Two days, Two National Parks!

Saturday, February 18
 Arches National Park is probably the most famous park in Utah. It's depicted on Utah license plates, at least it used to be. We spent the day at the park, lots of walking and rock climbing.  We hiked a mile into the Landscape Arch, but chose not to hike the 4.2 miles into Devil's Garden, maybe another time.  Also took a 1/2 mile hike to a view point for the Delicate Arch, The hike into the arch is 3 miles.  The 3 and 4 mile hikes take 4 to 6 hours! We figured if we did the long hikes we could only do one for the day and we wanted to see as much of the park as possible.  I have to keep telling myself that "a mile is a mile is a mile", but these miles, with elevation changes and rock climbing sure take longer than the mile from my house to Inwood Avenue!   Beautiful blue skies & 50 degrees -
Arches National Park


 Sunday, February 19
There was a fairly big winter storm predicted for northern Utah, 5 to 8 inches on the I-15 corridor so we decided to take the southern route over to Bryce Canyon and figured it would just be a travel day. We ran into some snow and rain shortly after we left Moab, but then the weather cleared and the road took us through Capital Reef National Park, The Dixie National Forest and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  What a beautiful drive! We even hiked a bit at Capitol Reef. 
Capitol Reef National Park
Grand Staircase Escalante



Monday, February 20
You are all enjoying warmer weather than we are this morning! It's 0 here in the Bryce Canyon area - brrrrr.  We'll head out shortly to the park and to try to find breakfast.  We stayed in the small town of Tropic, just east of the park last night.  One hotel - America's Best Value Inn, undergoing renovation; one restaurant - open until 7 PM; one gas station and no breakfast options.....  The room is clean and warm, so we're fine. These little towns are so quiet at this time of the year!!

Today we'll explore Bryce Canyon.