed.
It was about lunchtime, so we headed up to Ruby's to get something to eat. Then we drove to the Mossy Cave Trail in Bryce to take a walk. It's a short walk, only .8 mile roundtrip. We started out walking along the river, and then went up a path that takes you to a place where you can see a waterfall. There are also some hoodoos that have become arches, and thanks to a local taking friends on the same path, we learned that it's called the dragon, because the top of the formation looks like a dragon's head and body.
Since we had time, we drove into Bryce National Park via the main entrance and looked for deer or pronghorn. A challenge was issued for who could spot the most animals, and of course, Jeff won by a large margin.
Back at the campsite, we hung out a bit and then I took the kids to the pool while Jeff worked. It was packed. My gut reaction was to leave and come back later, but the kids really wanted to swim. So we stayed and tried to navigate through all the people. The water was warmer than previous days, which was good. After one dip in the pool, though, I spent the rest of my time in the hot tub.
Later in the afternoon, Henry, Ruth and I went over to the Old Bryce Town area. Basically, it's more gift shops. I have wanted to go to a rock shop since we got to Moab, and there was one here. Ruth came along because there is an ice cream shop there too.
The shop had great stuff. They had trilobites, ancient fossils trapped in layers of shale, found in Wyoming. The petrified wood samples were beautiful, and I found one I really liked. They had arrowheads, marbles, geodes and even shark's teeth. I even stumbled upon fossilized dinosaur dung. Yes, that's right. And you know what, it's really cool looking, very similar to petrified wood.
Henry got a trilobite, an arrowhead and some pieces of fossilized dinosaur bone. Ruth got an animal carved out of stone. And I got a slab of petrified wood and one of the pieces of fossilized dinosaur dung. I just had to. Someone will be at the house and say how pretty it is, and then we can tell them what it is.
For our last night in Bryce, our dinner plans were grilling steaks and roasting potatoes in foil on the fire. For dessert, we picked up some ice cream at the ice cream shop. We had enough firewood for one more fire - a perfect way to end our stay here.
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