Day 6: First we headed east to Paria, via an unintientionally long road to the Grand Staircase Escalante Visitor Center. Then back to Kanab for afternoon coffee. Then up to Bryce Canyon in time to watch the sunset and spend the night.The dirt road down to Paria is colorful even from space.
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Showing off the baggage rig: Computer and camera equipment backpacks atop the piggy-backed rollaboard suitcases.
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Back in Pagosa Springs, I woke up with a sore throat. It became a full blown cold. Last night, my coughing kept Karen up, so we stopped for some meds. My ears are also plugged up and painful with each altitude change (frequent out here). So decongestants are de rigeur.
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Snapshot from ten miles down the wrong road to the Visitor's Center. There are no truly wrong roads if the scenery is your goal.
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Off of US-86 there is a little, barely marked parking area at the head of the road down to Paria. Or Pahreah, depending on whether it was the Spanish or the English who are writing the name.
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Karen cleans the wind shield before we drive the dirt roads down to Paria/Pahreah.
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Karen stabilizes the time lapse dash cam. This is easy up here in the flat areas, but more of a work-out down in the winding, steep dirt road zones.Here's the (sped up) video of the drive into and back out of Paria \(https://youtu.be/6BVmMjJXjJQ\)
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The view where we pulled over to shed the tailgater (as seen in the video). Note the variety of minerals in that band between the normal red sandstone at the top, and the alternating orange and gray bands below. Signs of copper, chrome, mercury, uranium, molybdenum, and other exotics.
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The Paria (Pahreah) graveyard
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In case you didn't have time/resolution to read this in the video.
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Karen reads markers in the Paria graveyard
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The Paria River, end of the road
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Paria, UT once was a town, then a ghost town, then a movie set, and now nothing remains but a graveyard. But a Geology page posting of the cliffs here made this my target for the journey out west. So in our little Jetta we drove down the dirt roads and gullies. Well, Karen started to so I could get a video of the drive. But the narrow, slippery, rutted tracks made her nervous. So I got to play off road vehicle.Yee haw! I enjoyed it.Anyway, the rocks here are worth the trip
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The mineral streaked hills in this obscure valley are fascinating
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Panorama in the Paria Day Use Area
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Turnabout photography.
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Karen took a picture of me taking a picture of my shadow. Note the color in the shadow of my sunglasses.
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Dust behind us as we head out of Paria
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Paria is in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
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Some roads are this wild. And I am happy with my bi-focal sunglasses.
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House Boat for sale, up here in the high desert.
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Coffee, croissants, and smoothie at the Kanab Creek Bakery
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Karen used our Kanab Creek Bakery coffee stop to find and book a room near Bryce Canyon
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Yes, cleaning the windshield, again.
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Impulse stop at Moqui Cave north of Kanab
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All your classy roadside attractions have a fiberglass dinosaur and saguaro skeletons. This one also has interesting geology.
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Eclectic is a good word to describe Moqui Cave. It was built up as an attraction before there was a reliable paved road up here.
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The original owner ran a bar here. And a native artifact museum.
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Paleontolical curiosities. Never seen a trilobte so well defended.
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The back room of the cave was set up to display fluorescent minerals. Quite an impressive collection, nicely curated.
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Current cave manager Sage posing with the portrait of her grandfather Garth Chamberlain, creator of the roadside attraction. We had a nice chat about minerology and showmanship.
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Parting shot of Moqui Cave. Note the slit window, and the leaching rust from the red sandstone above.
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Defunct tourist stops are too common. Travel is a dying tradition in the age of portable virtual reality.
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Seeing some color as we climb the roads to Bryce
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Welcome to Garfield County. Getting close to our turn-off.
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I've been out of the roofing truss business for 14 years. But it still holds a special place in my heart. Here's an entire roof framing sitting on a truck, ready to put up and slap on roofing.
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Dixie National Forest, Red Canyon, on the side road up to Bryce Canyon
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A very short tunnel
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Can't stay much closer to the canyon then Bryce View Lodge. Can't see it from here, either. So the name seems a bit unintuitive.
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Another nice room with down comforters and memory foam. Note the Dan image in shadow and the mirror selfie. I'm everywhere!
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Most of the room is new, but the phones are from the 1990's. I could plug in a modem, if computers still had those. And if someone left a message at the desk, this phone might be able to signal that with neon. If the wires are not as broken as the lens dome.
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Dinner was an adventure. With the altitude and my dispnea, I was in the mood for red meat. So we searched for a steak place. But we had trouble finding anything around the motel. We drove to a couple of places. FOsters Steak House (highly rated on Google) had gone out of business! Ruby's Inn had a wait, and wanted $25 for a 6oz steak. We wanted to get up to a canyon overlook by sunset, so we headed into the park, on Karen's hunch that there would be something besides Googles only suggestion of Valhalla Pizzza (sic). Once in the park, we headed to the Lodge. Yes, they had a restaurant. And by then, the salmon appealed to me. We had a nice meal, and got out of there in less than an hour to drive up the canyon rim as the sun got very low.
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Shingles on the Bryce Lodge roof. I appreciate architectural whimsy.
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No TV, barely any cell signal. Entertainment in the lodge is participatory.
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Dramatic recently burned areas
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The view from Agua Canyon, 6:49p.m.
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The Raven agreed with Karen, that we should move higher up the canyon rim for a better view.
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Shadows of the raven and I as sunset approaches in Bryce Canyon. Presented sideways, as much of my imagery is.
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I like the long shadows as the sun drops toward the horizon
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We get to Ponderosa Point at 6:55. Running out of time. We stop here to watch the sunset over the canyon.
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You can see the last bit of red sun hitting the high ridge over there. The shodow of the Earth is starting to rise from the horizon, and the band of red light leads it into the sky.
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A raven kept us company at this scenic overlook, as the shadow of the Earth rose into the sky, the sun having set behind us.
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Panorama from the lookout with Karen and a Raven also watching.
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Past sunset at Bryce Canyon, the raven watches us watching the shadow of the Earth rise into the sky.
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Another bird watching the Earth shadow rise into the sky.
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