So land-locked Utah had a heck of a lot to offer, particularly its National Parks. Mike mentioned how much he appreciated that Utah's beautiful vistas were elevated rather than lowly - you strained your neck looking up instead of looking down. The Grand Canyon is pretty spectacular, but Utah offers a nice variety of landscapes since it is the "high desert."
We first visited Kolob Canyons, just north of Zion, because we missed the turn on I-15 for Zion. We toured the park the last few days of April, and were lucky to get in when we did since the park closed the beginning of May for renovations to the road. The views were stunning and you could just peek into Zion to the South. The park may be closed for the entire summer which is a pity since it's a gorgeous place to see.
We toured Zion National Park twice while staying in Arizona, the tour bus ride was the best because all you want to do while traveling is look up at these brilliant canyons. We got off at the final stop on the tour - Temple of Sinawava, and hiked the Riverside Walk along with various other tourists and some obstinate ground squirrels. Mike got to flex his photography skills with his brand-new camera, he sold his former heavy one. We also hiked around the Emerald Pools, lovely waterfalls, then got ice cream at Zion Lodge. My favorite was driving along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway through the mountain tunnels to Checkerboard Mesa. We came back a third time to record the drive towards Checkerboard Mesa, but the camera crapped out on us, I still got some shaky video on my phone.
During our stay in Cedar City, UT, we made several visits to Bryce Canyon. We drove up past the entrance for Cedar Breaks, which was blocked off due to snow on the road. We appreciated how green thinking they are with their HUGE solar panel at the Visitor's Center. Instead of utilizing Bryce's shuttle bus, we opted to drive to around the park, setting our own course of adventure.
We drove to Bryce Point (the end of the Shuttle Bus tour) and admired the view - it's breath-taking. I was awe-struck by the sights in Zion, but I was blown-away by the spectacle of Bryce
Canyon. The Grand Canyon is amazing, but the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon are a surprising sight of geographical measure. After nearly 30 minutes of admiring the site, we drove to Inspiration Point, quite inspirational, but it was quite a hike to the point. We walked around the canyon rim our first day there, checking out Sunset Point and Sunrise Point, then we chose to drive out as far as the road within the park would take us. The road was particularly curvy, which made Mike miss his motorcycle all the more. We returned the next day and chose to hike down into the canyon from Sunset Point towards the Queen's Garden Trail. The national park map points out several interesting hoodoos to note along the trails, but seriously, many of them look like Thor's Hammer or Queen Victoria if you view it from the right angle - Mike got annoyed with me continually pointing at hoodoos and asking, "Is that Victoria? Or is it that one?" (The one that turned out to be the Queen was kind of disappointing.) The trails were arduous, but it was great to explore the canyon and marvel at the strange hoodoos (I also couldn't stop humming the song "Magic Dance" from Labyrinth, when one of the goblins says "who do?" is sounds like hoodoo.) Anyways, pictures can't do justice to how astounding the landscape is at Bryce Canyon - I am very glad we stopped through Utah on this journey.
We had a great time in Utah and honestly only scratched the surface of all this state has to offer. Utah is home to five national parks and we only visited two, so we have to come back to see more of it. Utah, we will come back and see you again soon, not sure how soon, but we’ll definitely be back.
