The title of my post today is probably a decent metaphor for our life together. I’m so grateful that we do take time to appreciate and enjoy the things around us, and are intentional in where and how we spend our time.
That being said, we are still basking in what a perfect day we had yesterday! I started the day thinking of the song “Here Comes the Sun” ? by the Beatles. In the quiet start of our day, I was so excited since the gloomy clouds and rain that had been with us for several days had finally parted. While they had offered us lower crowds and cooler temps, it really didn’t help us fully appreciate Bryce’s beauty. So setting out for this ultimate hike in the brilliant sunshine lifted my spirits higher, while still concerned for the strenuous activity ahead. I had done this exact hike in 2018 in extreme heat; did I have what it takes to do it now? We had prepared well with lots of snacks and water. We had 4 layers on (which we needed to adjust throughout the morning), the appropriate hat(s)/gloves and had applied sunscreen. We were ready! So the day unfolded beautifully, just like the song says….
??It’s all right ??
It was better than all right, it was perfect. Rick was just so overwhelmed by all of it that I wanted him to post about it, but I just had to talk about it as well. In fact we spent a good amount of time last night just talking about where Bryce ranks in our overall favorite National Park ratings… it’s up there is all that I will say right now. We don’t talk about it often, but this definitely warranted discussion. We hope to be back here again someday, and hope to be able to Hike the Hoodoos again.
But today it was time to leave Bryce and move on to our next adventure. One of the very thoughtful things that Rick does in trip planning is avoid the busiest locations on the weekend. It’s another way of taking the scenic route, as we take our time to land in the busy places when they are less busy. And so, we have not gone straight into the main part of Zion as most people do; we will get there in a couple of days. Today, we made the short drive to an RV park near the Kolob Canyon region of Zion National Park so that we can visit that tomorrow.
As we left Bryce, we went through an brilliant area called Red Canyon. I remembered its stunning beauty and was excited to see it again.
From here the land opened into a beautiful area of fields and valley, with a winding creek. We decided rather than heading straight for the highway, to take the less traveled road over yet another mountain range. We got as high as 9,700 feet, and within 30 minutes were back down to 5,700 feet. It was nice to not be dealing with a snowstorm this time, as the skies were as bright as the picture above; there was still some lingering snow in our landscape at the top.
We drove into Cedar City, Utah as we came out of that mountain pass and were surprised to see such a “major” metropolis for Southern Utah. I guess the Walmart should have been our first clue, but there was more than expected. We just made our quick stop as planned; Rick said it was the cleanest, nicest Walmart he has ever been in! I waited in the car with Daisy since the temps had warmed up considerably, and I didn’t feel like running the generator just to get groceries. Most importantly, salad! Our tiny fridge can only hold 6-ish so it needs to be a regular restocking.
We had a quick drive over to our campsite, which we haven’t seen much of since it is HOT! Neither of us are big fans of the heat and so a couple of our upcoming stops will naturally be a challenge. While we put out the awning in hopes of sitting out side when we arrived, we brought it back in rather quickly. Instead, we’re hibernating in the A/C and hoping it will cool off later to spend some time outside. We even maybe can open the windows this evening, which is something we haven’t been able to do yet on this trip.
I’m still sore from yesterday’s hike but am so excited about some of the places we will be hiking through tomorrow!
I have to share just a couple more pics from yesterday…
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