July 12: Bryce Canyon, UT

In the morning, we awoke in Mount Zion and decided to play in the river, which was more of a creek than a river after all these years. The water was COLD. Not the biting cold that seeps to the bones, but a really refreshing cold that awoke all the senses. We took pictures and made comments about being cleansed in the Virgin River and feeling more pure afterwards. I mean, come on, it’s called the Virgin River. I don’t think the Mormons would approve of our actions. Hehe.

After the morning, we were headed to Bryce Canyon, UT, another amazing park that was only a few hours away. Bryce is known for having these towering spires of rock that look more like drip sand castles or termite mounds than rock. They’re made of sandstone and limestone and are the result of erratic desert weather. The water seeps into the pores of the rock and at night when the temperatures get really cold, the water freezes and then thaws again in the day causing the rock to break and erode in weird ways. You’ll have to check out the pictures another time to see what I’m talking about, it’s crazy. Oh yeah, and we’re still in Mormon country. Apparently the canyon is named after some old Mormon who settled here back in the day, I think he only had one wife though. Kidding. J

I have no idea how far we actually hiked this day, but it was a lot. I also managed to slightly sprain my right ankle near the end because it was aching and beginning to throb. There’s a spot down in the canyon that you can hike to called Thor’s Hammer which is supposed to be a gorgeous sight as the sun rises and sets, but there was no way my ankle was going to hold up for the hike down and back. We opted for a nice little bench instead…and then the clouds overtook the sun and didn’t release it. Oh well, back to the campsite we went. Again we weren’t allowed to have fires and again I was happy to have a smokeless night.

The weeks of camping were starting to take their toll and tomorrow we were going to drive through Vegas and find an Olive Garden. We had been given a gift card for it and both of us were desperate for a meal that we didn’t have to prepare. We’ve been looking forward to it the entire trip. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about Vegas, but Olive Garden was a whole different story. I fell asleep thinking about garlic sticks, salad and pasta. Mmmmm, hungry just thinking about it!