Bryce

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The drive from Zion to Bryce was short, but we gained a lot of elevation, and so when we rolled into the park it was a balmy 80 degrees. The clouds were threatening, but we didn't mind. In fact, when we got to the visitor center, it started raining. After the 100-degree heat and no shower in Zion, it was rather a delight to stroll through the rain.

After we found the campground and set up Tentus Maximus, we headed back into town to buy food for the next two days. The store we went to advertised "tourist stuff" and "fast, tender and delicious" fried chicken (see photo). Added bonus: they were selling old postcards inside, 20 for a dollar. Man do I love old postcards.

We headed up to the general store, which sold, among other things, showers at the bargain price of $2 for 10 minutes.

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With supplies in tow, we got back to the park and decided to do the recommended "Queen's Garden" hike. Whereas in Zion you are in the bottom of the canyon, at Bryce you are on the top, and all the hikes go down into the canyon, where you can take a look at the "hoodoos" close up. Why they are called hoodoos, I do not know, but the photos will describe them to you better than I can.

In short, the Queen's Garden hike was awesome. We took about 1,000 pictures, but are choosing not to subject you to all of them here. (But if you come to Iowa City, we'll show you ALL of them!) Bryce is a very beautiful place, and it's hard to describe why, but it's well worth a visit.

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After Queen's Garden, we headed up to the general store, which sold, among other things, showers at the bargain price of $2 for 10 minutes. Hallelujah. I happened to have missed sunset while I was in the shower, but I caught the rainbow that appeared shortly after.

Bryce was just one of those places where our traveling karma came together -- the campsite was clean, spacious, inviting (with the exception of a few loud girls the first night), the park itself was beautiful and easy to get around due to its small size, the showers were, well, showers, and everybody likes a hot shower now and again.

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On our second day in Bryce, we did a longer hike into the canyon, which promised us a few more spectacular views than we thought it delivered. However, with the elevation drop and subsequent gain of 1,500 feet, we at least earned our dinner. And a second shower, thankyouverymuch.

After said dinner and shower, we headed to Bryce Lodge, where there was a multimedia presentation on astronomy immediately followed by stargazing! Ranger Kate told us all about how people tried to keep track of time before we had fancy watches and then we went into the parking lot and looked at Jupiter, a white dwarf and some other cool stuff. I kind of love being a nerd. Also I was especially happy that after blowing our chances at stargazing in Joshua Tree, we got another opportunity.

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There was plenty of wonderful stuff to do in Bryce, so we camped there for two nights, which felt luxurious, since throughout the trip we stayed in each park only one night. It was nice to be in a place that urged us to take our time with it. Did I mention there was also wifi at the general store?

One of the most interesting things about Bryce was there weren't really any Americans there -- we met a ton of Germans on the trail and French was being chattered everywhere. One of the German couples we met said Bryce was their favorite park in the U.S. (I wonder what the favorite park of the average American is) and the consensus is it has many similarities to the Grand Canyon, but it's much more accessible -- you don't have to train for a year to hike into Bryce. Interestingly enough, the Germans were friendly as ever, and it's nice to know some people are still coming to this country to enjoy it. (For those of you who are going to tell me the U.S. is dirt cheap for the Europeans, the reality is that it's now within the realm of possibility, which it wasn't before. One of the German couples we ran into said they paid 900 euro for their plane tickets, nine months in advance.)

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Anyway, Bryce was awesome and we were very happy to be there and very sad to see it go. Especially because our next stop was the Grand Canyon, and we both felt lukewarm about that...