Zion to Bryce

Since yesterday's ride was the most dramatic of our lives, we decided to do it again today.


I've got a nice video of the ride, so come back here later to see it.

After we got back, it was time to move on to Bryce. Because on both nights at Zion we got one of the last available campsites, the "find a campsite" stress level was raised significantly. So getting to the campgrounds early has become a high priority.

Here we are after the mile-long tunnel near the east exit to the park. I think that's where it is, but honestly some of these things are already blending together.

I last came through Zion around 1970, and it was fun to see the petrified sand dunes that had stuck in my memory.

We stopped at the Thunderbird lodge in Carmel Junction (super small town), and had perhaps the best service we've ever received. Everyone who worked at this place was having a great time. We rewarded them by ordering a coconut cream pie to split for dessert. This is my new favorite pie flavor.

We arrived at Bryce at three in the afternoon, got in free with our National Park Annual Pass, and chose one of the last remaining campsites. We left some things at the site, registered, then went to take a peak at the canyon.

The most difficult thing about camping and riding with everything in the Echo is finding things. We've gotten better at knowing which things need to be in the passenger compartment and which in the trunk (which is essentially inaccessible). Since we make a OCD type sweep of every campsite when we leave to enforce our "no stuff left behind" policy, we ware pretty sure that we didn't lose anything. But there are times when we just can't find something.

An example of this was our at the Bryce visitor's center. I needed something from the "Al's Cold Weather Clothes" bag, and we just couldn't find the bag. We pretty much took everything out of the car, unloaded the bikes, and pulled out our hair until Lena remembered that we left that bag at the campsite to reserve it.

Another example is the ElderTang. It's missing. We have not been able to find it. We know it's around somewhere, but it's been AWOL since Zion day one.

Back to the narrative: there are trails down into the canyon, but for us these will have to wait until tomorrow, since it's getting late.

Here's our wonderful campsite. The wind here was just as strong as in Tehachapi. We camped next to some 80-year-old Norwegian bachelor farmers who were friendly but shy, and fun to talk with.

We're at about 8,000 feet above sea level here, so the temperature started dropping quickly as the afternoon wore on.
I was able to shield the fire with the grate, but the fire was still like a blast furnace. The burgers were charred on the outside but pretty red inside. They were like totally good.

The urge to post the photos grew, and there was no wifi at the lodge, so time for some wardriving -- that is, looking for wifi hotspots. Actually, we think this was a public spot outside the high-plains institute. Here we are taking care of business and uploading the first Zion video:

An indispensible part of our equipment is the inverter that lets us get 110 AC from the car. Thus we can charge up or run the computers, charge batteries for walkie-talkies and flashlights, as well as the cell phone and Gunilla. Everyone has to take turns however, Gunilla one day, computers the next, etc.

The moon is almost full, and here it is shining through the trees at our campsite.


Well, I'm only two days behind on posting -- I'm posting this from the Hot Tomato in Fruita, CO. I'm working on a new way to write the posts offline and upload them all at once. I'll have a little more time to make things more interesting then.