05/26/09 - We start SW Utah in Red Canyon which is on the way to Bryce Canyon National Park. From Panguitch you head south on US89 and then turn off on UT 12 - which is probably one of the most scenic highways in the country. We traveled it from end to end, and much of that will be documented here.

We'll call this one - Honey In The Mirror - there will be more of these as we go along. With her own camera now she can take some pictures as we roll along and so we'll get some shots we'd otherwise miss. If I stopped every time I saw a picture we'd never get anywhere :))

05/26/09 - Bryce Canyon National Park. We take a lot of pictures so it's often an hour or two just sorting through them and deciding which ones are worth saving. This was in my opinion the shot of the day and the award for the day goes to the Honey.

Between us we had over 100 photos for the day and we finally cut that down to 4 or 5 pictures for each of us in the Keeper pile - and the rest we flushed into the trash can.

05/26/09 - here's my contribution for the day. As with everything blow these pictures up to really appreciate them The wonder of the Hoodoo's is worth seeing. We both sometimes feel overwhelmed by the immensity of the scenery here. How do you really capture the beauty of it all - it's hard but we do try :))

This is called the Ampitheatre and the picture hardly does it justice. Take a moment to just let both of these shots sink in.

05/27/09 - Yesterday we did Bryce Point and Inspiration Point. They're both at 8100 feet. Today we decided to start at the end of the park road, Rainbow Point and the highest point in the park. So here's the honey with the view behind her at 9100 feet. We walk a little slow and stop now and then for her to catch her breath - but we're here and both awe struck by the beauty of the place.  And now that honey has a camera you have to suffer with pictures of me as well :~0

05/27/09 -Here's the view out behind the honey. It's hard to take it all in. No matter which way you look there's some new sight you want to capture. Below. looking another direction - like I said, no matter which way you look :))

05/27/09 - This was on the way back down from Rainbow Point and I call this one Hoodoo Meeting :).

Blow it up and take a look, there's a couple groups there in a huddle discussing things, then there's the podium over there on the right where the Hoodoo leader will soon appear to call the meeting to order. What do you suppose Hoodoo's talk about and remember they're on a little different time schedule than us. Their days are numbered in centuries and their minutes in decades.

This is a wonderland so you just have to let your imagination soar here.

05/28/09 - The mission for the day was to hike the 1/2 mile rim trail from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point. So here's the honey at the start of the trail. You'll notice she's carrying her own air and her water :)) This is at 8100 feet.

The plan is to hike over to Sunrise Point, have our picnic and then I'll walk back, get the bike and ride over to pick her up.

5/28/09 - We walked on across and Sheila decided on the other end that she was feeling good and wanted to walk back.

We started looking for a spot for our picnic and thought this one was a good one so we sat for a few taking in the view and decided that a little sunnier spot might be more enjoyable - it was a little windy and without the sun warming you up it was down right chilly. So we moved a little futher down the rim trail and foun a bench in the sun.

5/28 here's the vew from our new picnic bench :))

No matter where you stopped along the rim trail there was a view and the interesting thing is that you can move a few feet one way or the other and the view changes. The shadows move and the highlights move and the whole scene seems to change.

If you've never been here this is definitely a place worth seeing.

05/31/09 - We decided to take Friday and Saturday off (29th & 30th) as the weather was pretty iffy and we needed to catch up on some chores, work, etc. Sunday the weather was still iffy so we decided to take the car, there are roads made for a sports car :)) - We ran up to Boulder to visit the Anasazi State Park Museum. The ruins were disappointing, but they have a 20 minute film that was really good.  So no shots of the ruins, they've barely excavated the area and there just wasn't anything worth a picture.

This picture is on a pull out on the way into boulder. The signs explain a little about the history of the valley which lays out before you as you come down the hill into the town. If you stop by here there's a resturant off the main road, Boulder Mesa Resturant, it's worth a visit.

05/31/09 - The drive however was noteworthy :)) This is almost as much fun in the car (with the top down of course) as it is on the bike.

The shot at the left is of a little stretch of road they call the "Hogback" and it's short, but it runs across a ridge in the mountains that's no wider than the road with a steep drop off on either side. The shot below showe the road winding up one of the hills - fun drive.

6/2/09 - Monday (6/1) stayed home to work :( - still have to do that occassionally. But on Tuesday we got out for our last ride in this area (at least for this year). We were going to rent an ATV and go up to do Hell's Backbone - but the ATV we wanted (a Yamaha Rhino) was already rented, so we decided to go try the trail at Mossy Cave. We hadn't ridden that direction on the UT12 and like most everywhere you get a whole different perspective going the other direction, especially on the bike.

Here's a shot from the trail. We didn't make it all the way to the cave (brought the wrong air bottle), but Sheila walked a littler over 1/2 mile up at 7100 feet with some steep grades along the way that was really good - We'll bring the big bottle next time and make it all the way ;))

6/2/09 - It was still early so we decided to go check out Kodachrome State Park. This would be a fun park to explore if we were staying here - lots of trails to walk, but with the time we had left that day, we had out picnic there and just drove around - there's a lot to see just from the road.