Loving Bryce!

After several days of R&R, I'm okay with Utah.  We had 2 lazy days of just hanging around the campground before even making it to Bryce Canyon NP.  We are staying in a big campground just outside the entrance.  We were going to go to Zion for a few days (which is like 83 miles away), but it was supposed to be 101 degrees while we were there, while Bryce, at ~8k ft. is a lot cooler.  We didn't even run our AC yesterday.  It has been really windy at times here.  It's like our rain curse has turned into a wind curse.  This campground, as the majority of ones we've been at, is super dusty.  But the sites are big.  There is a lawn with nice grass that we have been playing soccer on.  We also have cable here, so we've been able to watch World Cup.  There are about 20 wifi networks to choose from, but finding one to work for more than 5 min. at a time is a challenge.

Yesterday (6/27) we finally made it to Bryce Canyon NP.  Beautiful!!  We stopped at the Visitor Center and there was a TV showing various hikes.  I saw one that said it was the World's Best 3 Mile Hike or some such claim, so I thought we should do that one.  We talked to a Ranger and got the scoop on which direction to go, etc.  The first part went down into the canyon among a bunch of "hoodoos". The second part was through pine trees.  The end was straight back up to the rim between 2 walls via about a million switchbacks.  Zack & Chuck powered through like it was nothing, but Ben & I were definitely out of breath.  But it was an awesome hike!

Before

Yes, those are people up there, and that's where we're going.

A look down to where we started the awful climb out

We just happened to be here the same time as the Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival, so after dinner we went back to the park to check it out.  It started at 10, but surprisingly it wasn't really dark until like 10:30.  We must be close to the Pacific Time Zone.

They had a parking lot set up as the "stargazing site".  There were 20-30 telescopes that people brought and set up, from a $150 model up to some very big ones that looked like cannons.  You could walk around to each one (and stand in line) and the operator would tell you what you were looking at or what to look for.  We saw a few different nebula(s?), star clusters, galaxies, Mars, but what we were all most impressed with was Saturn.  You could clearly see the rings! It was really cool.  We could see the Milky Way again, and Chuck kept joking while we were in every line that we could see more stars if those clouds (i.e. Milky Way) would go away.  Also, the Ranger had told us while we were waiting in line to be let in to the stargazing site that a satellite would go across near the star Vega and would have a bright flash when its solar panels reflected the sun.  That was pretty cool.  We looked through most of the telescopes.  Zack & I wanted to stay and do all, but Ben & Chuck were ready to go. When we got in the Jeep, it was 11:50!