We continued our vacation by driving to Bryce Canyon. We thought it was beautiful there and because it was at a higher elevation, it was slightly cooler in temperature than the oppressive heat of Zion. This will be a post packed with pictures, but we are trying to get some posts written and catch up.
These towering pillars are called hoodoos and they are one of the better known features of Bryce Canyon; they are spread all over throughout the national park.
We took a short hike when we first got to Bryce Canyon to go to Mossy Cave and Karina went with Tanja to the top of a waterfall along that hike.
The hotel/resort we stayed in (Ruby's Inn) was basically the main entertainment game in town and they offered tickets for local events. We went to a rodeo that was fun to watch (at least until it got too repetitive).
Derek was really squirmy.
They had bronco and bull riding, kids riding sheep and calves, roping events, and barrel racing.
The next morning, we started early along the rim of the canyon before dropping down to do the Queen's Garden and Navajo Combination Loop trail.
The colors of the hoodoos and the canyon are beautiful.
We found several caves/indentations in the canyon walls as we hiked down.
This archway was fun, though it got crowded as we were waiting for a chance to take a picture without other people in the background.
The kids loved all the chipmunks they found running around. We had to keep telling them they could not have a chipmunk for a pet.
Here they are trying to chase one down. They also fed chipmunks multiple times, even though that is not allowed for multiple reasons. Karina threw this chipmunk a raisin and a nut.
I admit, it was pretty cute.
This window hole through the rock was a fun place for a picture.
At the end of the loop trail, we made it to a section called Wall Street that is a narrow slot canyon with towering cliff walls and hoodoos on either side.
I love this picture of Lydia.
After Wall Street, we made it back to the rim of the canyon for more pictures.
We found a nice man to take some family pictures.
The next day, we took a scenic drive to the end of the road and hiked the short Bristlecone Loop trail. On the way back, we stopped at the scenic overlooks to look down into different sections of the canyon.
More family shots.
There was a forest fire years ago along the Bristlecone Pine trail.
At one of the overlooks was this raven (crow?) just sitting on the fence pillar at the top of the canyon that didn't care at all if people were there.
You'll notice that Tanja didn't get nearly as close to the raven as Karina did when she was alone.
This window feature/arch is called the Natural Bridge.
The second night we were there, we went to a dinner show featuring a house band playing and singing country music. I thought they were pretty good and the food was tasty. The kids, however, were more interested in watching The Jungle Book on the iPad.
The next morning, we woke to concerning news. The family taking care of Snoopy let us know that he wasn't eating (which is very unusual for him) and his breathing was even more labored. We were all upset and together decided that we weren't going to be able to enjoy ourselves knowing that Snoopy wasn't feeling well back home. So we decided that we would cancel the remainder of our vacation (two hotel stays and a trip to the Grand Canyon), and fly home that night. We thought if we hurried, we would be able to make it to our next planned hike to a slot canyon (Wire Pass Trail) and do at least some of it before driving back to Las Vegas to get on the flight home.
It was a hot day on the trail and Derek especially was out of energy and not cooperating to hurry on the hike to get to the start of the slot canyon portion, but once we finally got there, it was a fun few minutes of being silly.
I like the lines from all the sandstone layers that kind of make waves along the canyon.
At one point, we had to climb up and down a ladder in the slot canyon.
Peekaboo!
Because of time, we didn't go very far on the Wire Pass trail and we had to drive fast through the desert to make it in time for our flight (and there were times we weren't sure we could make it). Of course, by the time we got to the airport, the plane was slow to board, and then we were stuck at the gate for an hour or so waiting to take off. The problem was that the plane was too heavy to take off in the hot temperatures at Vegas. Eventually, they kicked a few people off the 100% full flight; after initially saying that passengers might be able to volunteer to get $600 to take another flight, they announced that they were kicking off non-revenue passengers (meaning airline employees and others who have access to cheap/no-cost tickets I guess). Then once they removed the people and their luggage, we finally took off concluding a stressful travel portion of our vacation both flying out and flying back.
We picked Snoopy up the next morning, and we were happy to be reunited with him. We took him to the vet and got him some new medicine dosage, a diuretic called Lasix/furosemide, and since then, he has his appetite again and is as healthy as an old beagle with heart and kidney problems can be expected to be.
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