The drive

Long day driving to reach Bryce Canyon National Park. But the 9 hours were through a varied and interesting landscape. We had straight as a narrow and plains, mountains next to lakes, and rolling hills. All through mostly clear and sometimes cloudy skies. Only twice did the black clouds on the horizon drop some rain on us.

Red Canyon

Next day we headed towards the entrance of Bryce Canyon National Park. Along the way we stopped several times at sights in Red Canyon which had hoodoos and cliffs brilliantly lit by the morning sun.

Bryce Canyon

At Bryce Canyon we parked outside the park and took the 'free' shuttle to tour the park (hint: if you come this way drive into the park itself and park at the visitors Center and take the shuttle from there - $25 entrance applies to whether you are driving your car in or you are taking the shuttle from the parking area, once in the park everyone can use the shuttle for free).

Although called a Canyon this park is really a set of plateaus with gorges and valleys cut into it. Hoodoos are the major goes logical feature and the amphitheatres filled with them are stunning. We did our tour in two parts. Morning was in the standard shuttle taking in a small area where the majority of the viewing spots are located. This portion was under skies that started clear and gradually filled in with clouds. The afternoon portion was a booked tour out to the end of the park (18 miles) with a driver than ran unteresting commentary along the drive and at the 5 spots we got off at to take in the views. This portion was under skies that showed blue at times, rained at times, flashed lighting and sounded rolls of thunder. We got wet a couple of times but the rain cleared almost as fast as it came. It the park we saw Horses, Ravens, Clark's Nutcracker (a bird), Peregrine Falcon, Pronghorn (a deer like animal with no known relative that dates from the I eagle), Mule Deer, and Utah Prairie Dogs... no bears or elk.

Zion Canyon

The next day we headed out for the 1 hour drive to Zion National Park with dark clouds following our progress south. Blue skies beckoned to the east and that was where the road took us. We entered the park from the east and immediately had some pretty stunning landscape to continue our drive through.

To get fully into the park we had to drive through one of the US's man made marvels - the 1.1 mile long Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel (http://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/the-zion-mount-carmel-tunnel.htm). Due to the larg number of accidents and near accidents the tunnel was made one way with a ranger at both ends controlling traffic flow.

Then the drive descends through a series of switchbacks towards the canyon floor with the destination being the Visitor's Center which is near the west entrance to the park. There everyone wanting to explore the park needed to board complementary shuttles as private traffic was banned for environmental reasons. They run frequently so that was a great way to explore the park. You can also hike the trails, mountain climb, horseback ride, and discover your way by bicycle.

The shuttles took us along the canyon floor to 8 different drop off points. From there we explored the virgin river and the sheer cliffs riding from the floor. We even saw wild turkeys and ground squirrels (other wildlife were in hiding).

By 3:00pm we were ready to head home. We did this with the morning's clouds having found there way and were steadily growing darker as we climbed out of the park. A 5 minute pause for the tunnel, and another 5 minute pause for road repair and we were out if the park with still dry roads. But then the rains poured and we had a wet 45 minutes back to the hotel.

Oh, a large section of the canyon was under flash flood warnings (with a flood marked as probable). We were out before that happened. I wonder if all tourists this day were so lucky?

Grand Canyon

We woke up to dark threatening clouds for our drive to the Grand Canyon. Started off OK but before too long it was continuous rain.stories were that Arizona had a state of emergency fine to flax flooding and the after effects of a nearby hurricane. For us, though, we got lucky and the rain tapered off to give good views of southern Utah, and the northern section of Arizona.

First town we passed through in Arizona was Page and it was dodge an Indian day as they seemed to cross at will without looking across 4-lane traffic! We hit more rain as we drove south but again it cleared before we pulled into Hillman. We lazed (well our waiter did) in the Hillman Trading Post and had lunch and a bit of shopping. Carrying on we were threatened with rain but made a stop at a gorge overlook and a local Indian crafts stall where the prices were a bit more reasonable.

Rain continued to threaten but we entered the eastern entrance to the Sputh Rim of Grand Canyon National Park under sun and cloudy blue skies. Over the next 3 hours we pulled in and out of viewpoints and the weather held. Enough great viewing for one day so on to our hotel in Tusayan which is just 3 miles from the mid-way entrance to the South Rim.

Wow what a difference a day make as the next day was cloudless blue skies. A great day to tour the Grand Canyon. This day we went to the main South Rim Visitor's Center and from there took the free shuttle bus to explore the viewing points to the west. The colours were great but a bit of haze obscured some of the view. After the monsoon weather over the previous days the Colorada River was quite muddy rather than a shade if blue. It took nearly 5 hours to see the sights. During the day calls to 4 different helicopter services but there was no available flights (cancellations due to weather over the previous days led to a backlog of rescheduled bookings). But we still had a great day with land based viewing.