July 3 – Bryce Canyon

July 3, 2016 – Bryce Canyon
We left Salt Lake City at 8am. First stop was Scipio, Utah for a restroom and snack break. Leah, our tour leader, tells us to eat a lot so she looks skinnier. We are all doing our part.
Lunch stop is Beaver, Utah. We got there at 11:30am. An early lunch but we want to get to Bryce so we have plenty of time to see it all.
As we drove toward Bryce it started raining. We stopped at the Red Canyon Visitors Center to see our first hoodoos. Hoodoos are limestone pillars that have been sculpted into bulbous shapes by rain.
As we entered Bryce it was raining but looked like it might clear. As we exited the bus, Leah suggested that we head for the lodge and wait for the rain to stop. Earl, Linda, and I decided to walk to the rim since it was just a light rain but very windy. At the rim both Earl and I were dumbstruck by the beauty of the view. (Linda had been here before.) We walked around taking pictures. Linda decided to go back and let Leah know where we were. When we were returning from Sunrise Point, Linda was waving us back to the bus. Everyone else had stayed in the lodge and Leah decided that we’d go to the hotel and go back out at 4pm if the weather was better.
At 4pm it looked overcast but we headed back to a different part of the rim. At the rim it was sunny. We had 45 minutes to walk around. It was spectacular. Even though you are looking at the same place as you walk around the perspective changes. I took many photos.
Tomorrow we are going to Zion National Park. We’ll be having dinner at a restaurant where they have a cowboy show while dining. At 10pm there will be fireworks to celebrate the 4th.

All the pictures are from Bryce. Some from the rain stop and the rest when it was sunny.