USA 2005

Wednesday 3rd August 2005 - Bryce Canyon and arrival at Zion NP

The day started off chilly but as the sun came up it warmed up nicely. We had a talk about our plan and decided that rather than stay at Bryce Canyon for 2 nights, we'd leave today. This is because beautiful though the amphitheatre is, Bryce Canyon NP seems to have that only as an attraction and we'd driven the length of the main road and walked a trail off it yesterday. There really didn't seem much more to do apart from our number one aim, which was to hike down to the bottom of the amphitheatre and walk amongst the hoodoos. Accordingly, we selected a trail and set off to its start. Unfortunately when we got there, we found that Navajo Trail was closed due to rock falls! Not to be defeated, we drove around to the start of another trail, the Queen's Garden Trail and walked that instead. Naturally, the walk *down* into the amphitheatre was easy enough and of course very picturesque. We took about 30 minutes walking down, with Martin taking loads of photos as usual. On the way back it was much harder, the altitude adding to the aerobic challenge! All in all, well worth the effort though.

One other thing we'd discussed and decided on was spending a night in a nice comfy motel rather than under canvas. We were all a bit tired and certainly in need of hot showers so this seemed a good idea. We set off in the direction of Zion National Park, having reviewed the map and guidebook, and in fact drove right though the park from the eastern entrance to the souther entrance, arriving in the town of Springdale. First impressions of the park were very good indeed with its amazing, towering sandstone cliffs. Tomorrow should be good.

Almost at random, Martin turned into a very neat looking motel which had nice green gardens. The name of the place is the Canyon Motel (http://www.canyonranchmotel.com/info.htm). We checked in for one night. The motel room was just what we needed, comfortable, clean and with a nice bathroom and TV (so we could catch up with events in the outside world). It also had a free to use WIFI network.

After we had all showered, Martin drove into the small town with Bekky and Jack. Zion is a big rock climbing location and had two equipment shops. Martin was hoping to find some "Aliens" and also to buy Bekky and Jack new rock shoes at a lower cost than in the UK. Bekky and Jack both got new Five Ten Anastazi Southwests. They cost the equivalent of £61.

Unfortunately, the shop we got the Five Tens in did not stock Aliens so we drove down to the second shop. They only had *two* left in stock; a size 1 (red) and a size 0.75 (yellow) so Martin bought these.

When we got back to the motel, we all went up to the outdoor pool and jacuzzi. Martin, Bekky and Jack swam and played for ages and Marina relaxed on a lounger.

To round off the day, we addressed Jack's deep-grained pizza yearnings that had been building up the whole trip. We went to the Pizza and Noodle restaurant in Springdale and had a jolly nice meal. Ice cream's were eaten on the walk back to the motel.

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