Last night at Bryce View Lodge I'd discovered that I had left behind my favorite scarf and the power supply for our new laptop. I ordered a new charger from Amazon to be delivered to Karen's mom in California for about what it would cost to have the old one shipped.I also had overdone with all the hiking yesterday, aggravating my virus ridden body. I needed all the meds to sleep and breathe. Slept till housekeeping was knocking on doors at almost 9. Needed the rest. We packed up and got out by 10 to head into Bryce Canyon.Overview: Pretty canyon in the morning, nice afternoon drive down to Laughlin.
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The motel had no breakfast, so we used the in-room coffee maker. It needed two tablespoons of instant to jack it up to our standards. Seen here: Warming an almond croissant from Kanab on the dash to go with our meh coffee on our way back in to Bryce Canyon. Driving past that burned out area.
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Morning view from Agua Canyon overlook, where we watched the dusk rise last night.
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In contrast to that panorama, here is a telephoto shot toward the eastern side of the canyon
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Everyone takes shots of the stunning overlooks. Here is a bench that I managed to walk past. Between my chronic ailment, my recent cold, and the altitude, I thoughfully consider each bench I pass on the walks to and from viewpoints.
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Rainbow Point
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When I look out at a canyon, I perceive it at several levels. There is the initial visceral response to being on the edge of sudden drops. There is the striking juxtaposition of colors. There is the texture. There is the sense of deep time, when you inderstand the processes that form these places: Simple water erosion, wind forces, freeze-and-thaw spalling, and the wear and tear both cased and countered by plants and animals. If you look closer, one can see the fossils of ancient life, the geologically brief appearance of volcanoes and floods and such. Canyons fascinate me.
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How pale the shady canyon walls appear compared to the glow of light reflected from the red rock onto the underside of a fallen cedar. Or is it a piñon pine?
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Peering through a natural window appeals to me, as to my peephole people peers.
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The playful breezed tore my hat from my head and flung it over the railing. At first, I figured, time for a new hat. But it landed right at the foot of the wall. I couldn't just leave it there. So I climbed the "Do Not SIt Or Climb On Rails" fence, and walked past the "Danger, No Safe Trail" sign. The gravelly slope at the wall was not too steep, and I carefully placed each foot as I kept my center of balance as close to the wall as possible, and I snagged my 16 year old, well worn, hat. Karen caught this snapshot. At this angle, the picture does not adequately expose the hazard that I foolishly put myself in. I blame the altitude, my various ailments, and/or the meds I was taking to counter those issues.
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Safely back to the right side of the fence, and hanging on to my hat.
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The shimmering golden leaves on the quaking aspens are sure fun to see.
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I had Karen pull off to at a brake-check pull out so I could stand and admire the quaking apsens for a while.
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As I stood, alone, staring peacfullly up at the aspens, most cars just whooshed by the pullout. But a bus of Japanese tourists saw me and my camera, and pulled over excitedly to capture the experience for themselves. It amused me. I am certain that, had I not been standing there, they would have whooshed with the rest of 'em.
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A single apen leaf, as a visual allegory, a metaphor to illustrate how the whole is qualitiatively more than the sum of its parts.
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Karen had a banana and peanut butter snack while I was becoming one with the aspens. Absent the Japanese vanload, it was a quiet place to pause in Bryce Canyon.
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I found a site to illustrate the rise-and-falls of Friday's journey.https://www.doogal.co.uk/RouteElevation.phpThe trip nominally downhill from Bryce to Laughlin was hard on my sinuses. Mountain travelling during a rhinovirus is not so much fun.This chart leaves out the initial drop from Bryce Point at 9100 down to the motel at 8100. But I'd had overnight to adjust to that.
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As I mentioned in an earlier caption, it fascinates me to watch (in my mind's eye) the processing forming these features. The jagged edges, the perched rocks, the various depositions, etc.
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That white rock had to have been lowered incrementally to perch on that edge.
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I suspect that some spire sheared off at a stratum boundary to leave such flat table surface. I can see it falling, like a tree, into the canyon below.
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Ah, Bryce Canyon
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Not sure why Karen's carryin' my "good" camera. Possibly, I used up the battery. Fortunately, I brought a car charger and spare battery.
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Paria View, see the river from Bryce Canyon
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Bird watching.
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Karen climbed to a high viewpoint that I didn't have the stamina to ascend. She took a snapshot of me in the crowd. I'm in the white and blue jacket.
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Dan puts one foot in front of the other, as he heads back to the car. Karen took this from a long way away with that little, puple pocket camera.
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On the way out of Bryce Canyon, we stopped at the Lodge in hopes of finding decent coffee. As it turns out, the Valhalla Pizzza (yes, three zees) is an espresso shack on the grounds of Bryce Canyon Lodge.
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We found it amusing that the petite barista had to stand on a milk crate to reach the machine.
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Bye, bye Bryce.
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As we head out at 2 p.m. toward Panguitch and the Dixie National Forest, we have a snack of "Health Pellets." This is what we've come to call the shredded wheat cereal we use to give us a dose of fiber on the road.
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Pretty yellow scrub along the road down from Bryce.
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We get to I-15 at Cedar City, and head down Utah, across a corner of Arizona, and then California.
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It's not red rocks, but the striped strata are still fascinating.
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The sun seems low down in these interstate traversing canyons as 5 p.m. approaches. Or maybe it is only 4. Not sure of our time zone down here.
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Out of the mountains, finally. Um. But up ahead?
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First Joshua Tree sighting. Must be high desert.
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Friday has us driving down from the peak of Bryce Canyon at 9100' to Laughlin Nevada at 400'. I have pretty bad congestion, even with many decongestants. And our descent is not gentle as we soar down the I-15 from Utah across Arizona, and into the bottom triangle of Nevada.Ears. Oh, my ears! The road is a roller coaster of a few thousand feet in a few dozen minutes, up and down and up and down. Pretty, though.
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A couple of decades ago, Vegas was a nice, cheap, reliable place to stop. But since then, many surrounding states legalized gambling, and then online gambling proliferated. So Vegas is no longer so well subsidized by those who just have the itch. It is no longer a cheap place to stay. So Karen booked a cheap room in Laughlin last night while I was ordering my replacement power supply. It means an extra hour of driving today, right around LV, NV, but then an hour less tomorrow.
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We did a weird J-hook around Vegas, though. Looped around the I-15, then a hairpin turn onto US-93 to take us down I-11, good luck finding THAT on a map. Just call it US-93 for now. But long straight divided highway lined with solar arrays and power lines.Teh Goog seems to know what it's doing. The weird way it took us into Laughlin avoided a special event roadblock.
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It was weird to come toward and past the Vagas Strip area along I-15, and then to do it again on I-515. Apparently, few people bypass Vegas on the east side.
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It may seem a small thing, but I do appreciate when the concrete along roads and bridges is decorated. It doesn't cost that much more than plain, flat concrete, but adds visual charm that lasts pretty well.
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Another nice, probably more expensive, way to decorate bare concrete walls.
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The low sun barely reaches the valley floor as we cruise down newly designated I-11 from Las Vegas toward Laughlin. That pool up ahead is actually a field of solar panels.
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See? Solar panels, after the sun has left the valley.
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Driving down the I-11 Dan has some lettuce for dinner as the Friday sunset approaches. That's the shadow of Karen's hands and my little purple camera below my ear
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The shadow of the ridge to our west quickly swept up the mountains to our east.
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Arrived at the Laughlin River Lodge, quite exhausted at 7:30 Pacific time.
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We were pleased to see we had a view of the Colorado River rather than of the RV parking lot, the "Mountain View." I was a bit sunburned, my right ear was seriously stuffed up and sore, and the morning of high canyon hiking plus the long afternoon of driving seriously wore me out. Karen made me hot tea, as she had done the previous night, to help ease my throat and ears. I pretty much just turned in when we arrived, assisted by all the meds. We plan on spending two nights in a row in this place, to give me some time to recover.
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