Bryce Canyon...

We got to spend a couple of days in Bryce Canyon this summer and it was pretty cool!! We got a very sweet deal on a couple of cabins that are about as close to the rim as you'd want to be and after a number of hours trapped in the car together followed by a few arguments about who had to share which bed with who, we set out to explore.....we had a little splash of welcome rain (coming from AZ!!) and decided to walk around til sunset instead of going to get something to eat....glad we did as although the sun wasn't obviously visible, it cast a beautiful light on everything and we got some great photos....

 

We even started to walk down below the rim, but after a few minutes of steep descent and realising that we'd all have to walk back up....we turned back (in our defense it was getting late....??)

I am not an early morning person, but I nonetheless set my alarm for 5.45am to get up to see the sunrise....but when that alarm went off it was so dark and so unbelievably still and quiet and Andrew who is normally the one up at 5am anyway, was still sound asleep....it took all my strength of will to try and wake him to do you want to go see the sunrise?? I think we took an extra 5 minutes....and another extra 5 minutes to fully commit ourselves, but eventually we dragged ourselves up and leaving the kids sleeping went off to see the sunrise.....as we drove to the recommended spot, the sky was getting lighter and we were worrying that we would miss it....but we made it and although it wasn't totally amazing (clouds....what can you do??) it was kind of a fun experience with just the two of us (oh yeah and the fifty other foreign tourists)....ok so the two of us minus any kids...which counts a lot these days:)

 

Hmmm...yes I am aware that we don't look so amazing in this pic...but we did get ready in the dark in about 3 seconds so could have been worse:)

Yep that's Andrew standing there looking very thoughtful.....

We did make it back to the kids and got them up and ready for the day (we were driving on to Provo/Draper) and did the driving tour of Bryce - all the way down to rainbow point and back. It was pretty cool, but the kids weren't so impressed with the extra time in the car ("do we have to get out - it's just a bunch more rocks").....brought back memories of trudging round Ephesus and other such 'bunches of rocks' as a kid....lovely how things come back to bite you as an adult:)

This was definitely the favorite spot though.....something bridge?

And so the journey continues.....a few more hours to Provo/Draper!!