April 5 – “Hoofing through huge hoodoos”

Boy, did we ever have a rude awakening Sunday night.  Either that or we experienced a brand new free adventure that was designed to be a surprise.  As we were settling into a good night’s sleep after another long day of travel and sightseeing, suddenly Chris sat up in bed and exclaimed, “Oh, gross!”  Apparently, whoever had the room before us had some “issues” with bed wetting.  The cleaning crew had simply changed the sheets and not even aired out the mattress.  As Chris’ weight hit the sheets, it caused the residue urine to seep through and onto her nightgown.  Needless to say, she got up right away and took a shower.  I was, for once, glad to be relegated to my usual small area of the side of the bed.  I was spared the “free soak.”  Fortunately, we had a second bed in the room, so we switched over to finish out the night.  Travelers … watch out for the Days Inn in Torrey, Utah.

 

Back to our more-anticipated adventures …

We headed from Torrey over to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We had to drive the scenic route that took us through the Grand Staircase National Monument.  That was a good thing, of course.  They had a stamp for Chris’ book.  And they had some pretty good overlooks.  We ended up climbing to a 9000 foot summit.  Well, the car did the climbing.  We’re not doing quite good enough to make that kind of trek on foot.  Chris was driving, and I confess to crashing after a while.  Mountain, I guess.  I just needed a nap.

 

Inside Bryce Canyon, we made our quick stop at the visitor center.  And there we found a cute little bear cub.  I thought at first this might be an anomaly, but there on a nearby sign was this admonition: “If you see a bear or mountain lion, please report it immediately to a park ranger as a wildlife sighting.”  Well, this little guy took to us right away.  Couldn’t turn him down.  And AnnaGrace had a great name for him.  Barrett the Baby Bear.  He and Daisy the mountain lion cub have become great friends.  We still haven’t found an available raven, though.  Maybe in Zion.

 

We chose our “first” hike of the day either wisely or totally nuts.  Both work.  It’s a perspective issue.  It by far displayed the prettiest, most stupendous sights in the whole park.  The hoodoos were huge and covered the canyon floor.  That’s right.  Hoodoos.  They’re like pillars of stone in weird shapes.  There is a perfectly reasonable scientific explanation for them, but who cares?  They were just amazing to look at.  Way to go, God!

 

But … (Yes, there was a “but”).  We had to walk almost straight down at least 300 feet.  Well, there was nothing “straight” about it.  Switchback after switchback for over half a mile, and we still weren’t to an actual “end.”  We checked out the hiking map and realized that the loop part of the trail was that place we passed a while back that said “Two Bridges.  Do not climb on bridges.”  And there was a chain across the path.  We were now on the track toward a totally different exit point way beyond where we started.  That explained why people were consistently passing us in the opposite direction.  So we joined the hordes trying to backtrack and get out of the canyon.  And that meant … that meant … we had to walk back up.  All the way up.  Guess what?  We found a hike that absolutely ate Chris’ lunch.  As awesome as she has done after cardiac rehab, she had more than met her match.  We had to stop numerous times so she could catch her breath and let her heart rate get back under control.  Don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t complain at any of the stops.  Neither did anyone else.  We chatted with several people, most of them much younger than us, who were taking frequent breaks as well.  One girl we met was from England, currently living in New Jersey.  She chatted with us until her parents caught up.  This was one seriously difficult hike.  Oh, and did I mention that it was the ONLY hike we took?  That one was enough.  My magic exercise watch gave me credit for going up 27 flights of stairs.  I think it missed a few dozen.  The rest of our Bryce Canyon was spent driving from one viewing point to the next.  Quite spectacular views.

 

We spent the night at a Best Western resort called Ruby’s Inn in Bryce Canyon City.  This Ruby must own most of the town.  Her name pops up everywhere.  And the post office is located in Ruby’s General Store, which is actually part of eth same building as hotel check-in and Ruby’s Cowboy-something-or-other Restaurant.  The staff checking us in wore nametags with their country of origin.  A guy from India helped us.  The lady next to him was from Georgia.  Yeah, kind of blew the whole country of origin thing.  They did have a great buffet for dinner, and the breakfast buffet was included in the price of the room.  Not exactly Make-your-own waffles.  That’s where we are heading now.  Then it’s on to Zion (The National Park, not the actual “Zion”).

 

Joshua 1:8 says, “Keep this book of the law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

 

Father, thank you for helping Chris get back up that canyon.  Me, too.  Amen.