The parks, part 1

As I mentioned in the first post of the trip, we were going to try to see some national parks on our way across. We spent more time in some than in others, but I think we made the annual pass work for us as we managed to visit 11 parks/national monuments on our way through twice as many states. We also took the 'scenic route' whenever possible, which meant slower and different drives. We found our way to Bryce via Capitol Reef.

The first and most lengthy and luxurious stop was Bryce Canyon, where we splurged for a night in a cabin that was mere feet from the rim of the amphitheater. This afforded us the opportunity to do a more lengthy hike on the first day, a shorter hike on our way out the second day and to stay up for the sunset and rise early for the sunrise. It was a beautiful way to enjoy the park on a short timeline and to relax after 2 days of driving. We spent a lot of time playing around with the camera settings and took well over 200 photos, but these I like the best:

 

This is a shaky video of 'wall street' down on the floor of the amphitheater and possibly my favorite part of this hike...except for the Japanese family that chased me down the steps at the end ; )

 

Waiting for sunset. We had hiked from sunset point to sunrise point through the floor of the canyon and then enjoyed a sumptuous meal in the lodge...then we waited for sunset. I have to admit, I was originally considering the points as a place to view the sun part of the set and rise and then I realized that I was a complete idiot and it was about the rock formations, the color, the play of the sun on the sandstone. So I dismissed the points of interest and we instead favored a bench in between the two.
 

Waiting for sunset

Storm and a rainbow at sunset

 

Sunset was beautiful and it was incredible to watch the amphitheater change, we enjoyed being up 'late' and it made it almost painful to rise with the sun the next day, but I am so glad that we did, because it was a completely different view (and I think I favored this one). 

 

silhouettes in the sunrise

 

One of the most beautiful parts of our travels from Oregon through to Colorado was the rain bands that we often saw from a distance and mostly skirted around. Spectacular bolts of lightning miles and miles away lit the the gray skies on our periphery as we drove in full sun. We actually only got rained on once on our way out of Bryce on our way to the Natural Bridges. In that case we could hear the thunder for the first time and lightening struck almost too close. We saw a bolt strike in close proximity and both of us took a breath to begin to count the space between the light and the thunder and were halted by the earth shattering boom of it about a tenth of a second later. We passed a tree that was slightly smoking and determined that the strike had probably been only 100-200 feet from our traveling vehicle. Frightening. But after a few minutes, exciting. 

Upon leaving Bryce we stopped and did a short walk through the fairyland area just outside the park fee station, it was another smaller amphitheater and we had it to ourselves, which is saying something...Our next major stop was Moab and Arches, but we took a very long route to get there which took us on a mostly driving tour of Grand Escalante, Natural Bridges (viewpoints), and Canyonlands, while we skirted around Glen Canyon.