We headed to Zion NP for our first taste of the great American Parks. Zion is situated on the edge of a great raised chunk of plateau (that happens to contains a lot of other Parks) and over time the Virgin River has been able to carve a deep, narrow channel back up into said plateau. The Park is littered with walks of all difficulties, from a simple flat 1km walk into 'The Narrows' to the tortuous 6 hour hike to 'Observation Point'. Obviously Audrey and I are in no state to complete anything above 'easy' so we stuck with a few of the more smaller walks which were still outstanding. As far as NP's go its pretty small but packs a huge punch and is rightly regarded as one of America's premier Park. For us it was our first time 'vanning' in the wild and we were a little unsure of the rules. We first checked out the campsites in Zion but there were all full so then we consulted our 'how to camp in America' book to see what the rules were. Still unsure we parked up next to the Activity Center and went to sleep. After our walk the following day, we drove passed the place we slept to find that it had been roped off; we were obviously not supposed to sleep there !!
That afternoon we drove over to Bryce NP, another place that is ranked high on peoples to do list. Once again it is on the edge of the plateau but here, unlike Zion which was hard rock, Bryce had softer sedimentary rock which led to the water and wind leaving an unearth y, alien look about it. Pinnacles where everywhere, deep valleys between them and juniper pines growing throughout it all. Truth is we both thought it was a little bit like Cappadocia in Turkey just without the human interaction. We learnt our lesson from Zion and found a nice little spot just outside Bryce NP in the Dixie National Forest and pulled up for the night ... a bloody freezing night as it turned out. Have you ever tried taking a piss with your hands frozen and shaking everywhere? Well I now have.
In the morning I set-up the cooker - not so much to cook breakfast - but to just get warm and have my morning coffee. But as we have found out so far, once the sun is up and you are in its rays it does become warm. This morning we went for the 'Rim Walk' which took us along the edge of eroded section to all the lookouts; sunrise, sunset, inspiration, bryce, of which each had its own special view of the chaos the nature has left behind. At the Bryce Observation Point we then headed down into the spires and valley for a nice hike in and around them. Up, down, around and through we went until after about 4 km's we then needed to head back up to the top of the rim. I had forgot that what went down must come up. The place was called 'Wall Street' and it was switchback after switchback wedge between some large sandstone walls. We were nacked, I think we stopped 4 times on the way up this 1km track. Embarassing especially when these older types were tearing passed us seeming on a Sunday stroll. We took the opportunity to have a shower and wash our clothes at the General Store, just so we don't stink that much.
The next place on our list was Capital Reef NP, a little bit further along the road. On the way something that both Audrey and myself remarked was how much the scenery can change so quickly. 1 minute you are driving along a grass plane, the next you are going down and through a rock canyon before exiting into mountain forest. It was getting late so we drove into the Dixie NF, on the slopes of Mt Boulder and found this picture perfect place to camp. Surrounded by the yellow leaves that come along in Autumn with a babbling brook to our left, perfect. Still cold though. To cold to even cook in the morning, we set off early. Capitol Reef NP is just another Park that was formed in the early 1900's due to its natural beauty ... and the fact that its useless for any type of farming and therefore was left alone during the expansion across America. It is a long and narrow park because it main feature is an escarpment that runs for over 100km's but due to that it has formed some spectacular narrow canyons and arches that are worth the walk. But we had more important places to visit which meant that we had to get going. Grand Teton and Yellowstone, we'll see you soon.