Day 3: Zion to Bryce

Saturday morning, and we’re getting a little more into vacation mode; we slept in until 7:00 AM, took our time getting ready and then went out to breakfast around 9:00 AM. Our B&B vouchers were good for two different restaurants, so this morning we went over to Porters, directly across the street from the Novel House. 

I had a huge chicken-fried steak with eggs, potatoes and toast, and Kathy had a Popeye omelette. They didn’t have decaf though, so I had to make do with Chamomile tea, something I haven’t had for fifty years. 

After breakfast, we went back to our room and finished packing, checking out right at the 11:00 AM deadline. Leaving the park entrance, we drove east towards Bryce. When we had the opportunity, we pulled over to stretch our legs and take some pictures. 

Just a few miles after the entrance, we saw the “blind” arch on the north side of the highway.

Then, switchbacking up the hill, we entered the 1930s Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel. 

This one-mile-long tunnel has several window cut-outs looking out over Zion. You can’t stop at all in the tunnel, though, and the road is so narrow (by our modern standards), that I couldn’t even snatch a peek. I understand that if you drive an RV, you have to have a ranger escort to drive you through the tunnel.

On the other side, we stopped just past the Canyon Overlook trailhead (which was jammed). We met a nice couple from Washington and we took turns taking pictures. A little further on, we stopped at the Checkerboard Mesa turnout and got a few more pictures. It’s nice driving a little and then stopping and walking around.

At the Mt. Carmel Junction we turned north on Highway 89 and stoped at the little town of Oderville to buy some pickles and bread for our sandwiches. A few miles further north, in the town of Glendale, we tried to stop at the Grand Escalante Staircase visitor’s center, but it was closed until May. Instead, we stopped at the City Park and ate our lunch, watching as two students in a “master-gardener” class learned how to prune fruit trees. Apparently this is quite an event because there were ten or fifteen other people sitting around watching them.

Our hotel in Bryce had said that we couldn’t check in until 4:00 pm. Since it was only about 2:00 pm, we pulled off the road at Red Canyon and took a short walk up to the hill to some of the impressive “hoodoos” that were close to the road.

Even the short trail was icy and muddy and both of us were a little frightened of falling, so we didn’t climb any higher into the park. Instead we got back into our car and headed for our hotel, The Best Western Grand at Bryce Canyon.

Fortunately, there was no problem checking into our hotel early. After unpacking everything (afraid that our sodas would freeze if we left them in the car overnight), we decided to take advantage of the sunlight to see what we could. (We learned our lesson at Zion.)

When we drove into the park, the Visitor’s center was just closing (at 4:00 PM), but we did find out that the southern scenic drive was closed. I was a little disappointed, since I had mentally underlined the different stops and hikes for the next couple days.

Our first stop was Bryce Point, which was as far as the road was opened. I suppose one advantage of the cold weather is that it was easy to find a parking place. I remember Yellowstone and Glacier parks in the summer, when it was almost impossible to find parking at the popular trailheads, no matter how early we started out. 

The other advantage of the weather is that the views were really spectacular, even though we stayed at the cleared area in front of the parking lot, and didn’t walk up to Bryce Point itself. If the weather is good in the morning, we’ll pull our Yactrax knockoffs over our shoes and head up the snowy trail. For today, though, we’re taking it easy.

Back in the car, our next stop was Sunset Point. There was a nice parking lot there, with restrooms and a cleared path out to the viewing area. We met a couple from St. George, took their picture and they took ours. When we told them we were from Newport Beach, they told us they were leaving next week to spend time with friends in Corona Del Mar.

Our last stop was Inspiration Point, just as the sun was going down. Since it was 8:00 PM, we were too tired to go out to dinner, so we went back to our room and had some sandwiches. I tried to watch a movie on HBO or Cinemax, and gave up after fifteen minutes. Instead, I read one of Stephen Hunter’s books on my phone, until it fell from my fingers onto my chest, and I turned out the light.