Had a fabulous day outside of Vegas today, so pleased that the tour company ran the tour (as I had been worried that they wouldn't) I loved Bryce Canyon the first time I saw it and I really wanted Samara to see it, and I was thrilled that she could see it now as it looked even more beautiful under a sprinkling of snow.
It's such a small world though- a seven degrees of separation moment, one of the women in the groups is a travel agent who often goes for coffee at Vanilla (a coffee spot I go to regularly) in Oakleigh as she works there, one of her sisters lives in the same suburb as me, her brother-in-law, who lives in Vegas with his wife and were on the tour with us knows one of my son's karate instructors.
We had an early start, too early for breakfast and ended up eating on the way up, at BKs where I had a southwestern breakfast burrito....glad they don't do these back home because I'd want to eat them all the time!! While we're here we stock up on snacks 'cos it's going to be a long day (at least 8hrs on the road without exploring time at Zion and Bryce)Getting out of Vegas was great, the weather was beautiful, crisp and cool and bright blue skies, which made you realise just how big the US is as the horizon stretched for miles. Our guide was excellent giving us plenty of information without over doing it, having a laugh with us, but sitting back and letting us just enjoy what we were seeing. There were only 7 of us and we got on well so it made for a really great day.
First stop Zion National Park, it's an amazing drive through the park and we had a few stops for photos, but at each stop our guide wasn't allowed to exit the vehicle. It's something to do with the guiding regulations and fees, not quite exactly sure how it applies, but he could give us information inside the vehicle but not outside of it, because of the permits they had.
Not that it was an issue because if we had any questions we could ask once we got back into the car.
Travelling through the park in winter is awesome,
because there are not as many tourists and we can drive all the way through without having to get off and on shuttle buses which you have to do the rest of the year, also it's damned hot in the summer (I remember from the last time I was here :) ) so it makes it so much easier to walk/trek the paths or climb, we saw a few climbers and I imagine once you get to the top there are some spectacular views.
There are some great walks and it's one of those if I had the time moments that I would like to do one or more of them. The end of the line is the Temple of Sinawava and The Virgin River and we got a chance to do a bit of a walk here, there are a few trails around that you can do and we started one but we didn't have enough time to do the round trip which is about 4.5kms.Despite the t-shirts and sunshine, it was cold enough to have a little ice on the river, last time round I took my shoes off to cool my feet in the water....not this time :)
Next stop one of my favourite places in the world Bryce Canyon.
I love this place and when Samara said she wanted to do Vegas and the Grand Canyon, it wasn't hard to suggest that we add this to the itinerary. Last time I came it was summer, damned hot but a really grey day, so coming in winter with
snow and bright blue skies and I was in heaven.
The only problem with the place is I don't know which views I find more spectacular....from Sunset Point, Inspiration Point or Bryce Point (which were the three stops we made today.)
We stopped for a packed lunch(turkey and cranberry sandwiches..yum) really good chocolate chip cookies, potato chips and fruit and an opportunity to walk around and explore a little.
With views like this you can't help but love the place.
Although I've seen Bryce a couple of times now it's back on my To Do List because now I want to see it at sunrise/sunset and under a starlit sky, or to walk through it and see it from a completely different angle.
All too soon we had to leave Bryce Canyon behind, and make our way back to Vegas, and we were lucky enough to catch an amazing sunset on the way. A beautiful end to a spectacular day.
