Day 2, Bryce Canyon N.P.

It was a great and interesting day here in Bryce Canyon NP.   Sandy found an old journal that was kept those many years ago.  In it were the names of some of the locations etc.    However, little seems to match what we remember.   (I guess they are permitted to make improvements over 50 years.)

We checked out all of the sites for viewing the valley.   No, we didn't take any valley walks.  The effort to  just walk from the car to the rim let us know that we were in no shape to descend on a trail over 500 feet to the valley floor.  (Of course, then you have to climb, walk or crawl back up the 500 foot decent.)

This place is a zoo for people with more tour buses then I would have guessed during prime season.   Most of the people are foreigners.  Even our Aussie friends sound like foreigners sometimes.  Today was much cooler than yesterday and we felt it.  It really felt nice to get back into the car after it had been sitting in the sun.

We have tested our Honda generator and it does the job, as we knew it would.  But one never knows after it has been sitting so long.  We used it this morning for about 30 minutes to do some of the bulk charge and then shut it down and left to do some  sight seeing.   Later we returned for 15 minutes and fired it up again.   At noon when we returned, the solar panels had finished the job in-spite of being parked in the trees.  I think that there was an hour or two when the sun could look down directly on our rig and the panels did their job.

We're amazed how few people here are running generators. Most of the motorhomes here are rental units, which I assume have a generator.  One thing that has changed from 50 years ago is that wood gathering for a fire is absolutely forbidden.  Even if it was permitted, I think there would be very little wood left after 50 years of gathering it by campers.  (It was permitted 50 years ago and we cooked over the wood fire.)

Tomorrow we'll head to Zion NP for a few days.  It  will be interesting to see again.  Where as Bryce has the viewers on a plateau looking down on the spires, at Zion, the viewers are on the river bank, looking up at the sandstone hills that nearly goes straight up.   The good news is that one campground has most of the sites electrified.  The bad news may be that they are only available by reservation.  (I assume that non-reserved sites are available to us who can't plan ahead!)  But there are few trees in the campground, so the solar should work  like a charm.

Life continues to be one big adventure.

Gene