Today went pretty much as stated in the plan from last
night. We are suffering from scenic landscape overdose and fatigue. I have a
blister and a sore ankle now. I woke up and rolled over last night and felt
something ooze out of my right ear. I woke up to find a lot of dried blood.
But, the drum head I’ve had since Denver is gone. Clay’s ankle is better but he
has a rash. We are both in complete agreement that we are too old for this kind
of travel. Clay wonders what we’ll do. I pointed out that our 6 month World
Cruise next year is the easiest travel we can hope to do and that will be our swan
song. He is not convinced but he shut up after that. Oh, I used my walking
sticks that I bought for Antarctica, where I did not use them. But they made
all the difference here. They helped with my balance and forced me to swing
both arms and also kept my right hand from fisting under. It is kind of like
the knitting helping, I guess. Anyway, I was not weird; there were lots of
other people with single or double walking sticks.
The sunrise was pretty much a bust. Clay swore we could see
it as well from a bench nearest our cabin on the canyon rim as any suggested
spot. He was wrong, we were facing the wrong direction, but the sun just kind
of snuck up without any drama or beauty anyway so there was nothing to see.
We drove the entire drive and stopped at all the scenic
overlooks. The advice is that since all the overlooks are on one side (the
canyon rim side) that you drive all the way to the end (or as far as you want
to go) and then pull out only to the right as you make your return drive. That
is what we did.
We hiked the Bristlecone Loop Trail at the highest point and at
end of the road. Then we drove back out and made all the overlook stops. The 2
hikes we took today were rated easy and as Clay said moderate would have killed
us. There are a lot of elevation changes and we are still struggling with the
altitude as it is. We have done all but one hike so have nothing left to fill
another day here! We will do the last hike tomorrow at our leisure. It is Mossy
Cave and the trailhead is well outside the park entrance on the way to Tropic.
Then we will go back to the park HQ and see what our prizes are. After that we
have to figure out. We got photos from every scenic overlook today except
Inspiration Point. We pulled off there and saw how high we would have to walk
up from the parking lot to get to the view and we both balked and passed on it.
We really are exhausted and have scenery overload.
We got checked into room 221 of the Bryce Valley Inn, a
second story room in a building with no elevator and a highway view. It is
clean and adequate and the price is right again. $212 for 2 nights. Parking is
included! A complimentary breakfast at Clarke’s Restaurant next door is also
included. There was a seemingly complicated breakfast instruction sheet at the front desk. They gave us 4 small slips of paper to exchange for each breakfast and then we get to order 4 items off a list. We'll see how that goes. I know I can have coffee in the room. The room is good-sized and clean and quiet. It has a king-sized bed
and a leather sofa right next to it, inexplicably. There is a desk, closet with
iron and board. A chest of drawers and a TV. A small fridge and a microwave
with a coffee maker. The bathroom has the sink outside and the toilet and
tub/shower inside. No night light but the price is right and I brought one
anyway. It is fine and it will be nice not
to have to pack up first thing in the morning. We’re looking forward to going
to bed early and sleeping late. We’ll see.
Clay had his heart set on the Cowboy Grill, a food truck
serving hamburgers set up in a parking lot across the street. It was busy when
we filled the gas tank here last night. Today it wasn’t open. We kept an eye on
it out our window, but it didn’t open tonight. Clay has his fingers crossed for
dinner there tomorrow. We spent the afternoon on the Internet (free wi-fi in
the room!) and decided to go to Red Canyon, a National Forest federal property,
past Bryce on Utah 12 tomorrow afternoon. We plan to take more hikes with
another picnic. We’ll hope we can actually walk tomorrow!
We went to Clarke’s
tonight since our other choice was a longer walk and pizza. I had chicken fried
steak with mashed potatoes and gravy because it was on the menu and you don’t
see it often and I like it. It was very good and about the price of the past
dish from last night which was inedible. So good. Clay ordered a half rack of
ribs and seemed to like them. He had a beer from Uinta Brewery, a black one.
Last night he had a blonde from the same brewery and he liked both very much.
We declined on dessert and walked to the adjoining grocery store. We needed to
buy our picnic lunch for tomorrow and the prices were very reasonable. We bought
our desserts out of a top-opening ice cream treats cooler and walked back to
the room. I got a 3-pack of microwave popcorn, since I have a microwave and a
TV for 2 nights.
I really liked Bryce Canyon NP even though I am sore and
exhausted. It takes its name from Ebenezer & Mary Bryce who were serial
homesteaders for the Mormon Church. Apparently Ebenezer was terse and near the
end of his life when he was asked about living in the canyon which took his
name, he replied “It’s a hell of a place to lose a cow.” I’d imagine!
