Hoodoos and Petrified Wood (5/29/14)

This morning, we arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park by 8 AM. A quick stop at the visitor center so Barbara could pick up a post card for the boys, a quick text message to the girls to let them know that we are “alive and well” off the grid and then out to the shuttle bus. We took the bus up to Bryce Point that is the “top” of the park @ 8,296 feet of elevation. Along the way we saw some pronghorn sheep. We were probably on the first bus us, so we didn’t have a crowd at the overlooks. Rather than take the bus to the next two viewpoints, we hiked the rim trail. Very unusual for a National Park – there were no railings at all. If you wandered off the trail, they would be scraping you up off the canyon floor! We hike about 2 miles and then took the shuttle to the Lodge. Out of the four designed by this architect, this is the only one that hasn’t had to be replaced yet. After that, we took the shuttle back to the visitor center and headed out of the park to the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) visitor office to learn more about The Grand Staircase Escalante Parks. We decided to head over to Escalante to pick up some groceries and gas. After that, we went into Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. We started to hike the trail, but Barbara soon realized that the height would not work for her! I managed to get her back down and then did the hike without her. About 2 miles with some challenging elevation change (since we were up around 8000 feet) Got back to the car and drove back to Kodachrome for dinner and to prepare for moving on tomorrow. We walked the interpretive nature trail and wandered around the campground. Said goodbye to the other couple with the Escape and then called it a night. Tomorrow, we hope to get in a National Park Campground about 3 hours east of here.