At the end of the Rainbow

I never thought how much I could fall in love with a country. The states I've seen so far have all been beautiful, but Utah really takes the cake. I've never in my life seen such a diverse flora and fauna within just a few miles. We drove through red rocks, sandstone, grass and forests, we saw cattle, deer, pronghorns and chipmunks... But most impressive of all was once more how you can drive for an hour without encountering a single settlement. In my opinion, that just makes the country so much more beautiful. As far as the eye can see, there's nothing more than marvelous landscapes without even the slightest sign of human intervention - no houses, no roads, nothing.

I write about that, because on our way to the Bryce Canyon N.P. we stopped at so many scenic view areas, that I lost count of them. One place was even more magnificent than the place before. The roads we drove on were stunning as well, with one bend after another. We were in Biker Heaven.

A highly interesting

place to visit was the Anasazi State Park Museum in Boulder. Not only did we see artefacts from the earliest Native American villages, but also a large excavation site with remnants of a pueblo. How fascinating that was!

We arrived at our hotel quite early at about 1 am, where we were told that we could visit the Bryce Canyon N.P. on our own. Nice! My mates and I grabbed something to eat at a nearby bakery and off we went to the National Park. The ranger at the ticket booth told us how lucky we were, because if we had come a month earlier we would've encountered two weeks of constant rain. Apparently, we brought the good weather with us! ;-)

Equipped with a map we started our 18 mile long journey up to the very southern end, the so-called Rainbow Point. There we got a

good view of the sequence of rock layers called the Grand Staircase, the Kaibab forest in the distance and just miles and miles of beautiful scenery. (I'm really running out of synonyms for 'beautiful'...)
We spent quite some time there and then decided to stop at 4 viewing areas on our way back to the Visitor Center: Ponderosa Canyon, Natural Bridge, Swamp Canyon and Inspiration Point. It was all just so incredible...

And again, the people here...! An elderly American saw us returning to our bikes at Natural Bridge, came straight up to us and asked if we already got a picture of our group with the Harleys in it, because he'd love to take one for us! How very sweet of him!

Of course, we also stopped by the Visitor Center to do some quick shopping before returning to our hotel. After dinner I spent the evening in the jacuzzi with Vasi. We talked on and on about happiness in life, about family and friends. He said that in the end, work is just a necessity to fulfill your dreams, may that be travelling, raising a family or something completely different. True happiness only comes from within. The minutes, hours and days that you let fly by because you're too busy being stressed over work are never

coming back. You have to live every moment doing what you love, not worrying about what might (or never might) be. That's some quality advice right there and I hope that I can embrace it in the long run...