Bryce Canyon National Park and Capitol Reef National Park

We drove to Bryce and found out that there was some BLM land that was open for free camping if we drove down a long dirt road that paralleled the National Park.  Turns out that this was the best camping find of the trip.  We drove along a creek that emptied into a reservoir, and the water created a fertile green valley amidst the dry rock and sand that dominated the landscape.  We camped on a grassy field punctuated only by a few fisherman coming to try their hand in the crystal clear waters of the meandering creek.

Utah appears to be prime hummingbird country.  This was the only picture of one that I could capture but they were buzzing all over the place at Zion.  They would fly right up to us, attracted by the colors of our clothing.

The next morning we packed up and headed over to explore Bryce Canyon.  The spires are called "hoo-doo's" and were pretty spectacular.  We spent the morning hiking down into the canyon and then hit the road that afternoon for Zion.

Barry

Barry

Along the way we discovered that the route took us right through Capitol Reef National Park.  Apparently there is a large "reef" called the Waterpocket Fold that stretches 100 miles from North to South.  See a cool picture of it here.  We didn't take time to explore it much but we did stop to see ancient pictographs etched into the rocks.  We also ate lunch in one of the public orchards that are located in a narrow valley that the road goes through.  Visitors are allowed to go in and pick fruit at their leisure in these very old orchards.  Nothing seemed to be ripe so we just picnicked under the trees :)

Barry

Barry