Page, Arizona to Zion National Monument and Bryce Canyon

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Page, Colorado to Zion National Monument and Bryce Canyon

We awoke in the morning not well rested for obvious reasons, and after breakfast at Denney’s, went on our way passing through Kanab, Utah where we bought gas for $3.97 per gallon.

We arrived at Zion around noon, made a lunch, and caught the trolley for the drive up the canyon. Outstanding! It was almost magical traveling along the river hemmed in towering red cliffs as our trolley driver regaled us with the history of the canyon and continually admonished us to drink large amounts of water.

At the end of trolley tour we got off and took a mile and a half hike into the gorge where the canyon narrowed. More magic!

We ate our lunch sitting on a log by the river in the shadow of the looming red cliffs and stopped to look for wildflowers and birds.

We returned to the trolley stop after our walk and caught the trolley back to the Visitor Center. Both us were mesmerized by the fact we had actually walked into the canyon. It was, at the time the high point of our trip. We left the canyon at 2:36 pm and drove an hour to Bryce. We toured the one road that passed all the features of the canyon (You will see the best of them in the images accompanying the blog post.) and started on our way to Grand Canyon Village.

We were so tired and so behind schedule after visiting both Zion and Bryce Canyon that we canceled our campsite at Grand Canyon and retraced our tire tracks to Kanab, UT where Route 89A, the route to Grand Canyon begins, and checked into a Comfort Inn for the night. We were both very tired and did not relish the thought of setting up a tent at 10 PM.

What we both needed was a hot shower and a soft bed. Blissful! 

This makes sense - "where the buffalo roam", etc

This however does not seem right!

 View of Lake Powell from campsite in Page, Colorado

Entrance to Bryce Canyon

The wide open spaces

Road side land form

Zion water fall

Roadside red cliffs

 Snow capped mountians

Scenic Zion National Monument. Walk through the canyon following the river. A truly unique experience. Instead of looking into the canyon, you walk along the bottom!