More Western

After waking up from the alarm set way too early, we set out to see the sunrise at Bryce Canyon. Let me tell you: 04:45 is not ok.
Logically, we watched the sun rise above the horizon and the mountains at Sunrise Point, while last night we looked at the sun setting from Sunset Point. There is logic to that, don’t you think?

At the time, it was about 7 degrees outside, and while the sun was not shining yet, before sunrise remember?, it was quitting chilly. My hands were going all tingly and Kirsten was ready to go home. After all, the regular daytime temperate is about 32 degrees! It was the first sunrise together, and it was not at all that romantic as one would think. You’d be better of with a sunset, romantically speaking…

Bryce Canyon NP has a lot of wildlife. Among other animals, we’ve seen chipmunks, Utah Prairie Dogs, Pronghorn Deer and assorted birds. Especially the Prairie Dogs were fun to look at, back home they’re our favorites in Rotterdam Zoo.

Also, we hiked between Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon NP. This was a quite strenuous walk with really scenic views of the red cliffs and stone pillars found in the canyon. We made a ton of pictures there, and are sure there’s nothing like that walk anywhere!
After this, we quickly left the National Park and left for Zion NP.

As the road to Zion NP is temporarily closed on weekdays between 9 am and 4 pm due to construction work, we had to make a major 74 mile d-tour. This brought us ti Cedar Breaks NP. As it is situated a lot higher than most other places, it’s very much colder. At Bryce Canyon, the temperatures were up to 30 degrees celsius while Cedar Breaks was at about 18 degrees. Cold! It is a lovely National Park though, with similar views and scenic as Bryce Canyon, but with different types of stone.

After leaving Cedar Breaks, Zion NP was quickly reached. The hotel was quite a surprise though, when we found out the hotel quite easily lives up to it’s name Historic Pioneer Lodge. Yes, more Western style sleeping for us. Complete with a bed made out of logs and riding cowboys on the walls. Nice.

Springdale is quite fun, but tiny! Almost fully made up of hotels and restaurants, it’s hard to see the original stuff. Oh well, we’re here for Zion NP…