Saturday, July 7
Cedar City, Utah to Bryce Canyon

WOW is about all I can say about the natural beauty we saw today. The drives are as gorgeous as the destinations are.

Before entering Bryce Canyon National Park, we stopped at a gift shop. They had some beautiful things, at good prices. Kevin got a tee shirt, I got a Navajo cross pendant, and Tom got a wood flute.

Tom, Kevin, and Eric hiked part of the way down into Bryce Canyon, while I stayed up near the rim. I was fortunate to see them, so I could photograph them down in the canyon. They heard me call their names; and even stopped and looked up, for one of the photographs!

After our visit to Bryce Canyon, we ate lunch at Ruby's ... Tom ordered a cheese steak sandwich, with mushrooms and onions, and thought it was one of the best he's ever eaten.

While I looked at rocks in a store across from Ruby's, Tom bought us dessert -- homemade cookies!

Our drive to Page, Arizona, our next destination, was a surprise when Tom turned onto a dirt road from the highway! I thought he was just taking a short-cut. The short-cut turned out to be 46 miles long!!! Apparently, he had planned this, but hadn't told anyone.

The dirt road wound through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The area became a National Monument just a short while ago, in 1996.

The dirt road, consisted of plowed sand and dirt, scattered with rocks for traction; and is only drivable when it doesn't rain.

We saw about six empty beer bottles lying on the road, and about the same number of vehicles.

Wildlife was few, and far between. The most common animals we saw were jack rabbits and chipmunks.

There was a partially dried up river running through the area, with many dried up streams. Whenever we saw green plants, if we looked, we always found at least a small amount of water nearby.

In places, the road made the whole van vibrate. In one part, we thought the van would become stuck in the sand, but the van's inertia pulled us through! We also survived two large holes in the road, and driving over a creek, at the very beginning of our adventure!

After we arrived in Page, Tom checked us into our hotel, while we waited in the van. We are staying at a Holiday Inn Express, using points. So the best part is that the room is free, and it is a suite; so we have a sofa bed again, like last night. It is Eric's turn for the sofa bed.

We ate dinner at Fiesta Mexicana. It had excellent food and drinks!