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Day 8: Bryce Canyon National Park
May 8
The alarm clock was at 6.30 this morning! I’m so sleepy! We go to breakfast at 7 and then drive to Sunset Point to start our trek inside Bryce Canyon, we will do the Navajo Loop Trail and the Queen’s Gardens Trail. The sun finally came out, the day is wonderful.
We descend into the canyon and it’s like being in wonderland: the first thing we see are the huge orange walls and the tall trees, given the time we are alone along the path, we remain open-mouthed to see a hare that is not afraid of us when he sees us and then there are many species of squirrels.
The spiers of Bryce seen from up close and from the bottom up are really fantastic. The contrast between the orange-white color of the rocks and the blue of the sky stands out. They look like sand castles that grow on the beach with wet sand! I am really happy to have done this route, because you can’t even imagine many things from the panoramic points. The path traveled is quite easy and takes 2-3 hours.
After the path we pause at the Visitor Center, where we go to get information on the next stage we intend to face. The Grosvenor Arch, a natural arch located outside the park.
The Grosvenor Arch
The arch we want to visit is a very scenic double arch, but which has a small negative detail: it is located in an isolated area and to reach it you need to do about 11 miles of dirt road with a ford of a small river (fortunately dry). To reach the arch it takes about 30 minutes (1 hour round trip) through the landscape of the Kodachrome Basin and cow farms.
On the way back from the Grosvenor Arch we visit the Kodachrome Basin, which however is not that great after what we have seen in the last few days. However if we had it in Europe this would be a spectacle too, even if in Europe we have many other things worthy of a trip.
The beauty of American parks is their organization even in isolated and uncrowded places such as the Grosvenor Arch. In fact we also found there a toilet (very spartan but there was) a small 1m x 1m cabin with bin and lids, then there was a grill where you could cook meat, tables and benches.
Another strange thing about America is that on every road every few miles signs appear that say that piece of road has been adopted for cleaning (by scouts, by an association or by citizens etc.). From what we understand, they are responsible for cleaning that stretch of road.
Night: Best Western Ruby’s Inn, Bryce Canyon
FROM BRYCE CANYON TO LAS VEGAS —->
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