(Events of Sunday April 12th recorded Wednesday April 15th)

We rolled in to Bryce Canyon in the waning hours of the previous night, snagged an open campsite, and I attempted to relax by the fire while Annie attempted to BARKBARK enough to get us kicked out. It was a slightly less frigid, but still pretty chilly evening and we awoke to cold and wind. I hadn’t yet ascertained where the showers were, so decided to get right to the gawking at natural wonders. Bryce Canyon is known for its hoodoos-fanciful spires carved out of the red sandstone canyon to resemble animals, faces, castles, and whatever else your imagination can dream up. Hoodoo is a Paiute Indian word meaning “People and animals turned to stone,” and they refused to even approach the canyons believing they too would suffer the same fate upon entering.

We reached the first overlook just as a giant busload of foreign tourists was disgorging which was NOT ideal to say the least. The wind was pretty fierce as well, so it wasn’t like you wanted to linger waiting for them to jog on. But wait we did, and in waiting ambled down the path a bit, and enjoyed some glorious views in the solitude. Next I decided to take the advice of my invaluable National Geographic Guide to the National Parks and head to the end of the loop drive and work our way back through the stops. So off we went to Rainbow Point.

Oh, did I mention it’s another freaking high elevation  area AND there’s still SNOW everywhere?! Where the hell is my spring?! I am so sick of my winter coat and hats!!

No one as happy about the arctic temps…

Mostly the morning was spent driving around looking at cool rock formations.

This one is called Natural Bridge, and I was already pointing out that it’s actually an arch before I discovered the sign correcting the misnomer. #learning

Then some of us snoozed in the car while others finally took a shower. (Which only took payment in gold coins!)

Then we went and had lunch on the porch of the General Store which I was told had WiFi but all it had was lies!!! (And yet more friends for Annie.) And some woman from Montgomery County who told me her whole life story, then remarked on how she used to have a black and white dog like Annie, then started speculating about how lovely it would be if we all woke up one morning as a blend of black and white?!?! Look lady, I’m just trying to write some postcards here, can you move it along??

Annie and I had a nice afternoon hike along the rim of the canyon, then I spent about two and a half hours moving from the Lodge (which had TERRIBLE WiFi) to the Visitor’s Center, (which had decent WiFi but no good place to sit and use it, and also closed at 6pm), BACK to the lodge all in an attempt to get a much delayed blog post out. Readers of that post will already be familiar with my irritation towards small children and rug cleaning devices.

Upon a “tip” from the desk clerk at the Lodge, we went to the poorly named Sunrise Point in an attempt to see the sunset. It was kind of a nonevent as far as I could tell. But I did see this cool tree, which was originally growing several feet back from the rim, but as time has eroded away it’s surrounding dirt, it is barely hanging on by it’s toenails. (Yes, trees have toenails.) It is FOR SURE the Bad Ass Tree of the Day! BATOTD

And with that it was time to bed down in Marigold and drift off to dream once again.

OH! Almost forgot-a couple of follow ups to yesterday’s post about Antelope Canyon. 1.) There were baby Great Horned owls nesting in a nook there! So adorable, but in a spot impossible to photograph. 2.) This Britney Spears video was partially filmed there.. https://youtu.be/IlV7RhT6zHs

Also: as some of you appear to think all I eat is Spaghettios and pizza, let the record show that on this date I ate a bowl of Cheerios, a Kind nut and granola bar, some hummus and crackers, some tunafish on crackers, a blueberry yogurt, and a can of kidney beans. Yes, I write down what I eat everyday.