Bryce Canyon and Onward to Salt Lake City (Day 27)

The 27th day was the day that things started to go off the rails. With the exception of me, everybody was tired and cranky. I really don't blame them. We had been on the road for a long time and for normal people, that wears on them. Me on the other hand? I could be on the road forever. Luckily, we only really had one more day on the vacation as a family. So we left Kanab, Utah early and drove the 90 or so minutes up to Bryce Canyon National Park.  To get to Bryce Canyon National Park, you need to drive through this awesome tunnel carved into some of the red rock out there.  This is a picture of that tunnel coming back from the park.  

When we arrived at Bryce Canyon, we immediately got our picture taken with the entry sign, and headed to the visitor center. 

I knew our time was going to be limited here, so I asked a ranger for some recommendations. We decided, based on a discussion with him, to go to Sunset Point and then all the way out to the end of the road to the Rainbow Point and Yovimpa Point. 

We started at Sunset Point first and walked around. The sights were amazing there. Norah wanted to walk down to the bottom, but I was uncomfortable as it was pretty steep, there was no railings, and I was worried she would get down to the bottom and be too hot to climb back up. 

After visiting Sunset Point, we went to the end of the road in Bryce to the Rainbow Point and Yovimpa Point and did a one and a half mile hike out there. The sights were amazing. Here's the view from Yovimpa Point, including some of the forest where there was a burn in the not too distant past.

After Yovimpa Point, we hiked over to Rainbow Point.  I think my family was expecting something super colorful, but it wasn't that much different than other parts of the park.  I guess it is probably real colorful when the sunsets or rises here.  Still it was beautiful.  

On the way back we made a few stops along the road to see some of the sites.  The first stop was Black Birch Canyon.  

Next up was Ponderosa Canyon.

Then it was to the Natural Bridge.  It was so beautiful!

The final stop was Bryce Point.  Another stunning view from here that pictures just do not do it justice.  

Bryce Canyon National Park is just stunning and even during a "busy time", we never felt crowded there and had plenty of room to enjoy the park.  I just wish next time we go, the girls are not as worn down and we can enjoy some of the amazing hikes there.  

Leaving Bryce and driving north, I needed to stop for some gas and get some food, so we decided to stop in Beaver, Utah. 

Beaver, Utah is a pretty neat town.  The highlight there was a place called The Creamery which had amazing ratings online. We went there and grabbed some mac and cheese and pizza for lunch.  Both were outstanding. The girls got some ice cream before we got on the road again.

The plan was to spend the night in Provo, Utah after visiting Bryce Canyon and then get up early the next morning to drive to Salt Lake City for the girl's flight back to Maryland.  However, we were way ahead of schedule and could make it to Salt Lake City by 5:00 p.m. So we changed our hotel plans and found a place to stay right near the airport in Salt Lake City. That way the girls could sleep in the next morning before their flight back to Maryland.

We didn't do a lot we got Salt Lake City. We grab dinner at a local Mexican restaurant called Cafe Silvestre which is pretty good.  We then went back to the hotel where the girls did some swimming before bed. Everybody went to bed early as the girls had to leave early the next morning for their flight back home.  

Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, and the Toadstool Hoodoos (Day 26)

On the 26th day of the trip, the plan was to head to Zion National Park. However there were a couple things going on within Zion that gave us some concern. First, there had been some flash flooding that had messed up the roads in the park the previous week. It sounded like this was causing some congestion and limited access to certain areas.  Also, we had seen on the news that Zion was one of the busiest National Parks in the country. The mixture of the crowds and problems with the roads due to the flash flooding made us second-guess going there.  This was the tail end of the trip and my kids were not going to wait in long lines to ride buses.  

One of the places that we had also wanted to go to on the trip was Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon is a beautiful slot canyon with amazing photo opportunities.  Antelope Canyon is under the Navajo Nation control and Navajo leadership had the location closed due to COVID.  Rumor had it that it would reopen while we were on the road, they just didn't have a date yet.  Since the canyon is small, tours sell out early.  So I spent the first half of the trip checking every day to see if it would open.  It just so happened that the Navajo leadership opened Antelope Canyon for visitors again on the last day we were in Kanab.  Score!!!  So it was a no-brainer for us to swap out Zion National Park for Antelope Canyon.

We started the day in Kanab, Utah and drove down to Page, Arizona.  The ride is a little over an hour.  We were a little unsure what time to get there for our 12:30pm tour reservation.  This part of the country is real tricky due to the different time zones and optional use of Daylight Savings Time.  Something everyone needs to keep in mind when traveling here.  

We arrived in Page about 2 hours before our reservation time at Antelope Canyon.  So we went to Horseshoe Bend. This is where the Colorado River makes a U-turn before emptying into Lake Powell.  The park that is here is run by the city of Page and it costs $10 per car to get in there.  The view here is beautiful, so it is well worth it.

Warning, the walk to Horseshoe Bend is about 1.5 miles round trip, is paved and you cover less than 300 feet of height change round trip.  However, it's a tough hike in a dry place with little shelter.  It's hot too!  We saw a lot of people who were not in good shape struggling to get out and back.  Having at least a half gallon of water is necessary.  It's no joke!

In order to get good pictures of the bend, you have to get pretty close to the edge. As you know I'm probably not the best when it comes to heights. So I got limited pictures there, but here are a few.  

While we were there, we had an interesting incident happen where some tourist was trying to get a good picture, got too close to the edge, and slipped.  He was not near a railing and was real close to the edge, so his stuff fell over and down into the canyon below. He was real close to falling over the edge himself. It was a very scary moment when you're there with little kids.  I really made sure the girls didn't get near the edge.  Norah was irritated cause there were a lot of rocks she wanted to climb, but it just wasn't safe.  

After visiting Horseshoe Bend, we grabbed a quick lunch in Page at Subway and went to Dixie's Lower Antelope Canyon Tours. There we checked in, were assigned a tour guide, and headed down to the slot canyon.

The slot canyon is down under this.  As you can see, there's not much of an opening to get down there.  And it's like 70-90 feet below that we walked.  You had to go on a bunch of ladders to get there which are scary for those who don't like heights.  

There really isn't much to say about Antelope Canyon other than it looks unreal. I've uploaded a bunch of pictures below for you to take a look. It's just so beautiful and like other things on this trip, the photos do it no justice.

As you can see in the pictures, we did have to wear masks in Antelope Canyon and on the Navajo property.  This was still a local mandate from Navajo leadership.  

After Antelope Canyon we decided to drive back to Kanab, Utah.  Norah was still bitter about not being able to climb on rocks earlier at Horseshoe Bend, so we stopped at the Toadstool Hoodoos so she could.  She was hesitant to go as it was really hot and she was very tired, but I told her she could get out of the car explore there.  If she decided she wanted to do the hike, we could go.  She got out and loved it.  

The wife and my oldest daughter really weren't into hiking out there either.  However, they kind of had to as it was like 100F and they couldn't stay in the car.  The hike out and back was like 3 miles and was amazing. The scenery at the Toadstool Hoodoos was absolutely beautiful. It's amazing to see these rocks perched up on top of other rocks, looking like toadstool mushrooms.

Norah made the best comment here at the Toadstools.  As we are walking back together, she was telling me how much she loved this hike and how was the best hike she'd gone on in the whole trip. She then said something pretty remarkable. She said, "Sometimes the best hikes in life are the hikes you don't want to take." What an amazing observation from my little zen master.

After hiking the Toadstools, we went back to our hotel. Everybody was dirty and dusty from all the hiking we did that day. Unfortunately, the pool was not open when we got back to the hotel. They had to do some sort of emergency maintenance on it and that was very disappointing to everybody. So we showered up and decided to check out downtown Kanab.

We grab dinner at the Rocking V Cafe. The food here was great. I got a pork chop that tasted amazing.

The girls also had fun playing cards at dinner while waiting for their food.  

 Afterwards we walked down the street to a trailer that was selling ice cream and Manina and Norah got ice cream.  Avery wanted a snow cone from a different trailer around the corner. 

After that we went back to the hotel and went to sleep as it was a very long day with hiking that was over 6 miles in 100 F heat.