Captains Log: Monday, 21 July 2014.
12:45 p.m.PB&J eaten. Messy diaper changed. Dave just finished using the restroom. I think we can move on to new viewpoints now.
1:15 p.m.We make several stops along the road, checking out the various views from each overlook. Rather than turn this into a trip report where I post Every. Single. Picture. We. Took. On. The. Trip. Even. If. Theyre. Bad. Or. 14. Versions. Of. The. Same. Picture, Ill try and do my best to stick with the highlights. But there are a lot of highlights. The unique formations combined with the extremely clear air and the ability to see for miles in the distance makes for some truly striking views.
1:20 p.m.By far Julies favorite overlook is the one called Natural Bridge. Here we have another misnomer, as its actually an arch. An arch is formed when the forces of wind erosion create a hole in rock that gradually widens over time, whereas a natural bridge generally spans a valley and could be at least partially formed by a waterway. Anyway, I think Julie took roughly 80,000 photos here.
When I saw how much she was enjoying herself, I told Julie to pose. Heres your new Facebook picture, I said. Turns out it was.
This was at Farview Point, which was aptly named:
1:35 p.m.Our next stop is Bryce Point, which is on the road that rings the main amphitheater in the park. So this will be our first view of the main attraction. Theres a bit of an uphill hike to get from the parking lot to the actual viewpoint, but it turns out to be worth the effort. This ended up being my favorite spot in all of Bryce Canyon. Not only can you see for miles once again, but the entire amphitheater is there for you to just drink in.
1:52 p.m.I wish we could have stayed longer, but we need to hightail it over to Sunset Point, another overlook on the main ridge. Theres a ranger talk going on at 2:00, and that was the only one we could conceivably get to. Why is that important? Because the kids are trying to become Junior Rangers.
Each National Park has a Junior Ranger program. Theyre basically designed to keep the kids from getting bored while mom and dad snap thousands of pictures (see above) at the overlooks. The kids pick up an activity book from the visitor center, and there are different activities they have to complete based on their age. They might include word puzzles, or fill-in-the-blanks quizzes where they have to find the answers in the exhibits, drawings, etc. They are typically required to attend one ranger talk as well, and the ranger has to sign off on their attendance. If they complete all of the assigned activities, they return to the visitor center where another ranger will check their work (they spend a good amount of time with the kids on this), and then swear them in as Junior Rangers. They also get a little plastic park ranger badge to wear proudly , displaying the name of the National Park where it was earned.
For the most part, its a lot of fun, and its a good way to keep the kids interested. The only exception Ive seen thus far was when we visited Gettysburg Battlefield earlier this summer, and the book basically required a weeks worth of work and a doctoral dissertation in order to earn the badge. Everything else weve seen has been more reasonable.
We get to Sunset Point just in time, somehow find a good parking spot, and the kids hustle up to hear the ranger speak. I got to enjoy the view on this side of the amphitheater.
2:20 p.m.The ranger finishes up. Sarah had done a report in school on hoodoos in the spring, and announces to me, I already knew most of that stuff. Attagirl. Dave announces to me, I need to use the bathroom.
They have revised the statement on the sure things in life to include death, taxes, and Dave needing to take a dump in an inconvenient location.
2:21 p.m.So we go find the bathroom, and Dave heads inside. Not long after, the janitorial staff comes by and begins to close the door so they can wash the floors. My sons in there, I tell them. Okay, they say, and block off the door anyway. I sure hope hes ok in there.
2:26 p.m.Dave emerges, apparently none the worse for the wear. Whew!
2:45 p.m.Another stop at the Visitor Center, where the kids are officially sworn in as Junior Rangers of Bryce Canyon National Park. Their personal pride grows approximately 7% each. We the commence souvenir shopping. Im not sure who was responsible for designing the items in the National Park gift shops this year, but they must have known I was coming somehow. Numerous items were done in the style of
old-time, retro Art Deco travel posters, which Julie and I are complete suckers for.
It took a lot of willpower not to ask for one of everything. They also had magnets and key chains made to look like survey benchmarks. Since I recently started managing the survey crews here at the office, this caught my eye as well.
We recently had to move the kids bedrooms around to make room for the baby, and the kids took the opportunity to Disney-fy (or re-theme) their rooms. Sarah made hers a travel room, and we hung a couple of retro-ish posters in there. Shes since begun decorating her closet doors with postcards from destinations weve visited, all in that same Art Deco style. So she was able to hit the jackpot here.
3:14 p.m.Suddenly much poorer, we head out of the park a few miles up the road to the
Best Western Rubys Inn to check in. Rubys Inn looks like a tourist trap from the outside. The reason for this is because its a tourist trap. They have a huge gift shop, a couple of restaurants, a dinner show, and even a rustic shopping village across the street.
Bryce Canyon is in a remote area of Utah, so if you need a place to stay, there arent too many places to choose from. Theres Rubys Inn, the grand Best Western across the street ($250-$300/night), and the Bryce Canyon Lodge inside the park. While it would have been fun to stay at the Lodge, running the numbers showed Rubys to be the cheapest place to stay, so that ended up as the winner.
The place is massivebuilding after building of motel rooms. I know youre waiting for me to say I got lost here too, but we actually find our place with little difficulty and start hauling suitcases inside.
4:30 p.m.Its a little early for dinner, but PB&J never seems to hold us for very long, so we decide to head out for some grub. Just like the hotels, the pickings are slim for dining options. And the reviews for the restaurants at Rubys were uniformly awful. Thankfully, Alison (franandaj) blazed a trail for us by visiting a couple of months before we did (see her
Southwest Trip Report here). On her trip, she and Fran had visited
Fosters Family Restaurant and given it a solid recommendation, so off we go. After all, Alison wouldnt dare steer us wrong
would she??
4:57 p.m.Fosters is a few miles west of the park entrance, back out on Route 12. Unlike other restaurants on this trip, its very easy to locate, since theres a whole lot of nothing surrounding it. Its a little mom-and-pop shop, with a simple country menu.
The first thing I notice is the quality reading material at the table.
For dinner, I end up splitting the fried chicken platter with Sarah, since were both suckers for fried chicken. Plus, Alison said it was good, and we do everything Alison tells us to do.
Anyway, she was right. Its good. Nothing out of this world, but for being in such a remote place, all of our food is perfectly decent. I cant remember what Julie ordered, and the boys most likely scanned the menu for 20 minutes before ordering a burger and mac-and-cheese like they always do. But the point is, the food is decent, if not memorable.
This changes, however, when we order dessert. Sarah and I are of course still hungry since we split the entrée. The menu advertises homemade pies, so thats where our attention is drawn. Nice to see a place concentrating on quality dessert items like pies for once. You know, rather than overrated items such as cakes. We order one slice of apple pie and one slice of chocolate cream (having such good memories of the pie at Monkeypod in Hawaii).
The pies are excellent. Both are some of the best restaurant pies Ive ever had. Seriously, you would be totally justified to skip dinner and just make a meal out of the pie at this place. Call me a bad DIS-er because we were too busy inhaling it to take food pictures.
6:17 p.m.In the evening, we head back into the park. When I had originally planned the trip, I had seen a note that a special Ranger program was offered at nighta chance to view the night sky over Bryce Canyon. Since Bryce has some of the clearest air in the nation, the park offers a chance to see a huge blanket of stars after dark. Often a Ranger will give an astrology talk and give the chance to look through a large telescope at various celestial sights.
Naturally, the fine print (i.e. the
schedule clearly printed on the page) shows that this doesnt happen every night, and we happen to be there on a night with no astrology program. But never fearthere is a lecture that night in the Bryce Canyon Lodge auditorium on bats.
Talk about going from the penthouse to the outhouse.
Still, we want to see the night sky, so we need to do something to kill the time. As we make the turn to the lodge, we find a prairie dog town in a field just off the road. Scotty, being our resident fan of cute furry animals, forces us to stop the car so he can get out and see them. Its fun to watch them pop out of their holes and chirp warnings about the idiot tourists to each other.
We also see a family of deer run by:
6:28 p.m.We park at the lodge and head for the rim again. Heres the main lodge building:
We wander along the rim trail, enjoying the shadows cast on the hoodoos as the sun slowly sets. Its actually not a great place to watch the sun set, since youre facing east, but the shadows make for some neat pictures anyway. I imagine sunrise would be fairly spectacular here.
At some point, Julie has to feed the baby. So I take the other kids and we decide to wander down one of the trails, just to see what its like down amongst the rock walls. We take a trail into a section known as Wall Street, due to the rocks feeling like skyscrapers next to you.
Does that trail look steep? Because it really feels steep when climbing out. And that couldnt possibly be due to the fact that Im an out-of-shape lardbutt.
Continued Next Post
Absolutely!
And a nice reminder of why you and Julie are busting your butts and taking a baby cross country to give them the 50 state experience.
