Utah Rocks

I don't think there is a square inch of Utah that isn't geographically astonishing. Pat and Ed left us Thursday night and Friday afternoon we packed up and headed out of Vegas to Hurricane, Utah. It is a small spot between St. George and the big events: Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. I was suffering from gastroenteritis, thank you Vegas, so didn't care where we were. I saw a 12 year-old MD in Hurricane who gave me some coping meds for the tummy and despite nausea and wanting to sleep forever, the next two days were incredible.
At Zion you are at the bottom of the canyon and the rocks soar overhead. It was a lovely warm Saturday and a lot of people were there enjoying the hikes and general gorgeousness. There is a mandatory shuttle service, magic, for the scenic loop and we spent several hours at that before heading up the canyon to Bryce. If you skipped the scenic loop it would be a shame but the canyon drive is so unbelievable you would not realize you had missed anything down below.

We stayed at Ruby's at Bryce, an enormous motel/lodge/restaurant/store and the only show in town. Well there were other places but Ruby's obviously had the IT factor in a town dedicated to nothing more than travelers. Bryce is completely different than Zion though only about 100 miles away. At Bryce you are on top of a plateau and the canyon falls away below. It was cold. 24 Farenheit in the morning and got up to about 40 by noon compared to the 75 of Zion the day before. Mind you we were at 9000 feet and both feeling the effects of thin air. It was a bit of a set back for me and despite loving the place we both felt better as soon as we went down hill a few thousand feet to heavier air.

That night we stayed just south of Salt Lake City and the drive was wonderful. We ignored the urging of our GPS to follow the interstate and wandered up a very good secondary road through more rocks and a lot of cattle. Our friends Jim and Hilda Colodey would love Utah because they only seem to raise Angus cattle; by the hundreds of thousands, complete with the appropriate smells!
Somewhere in the midst of more rocks we came across Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort! The exclamation mark is not for the resort, a humble establishment in the middle of nowhere, rather for the song of our childhood originally recorded in 1928 (no I am NOT THAT OLD) and covered by everyone including Burl Ives and Johnny Cash.

Too many pictures and memories of those two days to give anything here but the very briefest temptation.....I'll do a book!