Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon -day 12

I have been eating Subway sandwiches for the last three days, only because we're in the middle of nowhere and when we finally do come across a town, we can only choose between hamburgers, pizza's, steak or.. subway. Luckily, their subs aren't too bad. I always take dark wheat bread, a lean meat, cheese, lots of veggies and yes, ranch sauce or honey mustard to top it off. They now have a promotion going on: foot long subs (12cm) for only 5 dollars. No hamburger place can beat that price.

Anyways. It seems like the state of Utah and Arizona have millions of acres of protected national parks. Today, on our way to Bryce Canyon national park. we also crossed the Capitol Reef National Park. A beautiful canyon inhabited by Indians. After the European invasion of Northern America, Mormons also settled in this area. You can still visit the old Mormon town and visit the school, which is nothing more than a tiny log cabin with 8 benches and a teacher's desk. It seems that education has always been very important to the Mormon pioneers.

We passed Cow Dung street - really, that is one of the town's street names - and stopped at the Bridge Trail, a 1.5 mile trail that leads through the red canyons to a rock bridge. You never get tired of these rock formations. It's incredible:

(click on this picture and choose to see the slide show until you see the bryce canyon sign)



It's also incredible to see thousands of cows, sheep and horses galloping through these endless plains. Sometimes you don't see any ranches or sign of human life for miles (at one point we hit a sign that said "No services for the next 100 miles (160 km!) which means "You're going to be on your own from here on out"), and still there they hare, grazing the little grass there is, happily and worry-free.

Even more stunning was the discovery of the moon. Well, not really the moon itself. but we drove through a landscape that could easily be mistaken for the moon. Gray rocks as far as you can see. beautifully shaped hills and craters.. if the US moon landing WAS a fake, this has surely been the setting for the video recording. Take a look at these pictures (click on the image below and then click the forward arrow about 4 times) :




A 100 miles to go before we see Bryce canyon. We drive over a mountain top and see patches of snow scattered in the woods. A time to stop and play in the snow. Unbelievable but true, we've been driving through the desert and vast rocky plains for days and now we're throwing snow balls at each other.

We also stop at ranch to take pictures of the cows, and see two (what we believe to be) eagles flying above our heads. Sally, if you read this, take a look at the pictures and let me know what kind of birds we've seen !

And then, finally, after a VERY long drive through the mountains, we reach the entrance point of Bryce Canyon, my favorite canyon. We make a quick stop at a small cowboy street where they sell all different kinds of unique stones. They also have ice cream so after devouring a big scoop of vanilla we drive into the National Park. The sun is already setting by the time we stop at the first view point. This canyon is amazing. Not so much a canyon in fact, but it looks more like a valley full of cathedral rocks. Words can't describe what I've seen, you just have to look for yourself. Here's the complete slide show for today, including the Cathedral Rocks of Bryce Canyon National Park:



In the end, I hiked down to the 'foot' of a few of these cathedral rocks. From there I had an amazing experience. The sun had already set but it wasn't dark down there at all. In fact a red glow shone from the rocks and lit up the deep canyon where I was walking. It was getting chilly, but it was quite comfortable because I was hiking down this steep slope into the canyon. When I looked up to the sky, all I could see where these giant cathedral rocks looming over me. Yes, at one point you do think "what if these suddenly fall on top of you?" but for all I cared, this was the perfect place to be, dead or alive :-).

Of course, the battery of my camera gave up on me right there and then. I don't know if it was the cold or the fact that I took about 400 pictures the last few days (uhum), but it totally sucked not being able to take pictures of it. On the other hand, it forced me to enjoy that special moment even more.. I felt totally connected with these soft stone rocks, I didn't feel threatened by them at all. In fact, I even felt protected by them. I did get to hike back up and take Mom's camera to record a little movie. It's not the place where I was standing (at the bottom) but you still get a feel of how it must be like to stand in the middle of these Cathedral rocks.

Click here.

Right now, I'm sitting in my bed at Cedar city, our last stop in the state of Utah. We're taking a break from the National parks for a few days and are getting ready to explore Las Vegas. But before we're heading into America's playground, we're staying at Boulder City, Nevada, from where we will visit the biggest dam in the world : Hoover Dam.