Day 19 - August 1

Today was a day scheduled all in Utah, and it was to be a day of Canyons.

From Torrey, we picked up UT12 - designated as "an all american road, a journey through time scenic byway". I must admit it was a beautiful ride, all the way from Torry through to the connection to Hwy 89 near Panguitch, but perhaps we were spoiled yesterday.

In terms of "wow' factor, I would say that the combination of UT95/24 that we did yesterday was higher on the "awesomeness" scale t han

today's ride.

Just east of Panguitch, we took a detour into Bryce Canyon National Park. It was a very busy place, even for a weekday, but we did manage to make it to quite a number of the lookouts - they were recommending that people park their vehicles and take the shuttle through the park due to the low availability of parking spaces.

After a lunch at the Bryce Canyon Pines restaurant - and an awesome piece of banana/blueberry cream pie - we headed south on Hwy 89 to our motel in Mt Carmel - an 8 room unit, run by a young couple.

Since it was still early, we unloaded our gear and headed out to Zion National Park - just about 25 miles away. What an awesome place

that is too! And busy :-(. I can't even begin to wonder what both Bryce Canyon and Zion was like on a a weekend!

We were in two canyons today, but each had their own separate viewpoints - we were up high at Bryce, looking down into the canyon, whereas at Zion we were in the bed of the canyon looking up at the top. Both are beautiful though.

We did see quite a bit of wildlife today - from a pack of deer on the side of the road to a herd of cows also on the side of the road, to some bighorn sheep atop the hills of Zion NP.

Since we had a big lunch, we just picked up some snacks and that turned out to be dinner back at the motel... outdoors, enjoying the great temperatures and the view around us.