Sunday, November 30, 2014

Bryce Canyon National Park




On October 25th, we were excited to arrive at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. We LOVED Bryce Canyon!

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We had a gorgeous day for exploring, which we were very thankful for - as we left learned in late October we could have had snow and ice at Bryce Canyon! (Read more about Bryce Canyon weather here.)



At Bryce there is a roadway which takes you to first a visitor center (which we skipped), then you can drive to various view points. We drove to Sunset Point, and walked along the amphitheater rim walkway to Sunrise Point where we hopped on the trail into the canyon.




You can see maps here, and read about geology and climate here.




The Bryce Canyon rock formations are called hoodoos, which means "a pillar of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion".



What an incredible place to hike and explore!



Bryce Canyon has easy, moderate and strenuous hikes. Two from our crew took a short easy hike down a ways, back again (after a minor injury), and two had a wonderful easy hike. The rest of our hikers did a moderate to a strenuous hike, and loved every moment of it.




Mr A and Mr D were so impressed with the last bit of the hike they came back, took my camera and went down again. The pictures below were taken by them (thanks!!). By then I was in the Mothership making berry smoothies:)



We were really impressed with Bryce Canyon and loved our time in Utah, and I'm sure we'll be back to explore some more later!

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Brycen kanjoni Utah'in osavaltiossa on vaikuttava kokemus! Ensin kuljimme kävelytietä kanjonin reunaa pitkin ihaillen hoodoo-kivimuodostuksia, ihan vaan syvään hengitellen, ja sitten lähdimme polkua pitkin alas kanjoniin. Osa meistä käveli kunnon reitin, ja pojat ottivatkin viimeiset kuvat. Varmasti menemme takaisin vielä joku päivä - niin upea paikka!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Utah 2



In our last travel post we were driving scary roads in Utah, and ran into a little problem.

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With all the hills, twists and turns, our brakes overheated!




We needed to pull over and let everything cool down. We happened to come upon a campground entrance, and considered pulling over there to spend the night, but the entrance had a super twisty driveway, and a sign that told us we were too long to make it there (or too long for their RV sites).



Finally we were able to continue driving.




Only to pull over again. In fact, I think we pulled over at least three times before we got down to more level roads.




We took full advantage of the breaks, and goofed around a bit:)




After sitting in the RV for hours, it feels so good to run around.




After our harrowing day of driving, we were so happy to arrive in Escalante, Utah, where we pulled over for the night at a campground. (Which also meant a busy laundry night for mama.)

We were now done with most of the scary roads, but trouble was still waiting for us, but not in Utah. Next up - Bryce Canyon!

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Utah'n kiemuraiset ja mäkiset tiet oli liikaa asuntoauton jarruille - loppupäivän meidän piti ajaa pätkän, vetää tien sivuun jäähtymään, ajaa taas pätkän, jäähdytellä taas. Onneksi ei ollut suurempia ongelmia (vielä), ja pääsimme yöksi leirintäalueelle (pyykkiä pesemään, heh). Mutta upeita maisemia, ja pysähdykset teki hyvää matkustajille!