*New birds we’ve seen on our 2009 trip so far: wild turkeys, osprey, western meadowlark, mountain bluebird, sandhill cranes, Canadian geese, American white pelicans, trumpeter swans, killdeer, bald eagles, golden eagle, common merganser, great blue heron, raven, yellow-headed blackbird, Brewer’s blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, double-crested cormorant, Clark’s nutcracker, common goldeneye, white-breasted nuthatch, Steller’s jay
*National Parks/Monuments visited on 2009 trip so far: 24
*State Parks visited on 2009 trip so far: 4
Our trip from Torrey to Bryce Canyon National Park (http://www.nps.gov/brca) consisted of 113 miles along State Hwy. 12, one of the great scenic byway roads in the country. It would take us to elevations approaching 10,000 feet with many opportunities to pull over and enjoy the scenery. We would pass through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monumen
t, skirt Escalante National Forest & State Park, Kodachrome Basin State Park, and weave in and out of the Dixie National Forest. It was a spectacular drive, although a bit apprehensive during our drive along Boulder Mountain. The included photos do not do justice to how narrow the road that traverses
the top of this ridge for a number of miles really is. They also do not adequately portray the straight dropoff on each side with minimal to no shoulder! Needless to say Russ did not have an opportunity to enjoy much of the scenery along this portion of the trip. My take on it is that it would be scary just in a car let alone our bus and tow vehicle! Descending the grade into Boulder City in second and third gear was no easy task as signs indicated more than a 14% in grade variation. 
Once this exciting portion of the trip was over, the remaining 60 miles to Bryce Canyon were 
very beautiful and luckily uneventful. We settled into Ruby’s Inn RV Park & Campground (http://www.rubysinn.com/rv_camp.html) mid-afternoon, and by pulling into our campsite instead of backing in were able to get satellite reception. Later that evening we heade
d up to the Visitor Center to get the lay of the land and collect all the pertinent information. We returned to the RV, had a late dinner, and made plans for the remainder of our stay.
The number of nights we would spend at Bryce Canyon has always been somew
hat of a variable. While some destinations were set in stone, we felt it was necessary to create a few flexible time periods to leave room for adjustment during this three month journey. Our stay at Bryce was originally scheduled for 7 nights, fairly consistent with our stay at other national parks. At one point we changed this stop to 5 nights, and after our recent change concerning Arches NP, further reduced our stay 
here to 3 nights. Ah, but we found another change in store for us while checking the weather forecast for our next stop. With temperatures in excess of 100 degrees at Zion National Park, we decided to extend our Bryce Canyon stay to 5 days and cut down our Zion visit to 3 days as weather in Bryce was 20 degrees cooler.
d up to the Visitor Center to get the lay of the land and collect all the pertinent information. We returned to the RV, had a late dinner, and made plans for the remainder of our stay.The number of nights we would spend at Bryce Canyon has always been somew
hat of a variable. While some destinations were set in stone, we felt it was necessary to create a few flexible time periods to leave room for adjustment during this three month journey. Our stay at Bryce was originally scheduled for 7 nights, fairly consistent with our stay at other national parks. At one point we changed this stop to 5 nights, and after our recent change concerning Arches NP, further reduced our stay 
here to 3 nights. Ah, but we found another change in store for us while checking the weather forecast for our next stop. With temperatures in excess of 100 degrees at Zion National Park, we decided to extend our Bryce Canyon stay to 5 days and cut down our Zion visit to 3 days as weather in Bryce was 20 degrees cooler. 
On Sat. morning we headed up to the Bryce Canyon Lodge built in 1925, and from there headed out to the rim walk. As we reached the rim, the misnamed Bryce Canyon opened up in front of us. Misnamed because it was not carved by a single river source as are most canyons but rather through wind, water, and ice erosion. This erosion forms quite an array of fantastic shapes, pinnacles of rock, called h
oodoos.Later that evening we returned to the Lodge for a ranger talk called “Astronomy Through the Ages”. This informative one hour slide presentation ended with the group heading to the Visitor Center to view various constellations, planets, star clusters, and moons through 3 different telescopes supplie
d by the National Park Service. Although we were close to having a full moon, and about 40% cloud coverage, we were still able to see amazing things in the night sky. You see, Bryce Canyon is perhaps the best location to view the night sky in all of America. The view from one telescope contained a globular cluster of over one million stars! Think about that for a minute. One million of our suns contained in the lens of a single telescope. Of course, we were not able to count them all and trust that the ranger was not jerking our chain. We also viewed the double star Al
biero, the Andromeda Galaxy, and a view of our own moon that was so clear and vivid that you could actually see the mountains on its surface. Simply amazing stuff!Sunday turned out to be a day of rest as we had actually been visiting or traveling to national parks since May 28 with very few down days. Our campsite was well-shaded, and with temperatures in the low 80s, it made
for an enjoyable day. On Mon. we arose at 5:30 a.m., drove a short distance to the canyon rim, and watched the sun rise from Inspiration Point. From there we headed the remaining 14 miles up the park road to Rainbow Point, took a short hike, and started the return trip to our campground stopping at a number of overlooks including Black Birch Canyon, Ponderosa Canyon, Agua Canyon, a
nd Natural Bridge, some of which had short hiking trails we took advantage of. We finished our return by stopping at Sunset Point, Swamp Canyon, and Sunrise Point.
nd Natural Bridge, some of which had short hiking trails we took advantage of. We finished our return by stopping at Sunset Point, Swamp Canyon, and Sunrise Point.
The next day, as Russ remained behind in the RV, I took a horseback ride lasting a little over 3 hours offered by Canyon Trail Rides (http://www.canyonrides.com/). Lucky Strike was chosen as my horse, and the ride started promptly at 8am, descending 2 miles to the canyon floor, with an elevation change of 1,000 fee
t. The morning air was cool so I wore a sweatshirt layered over a short sleeved shirt and removed halfway through the ride when we stopped for break. There were 5 of us in my group led by our tour
guide, Tom, along the Peek-A-Boo Loop Trail, and I was fortunate enough to ride directly behind him. The path took us into the heart of Bryce Canyon passing the Wall of Windows, Silent City, Bristle Cone Pine Trees, through two natural tunnels, and a section of switchbacks. Peek-A-Boo is also a hiking trail, and we passed a number of hikers along the way. We all agreed we were happy to be making this trek on horseback! The beauty of these rock formations and the canyon up close was incre
dible.
Tomorrow is another travel day as we head to Zion NP. 
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