Fri, May 6, 2011

Friday, May 06, 2011

There are always surprises on any road trip.  If you are lucky most of them will be good ones. - Donna Downey

We had pizza last night for supper so no one was particularly hungry this morning.  We also were enjoying doing nothing last night so we didn’t go into the park either.  The sun was up and it appeared it was going to be very pleasant so we decided to drive into the park and just hit maybe the first two overlooks.  We have been to Bryce Canyon many times and it is always crowded.  It is also usually cold and windy.  Add those three things together and I lose a lot of enthusiasm about my photography. 

So this morning I reluctantly put my coat on over my vest and prepared myself to maneuver the crowds and withstand the elements to get some shots.  That’s when the first surprise of the day happened.  We pulled into the Sunset Overlook parking lot and there was only one other car.  I was beginning to think maybe some earth shattering event happened and no one called us.  Charles grabbed the tripod and we started the short walk out to the canyon’s edge.  Still no one in sight!  And the wind that usually tries to take you down when you step out from the forest… nowhere to be felt.  And the temperature was already in the upper forties (warm for this place).  I was quite comfortable and surprised.  The parking lot at the lodge was fairly full and there were at least six or seven tour buses. Apparently they didn’t have pizza for supper and felt a need to have breakfast at the lodge… our good luck.

Sunset Overlook is on a point and has a number of places from which to peruse the beauty of the canyon. We were there a good while and had a nice short visit with a lady from Vermont on her first trip to the park and saw one other couple start down one of the trails into the canyon. That was it! I’m still amazed at our good fortune. 

Our goal for the day was to start working our way north toward Yellowstone and to try to find some roads we have never taken before.  This is not as easy as it might seem because the western states have so many mountain ranges and canyons that there are limited routes to take.  Another surprise, we found a neat looking road north out of Huntington UT.  If this road was open it looked to have great possibilities. 

As we left Huntington I noticed the road gates were open so at least one part of the drive would be available to us today.  It turned out to be a wonderful experience.  As we climbed in elevation (it would top out over 9,000 feet) we began to see patches of snow.  The pups love to play in the snow so as soon as we found an area with some pretty good patches we stopped and had a playtime in the snow.  But this was only the beginning of the snow.  As we continued to climb the snow grew until we were in the most gorgeous winter wonderland.  The road was completely dry so the drive was easy.  The skies were blue, the sun shining and there was deep snow as far as the eye could see (and from these elevations that is pretty far). 

Somewhere in the upper elevations we found our second road (appropriately named Skyline Drive) and continued our snow trek.  We met maybe four or five cars on the entire drive.  A few of the overlooks had been plowed but the snow was so deep that you could not see over it!  Even better, the temperatures were in the upper fifties and with our seat heaters on and the heater blowing we still had a comfortable ride with the windows down. 

All great things must end and soon we made our descent back to the real world and headed toward Provo UT and points further north.  We got out the Pet Motel AAA Book and found a Best Western in Coalville UT that took pets.  Coalville is not too far from Park City UT and Sundance UT. 

So were there anymore surprises today?  We had saved a couple of pieces of pizza from last night to have in the room tonight. Charles had picked himself up a burrito when he filled up the car that would need to be heated as well. I had already started working on the daily journal and photos so Charles volunteered to “prepare” our dinner.  Only the microwave didn’t work.  He fiddled with it and then I fiddled with it to no avail. Charles, in his usual, “I’ll take care of this attitude” gathered up our cold pizza and burrito and headed to the front desk for assistance.  In a few minutes he returned with the front desk clerk.  She had it working and we had a nice visit but as soon as she left we realized it still was not heating.  So Charles gathered everything up again and went to visit her.  He used the microwave in the breakfast area and she offered us some Spanish rice to go with it.  We turned it down, but what started out badly ended up fine. Add to that a Nascar race for Charles to watch while I write and all is okey dokey again.

Tomorrow we will head further north toward Yellowstone but will be in no hurry.  We are well tonight and hope that y’all are too.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger