Day Thirteen

Today was the middle day of three in Utah, with another two parks tackled. We woke up and had free muffins, provided by the campground we stayed at. We then headed out toward Capitol Reef, the middle of the five Utah parks we planned to hit. We knew it would be a driving park more than a hiking park, and we knew that we wanted to spend way more time in Bryce Canyon than at Capitol Reef, but I don't know that either of us thought we'd be in the park less than an hour. I did manage to snap some good-ish landscape pics, though.

They also had some petroglyphs (just like at Petrified Forest and Canyon de Chelly) -- these ones from the Fremont people.

More views.

We then drove to Bryce Canyon, which was only 128 miles away but took like three hours, because Utah Route 12 is the curviest road I think I've ever driven on. So curvy, in fact, that it sorta reminded me of Nürburgring, except I was driving a Ford Focus instead of a souped up Ferrari.

We stopped in a Subway because I was very hungry and to our surprise they had a DELICIOUS new bread (well, delicious for Subway, really good for bread in general): rosemary and sea salt. "That's a game changer, Subway," said Tom.

We finished the drive to Bryce, got a gameplan from a park ranger, and started doing our thing. Like we'd done in previous parks, we drove to the very end and worked our way back. Cool views from the start.

I think this would be a nice baby Christmas tree.

Another view.

Then we saw a raven just hanging out and eating bugs off my car's grill.

More views.

Natural bridge. (More arches.)

Grottos:

Hoodoos:

We ended the day with the Sunset - Navajo loop trail, which is a 3 mile hike and the park's most popular one. Some views from there:

Mule deer!

Queen Victoria formation:

The mule deer are back!

Some little weirdo rock formation. Not natural, for sure, so I don't know why it was like this. Reminiscent of the Fairy Garden in Carlsbad.

Thor's Hammer! Just in time for The Avengers!