USA ’22 – Day 10 – Don’t Look Down!

DAY 10 – Springdale (Zion) to Bryce (84 miles driven, 5.34 miles walked)

Today was a real day of ups and downs starting out at the Canyon overlook trail on the way out of Zion. This is a short but uneven walk to, as the name suggests, a viewpoint that has spectacular views of Zion canyon at the end.

It was an interesting trail in that some sections of it had railings, other not and it didn’t seem to matter whether there was a precipitous drop over the side or not. It had real “we’re happy for you to fall from here but not here” vibes. Anyway it was worth the walk as the views were breathtaking, which is saying something given what we have seen to date.

We don’t tend to over dress for these hikes other then putting on walking boots we certainly don’t don our wedding dress and suit as a couple of couples had done. Sure the pictures are going to look great in the album but I’m not sure that it was worth all that effort. Catch your wedding dress in your heels and you’re over the edge!

We met quite a few people on the walk and it was interesting to note the “thanks” etiquette as you let people past. More often then not people just brush by you without even making eye contact which makes me want to push them over the edge, the ungrateful sods. For a nation that is famous for it’s customer service that seems to stop at the door and especially when they get behind the wheel of a car. Hardly anyone stops at pedestrian crossing even though it is the law here.

As we passed one couple who had waited for us to come past I give them a cheery “Cheers!” and then I could hear as they walked down the trail them chuckling to themselves and exclaiming “ha cheers!” It least I showed them how it is done!

It’s an attractive drive from Zion to Bryce and even though it was a relatively short distance at 80 miles the scenary changes fairly quickly becoming much greener.

There are so many large vehicles on the road, not just SUVs like we are driving but also pick-up “trucks” like the ubiquitous Ford F150 and the all electric Rivan shown below. These have enormous cabs with a flat bed behind. I cannot imagine the the majority of people that drive them need their capabilities so they must just be penis extensions. I was also told by a friend that owns one (legitimately and not just as a penis extension) that it give 8mpg😱

We arrived at Bryce around midday and finished off last night’s pizza for lunch. We have a full day here tomorrow so for today we decided to do the drive out to Rainbow Point which isn’t served by the shuttle buses we’ll be using. This is about 16 miles from the entrance to the park along a winding road that hugs the rim of the canyons.

Along the way there are several viewpoints where you can overlook a number of canyons each of them as spectacular as the previous. However, the crown jewel in the drive was the Nartual Bridge (shown above) which was… ok I’ve run out of superlatives but it was pretty special!

We ended the day on a bit of a downer when we arrived at our hotel only to find that we had been forcably moved to another hotel over the road. This came as a bit of a surprise to us as it also did to the company we had used to book with. Turns out the middle agency had decided in their infinite wisdom to move us and, it has to be said, downgrade us. The room is actually fine and the upside in this is that we will get a refund as this is a less expensive room. This will be useful seeing as the exchange rate has basically hit parity thanks to the mini budget that was announced while we were away. Thanks Liz!