May 20 & 21

May 20
We left the Canyon about 8:30. We were very sad to be leave this area, but hopefully we can return someday.
We are driving along Rt 89 over to Bumbleberry Inn in Springdale UT, which is just outside of Zion National Park. This road takes us through Kanab. A beautiful ride with gorgeous mountains in all shades of red surrounding the whole area. Many famous movies were filmed here, including Plant Of The Apes, The Lone Ranger and Oh! Suzanna, plus some of Lassie. It is such an adorable town. It’s sunny and 70°, about 45 minutes to the Inn. We are entering Zion National Park entrance on Hwy 9 and because  of our Senior Pass we didn’t have to pay anything.  It’s about a 10 mile drive through the Park and was something I never would have expected! The mountains all around us were surreal. They seemed to never end and felt like we were in the belly of the earth as they rose up on all sides. We drove winding roads through a short tunnel and a longer one, which was a little hairy, at least for me. Stunning and wondrous!

  

We got to the motel early so we parked the car, had a salad for lunch and walked about 100 feet to the shuttle stop which takes you to Zion. They come about every 15 minutes and are free. There are 9 stops along the way to different drop offs. We got off at the Visitors Center and took a shuttle to Weeping Rock Trail about, 1/2 mile long, a little steep, which took us to a beautiful dripping waterfall from one of the mountains.

After the walk we went back to motel to check in. It’s a cute place right in the center of Springdale with beautiful scenery surrounding the whole town. Motel is a little dated but very clean and we get free breakfasts and discounts at the little restaurant and store next to it.  We took showers and relaxed for a while before we headed out for dinner. When we got back we sat on our balcony to gaze at the beautiful view we have.

May 21

The last few days have been so amazing driving through this beautiful part of the country. We keep reminding ourselves that this is real. We ride along man made roads with God’s painted backdrop all around us and it isn’t really one dimensional!

We had breakfast at Wildcat Willy’s Grill and it was really very good. We left about 9:30 to drive over to Bryce Canyon for our trail ride. We never get tired of driving through Zion National Park. There are so many beautiful sites to see. Driving along Rt 89 took us right into Bryce Canyon. We arrived at Ruby’s Inn at noon, parked our car and took the free shuttle over to Bryce Canyon Lodge to check in for our 2:00 ride. We had time so we walked over to the overlook of the canyon. Another breathtaking view. It’s amazing the different landscapes in this beautiful country. Bryce Canyon is like a monstrous cave in the earth that had the roof blown off and left huge, beautiful stalagmites growing up from the earth in shades of ivory and pinks. 

We walked over to the stables where we were assigned our rides. I had a sweet horse named Tuff and Tom had a mule named Keystone. We took a two hour ride down into the canyon to view the beautiful rock formations, right into the heart of Bryce Canyon. We then climbed back up to the stables. What a fantastic time we had!