Days 11 and 12 (Tuesday and Wednesday wk 2) Update: Pictures Added

(Side note: you can click on the pictures and some computers will let you see a larger one.)

Day 11 finds us in Bryce Canyon NP and Zion NP. They are around 100 miles apart so we were able to see both on the same day.

As we drove into Bryce, there was evidence of a fire. Several acres of trees were scorched. We pulled over to make some pictures in Bryce and saw a man with a young boy and girl, probably 10 and 8 years of age, sitting on a ledge with 2 huge backpacks loaded with lots of stuff and a smaller backpack. We thought maybe they were waiting on some other people as the Dad sprayed the little girl down with sunscreen. But before we knew what was happening, they were loading up to take off on the trail! The backpack the young boy was carrying was as big as he was! The dad struggled to get his backpack on by sitting it on the ledge and lifting it from there. By the look on his face, his was verrrry heavy! We got a picture of them as they took off, and there was another group of people who were also watching the process and happened to mention to us that they also took a picture. They felt a little weird taking a picture but saw us taking one, and then didn't feel so bad about it! We discussed the fact that they must have been planning an overnight hike. The next thing we knew the little boy had either fallen or sat down halfway up the hill, and the dad had to help him up because the backpack was way too heavy. Hope they made it ok. Seems the Dad was expecting a little much of his children, though.

The rock formations here remind us of statues of families of people. There is also one place where you can see several trails in the valley and people walking on them look like ants from the overlook we were standing on. The last time we were in Bryce, it was in the month of May about 5 years ago and there was snow in the parking lot. This time there was none.


We got a picture of a pronghorn mama with three little ones in the park. They were beside the road and just stood at attention as we drove by.


We saw several pronghorns in fields on the drive between Bryce and Zion. Inside Zion, the road led us through a long tunnel that seemed to go on forever. When we finally saw daylight, we thought it was "light at the end of the tunnel"; however, it was only a window in the side of the rock that let us look out at the other rocks! There was more of the tunnel and more windows, then finally we drove out of the tunnel into daylight! It was just about the darkest tunnel we have ever driven through. That seemed to make it longer, I guess. The elevation was high and as we started going out of the Park, the road zigzagged down into the valley where it immediately started warming up.


After we left Zion NP, we headed toward the Bonneville Salt Flats. A large coyote crossed the road in front of us and kept running. The GPS took us into Nevada up a northern route to the Salt Flats. We just THOUGHT we had been on a pig trail! We had traveled several long miles on a beautiful drive when the GPS directed us to take an immediate left off the road and head back the other direction on a different highway. We saw road graders parked at the beginning of the "road" and realized why in just a few feet....the "road" was a dirt/gravel road. We do not like dirt roads with or without gravel, but it was ONLY 7 miles to the next turn onto another highway, so we kept going. They had been scraping the road so it looked pretty good for a mile or so, but that soon changed! It became a washboard and it just about shook our brains out! After a long time of brain shaking, we finally got to the other highway. We were covered in dust!


That slowed us down enough that we were not able to make it to a large town for the night, but we made it to a small settlement called Pioche. A lady at a small state park had told us there were two small motels in Pioche or we could head back toward Las Vegas. It was a longer drive and hotter drive back toward Las Vegas, so we decided on Pioche. The town hall was just closing down, but we were able to stop a lady named Arla to ask her about rooms in town. The first thing out of her mouth, before we could even ask about the motel, was "Are you folks lost?", and she kinda laughed. Come to find out, there was a motel over a saloon and a small flea bag looking 6-room motel called the Motherlode Motel. It was too late to head on out to the next big town called Ely because of all the wildlife we would encounter at dusk, so we chose flea bag Motherlode. It turned out to be a clean little room, although it was really outdated.


Day 12 found us heading on out toward the Salt Flats after an actually restful night at the Motherlode. As we approached the Flats, there was a tree on the side of the road that was covered with hats, tennis shoes, CDs, and probably other things that we did not see. We got a picture of it but do not know the story about the tree. Maybe someone can enlighten us.


When we got within sight of the Salt Flats, it again was a long narrow looking white plain that was similar to the way the White Sands looked as we approached it. We drove out to where the pavement ended, but didn't drive on the salt. We had been told it should be packed enough, but we didn't try it. We just got some pictures with the Salt Flats in the background. There was another couple who rode up on their bike, but they did not go out onto the salt either.


We have had a lot of really bad wind gusting today. The sky looked like we were going to be rained on, but we escaped it all the way around. We have stopped for the night in Winnemucca, Nevada. We will ride toward Tahoe tomorrow to find a trail around Lake Tahoe that has been suggested as a beautiful ride.