Bryce Canyon and Escalante

I’m sitting in the bar section of Escalante Outfitters sipping a cold Heferwizen and eagerly awaiting my veggie calzone. My tent space 100 yards away cost me 16 bucks. They have free wireless internet, hot showers and their own liquor store where you can buy a fifth of gin (in a glass bottle) for $8.99. That last detail won’t be necessary tonight but it is fueling my sneaking suspicion that I am no longer in Utah but have somehow taken a wrong turn and will be spending the night in the Elysian Fields.

Not that I could easily ask anyone around me where exactly I am. Everyone in this section of Utah speaks German. They’re the new Japanese tourists of the 80’s. Seriously! Everywhere I went in Bryce Canyon I heard German. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just really really funny to be in the middle of rural America and hear, “Guten Tag, bin das fine weinersnitzel meizen zeist Volkswagon”

I actually really like Germans a lot. Those I met today were really friendly and their countrymen make good beer and fine automobiles.

OK, enough rambling, I’m still waiting on my calzone so that means I can tell you about Bryce Canyon. Scratch that, as soon as I typed that last sentence the waitress brought it out. It comes with a salad. I like salad. I’ve missed salad.

brb.

OK, today’s notes:

The Cedar Creek Motel’s advertised continental breakfast isn’t even in the same league or nation as the Cedar Creek Restaruarnt’s. For them, 1/4 inch of Sunny Delight and a few vending machine mini doughnuts constitutes a nutritious start to the day. Screw it, they have laundry.

Laundry caused me to get a slow start to the day but I was still able to climb my car up to 10,500 feet and see Cedar Breaks National Monument. Very pretty and cool. It’s like a strange painted top of a mountain that’s eroding away.



Red Canyon is like a fairytale landscape of fire red formations. Supposedly Butch Cassidy hid from the law here numerous times. Mr. Wishkins thought it was spectacular. He’s getting out of the car to look around more and more. While he was born in the forest (and likes camping), I think his ancient race came from a planet that looks a lot like Southern Utah.



I was actually contemplating skipping Bryce but a friendly retired couple in Zion worked to convince me otherwise. It worked. They were right. It’s freaking nuts. I can’t even begin to describe the size and multitude of spires and spikes. I took a ton of pictures.





Es ist alles gut!