Wednesday July 18, 2012

Alex made blueberry pancakes this morning – they were very good.  After the dishes were done and the teeth were brushed, we piled into the truck and headed for Bryce Canyon.  The boys were excited to go through the 1.1 miles tunnel through the mountain.  We had seen how it was built in a film we had watched.  A few miles past the end of the tunnel, we came to Checkerboard Mesa.  The boys climbed up partway and I took their picture.  We continued on to Bryce and found when we got to the Visitor’s Center, that the parking lot at Sunset Point was full.  We took the shuttle to the point, ate our lunch at a picnic tale and admired the view before walking to Sunrise Point.  From there we took the trail down into the hoodoos (strange rock formations caused by wind and water erosion) until we came to the Queen’s Garden.  There is a hoodoo there which looks remarkably like Queen Victoria.  We liked back up to the top and then caught the next shuttle back to the Visitor Center.  We headed back to Zion and actually went past the campground and into Springdale to pick up more ice and milk.  We are all journaling now and I promised the boys another trip to the river after dinner. The boys had a blast shooting down the rapids again.  A boy from Germany lost his watch in the rapids so Dan went back to camp for goggles and Alex searched for a while, but they couldn’t find the watch.  The group next to us at the campsite is quite noisy – all high school boys and two men.  I hope they quiet down soon.  Tomorrow we will break camp and head to the Grand Canyon.