Bryce National Park and Kodachrome State Park

We got an early start on our day in Bryce and drove up to Sunrise Point to watch -  guess what. It was a partly cloudy morning, and we were not sure we would actually be able to see a sunrise.  As it turned out, however, we were well rewarded for our effort. First there was a thin bright light, like a flourescent sign, outlining the clouds at the horizon. The light gradually spread not from low in the sky to high, but from right to left. I had never seen anything like this before but it turned out that this was just the beginning. While I was still admiring what I was seeing, the sun itself began to appear above the layer of clouds at the horizon until it was completely visible. After that it came and went as it rose and played peek-a-boo with the clouds above it. It was a great sunrise!

                                                  Minnie and Vinnie

Our next stop was Kodachrome State Park, not far away and with scenery similar to Bryce's. Our hope was that since this park was about 1200 feet lower than Bryce, it would be noticeably warmer at night and allow Elise to sleep comfortably in the tent. The park ranger at the Kodachrome Visitors Center made no promises but we were hopeful. We found a nice large campsite with a good view of the hoodoos and set up our tent.



 We didn't stay long in the park. We just had time to drive to the meeting point for the coach tour of the northern part of the park in time to buy a couple hamburgers for the road. The tour was quite interesting with great views of objects both near and far, and there was time for us to get out of the bus and walk around looking at and photographing the great scenery. (It's almost as if seeing something doesn't really count unless one has photographed it.) Alas, we are not exceptions to this phenomena. In addition to all of the rock formations, we also took pictures of Minnie and Vinnie, two ravens who hopped around and posed for us at one of the vistas.

The day was cold and windy and there were even a couple of brief showers, but the showers always came when we were in the bus. The driver/guide was informative and responsive but the best part was that once he had told us what we were going to see next, he told a fairly long story about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who had lived in this area. The distance between vistas was fairly short, so as we approached each vista he would find an interesting place to stop the story and then continue it again once we were back on the bus. He was an excellent storyteller and his story was a great addition to the trip for me.
After the tour we spent an hour or so at the Visitors Center where I worked on a blog, Elise took a rest, and then we both saw a film there about the geology and history of Bryce.

We ate a pizza in the little town of Tropic, and it was already dark when we returned to our campsite in Kodachrome (so named because of the colorful nature of the rock formations and not because of any connection with Kodak). We found that the wind had blown our tent off of its stakes, but it didn't take us long to restore it to a usable condition even in the dark. Our plan was that Elise would start off with me in the tent, and if she got too cold she would move to the back seat of the car. I might join her in the front seat depending on how cold it got. At about 2:00 AM Elise moved to the back seat of the car. At about 4:00 AM I decided to join her in the front seat. I also ran the car heater a couple times during the next few hours until it was time for us to get up around 7:30.
So how did this work out? Be sure to read tomorrow's blog!