Pacific To Atlantic - Day 2 - Zion & Bryce NP

Dec 24th 2008, Wednesday 11:31pm Christmas Eve
RoadTrip Diary - Day 2 - Zion and Bryce NP

Got up around 7:30am,.. Yesterday night was pretty hectic.. slept around 3:00am.. My eyes were still red from lack of sleep.

From MonteCarlo hotel room window had a nice view of Vegas city, most noticeably the mountain range few miles away... All mountain tops are under snow.. giving a hint of what is on our way today..

For a drive, we were sure abt Zion NP.. but visit to Bryce canyon NP was flaky.. we just wanted to hit Page AZ for night halt.. If Bryce NP wasn't accessible, then plan B of visiting GC NorthRim was also cooking.. but while driving towards Zion, a quick phone call to visitor center at Bryce resolved all doubts.. visitor center ranger mentioned abt excellent weather for today.. lil bit snow.. but all roads are open.. that was assuring enough to add Bryce in our path.. and we decided to visit Bryce NP without any doubt... so now.. with addition of Bryce NP and with good weather, some additional plans regarding Arches NP started floating.. Greed :)... but still wasn't sure enough..

Drive to Zion was fabulous.. I-15 actual leaves Nevada and goes thru Arizona for 30 miles crossing virgin river and then hits Utah at St George.. I wasn't aware abt Arizona.. Those 30 miles in Arizona were awesome.. The drive thru Virgin River canyon was marvelous.. really winding road.. Snow was sprinkled on mountain tops.. Swades song "Yu Hi Chala" was perfect fit for the drive.

Entered Arizona around 11:30am PST and left around 11:55am PST (u.e. 12:55pm MST..lost an hour :) )

Town of Hurricane, just outside Zion was well decorated for Christmas.. somehow it was heavily crowded and with lot of traffic.. but traffic in Zion was really less..

Zion canyon was completely covered under snow.. The vast snow overlays on mountains were completely untouched.. The red rock canyon is beautiful and this time, it was milk white in color.. The color of the road within the canyon is also red.. All of us were overjoyed because of roadside snow.. Stopped to take few pictures, but ended up playing in snow for a while..


Talked with a ranger in Zion and got a green light for Bryce.. She mentioned abt a storm system coming-in tomorrow evening.. so it was indeed better to visit Bryce today rather than tomorrow.. we were indeed lucky.. When asked abt Arches NP, she recommended not to.. Overall, didn't spend much time in Zion canyon.. probably around 45mins.. All of us had seen Zion before, so we really wanted to shoot for Bryce..

Outside Zion, on US-9, everything was under snow.. White color was dominating whole view.. Most of the powdery snow was untouched.. Initially I thought that drive thru snow will be lil bit scary.. but got over it soon and enjoyed the drive.. Also started photo-shooting the scenery while driving :)

Bryce NP was the highlight of day. We reached to Bryce around 4pm.. had 1 hr 20 mins before sunset.. Red Rocks in Dixie forest, outside Bryce, gave a hint of what is coming next.. Drove thru couple of arches o n the way..

The weird shape red rock columns in Dixie forest were indeed interesting.. but when we saw similar structures, but thousands of them together in Bryce NP, all of us were spellbound.. From sunset point, got a clear view of Bryce canyon.. It is simply breathtaking.. Red rock columns are formed because of lot of small river-lets/ice slicing.. giving that typical shape to each column.. each column is itself made up of multiple layers.. Its indeed hard to believe that small river-lets can form such a beautiful canyon..Need to read more..

This canyon is surely smaller than GC.. Its completely different than GC.. but as impressive as GC.. rock formations are surely eye candies.. probabaly in summer Bryce must be more impressive..

All three of us had nice powdery snow-ball fight in freezing 16F weather.. The roadside snow in Zion was lil bit hard.. but this was pure powder..completely un-touched.. I tasted it also :) ..

Wanted to hike thru the Navajo trail lil bit, but wasn't very successful in snow.. bit risky and tiring too..

Visited Inspiration point.. It indeed shows the vastness of all red rock columns from 8100 ft. Probably out of all viewpoints we visited in Bryce, this was the best view for Bryce.. After spending some time at inspiration point looking at the canyon, I realized the aptness of the name "inspiration point"



Bryce point is another viewpoint which shows the real depth of the canyon. Few arch caves on other side were also impressive.. Had a nice binocular observing session here.. It was fun observing each rock column and its layers with high magnification..

At Bryce point, it started snowing.. first time in my life, I saw snow flakes.. I was getting hyper at every moment :).. the bus-stop next to parking lot was completely under snow.. and by the time we returned to our car from Bryce point, it was under thin snow layer..

Left Bryce canyon around 6pm...

Because of nice weather, thoughts of Arches NP started poping up.. Its 6 hrs drive from Bryce thru US-89 and I-70.. It was the decision time.. Page or Arches NP? For confirmation, called Shaan and checked weather conditions at various locations on I-70 for tomorrow.. Called Nitin to let him know the changed plan.. Page was completely canceled and monument valley is postponed for a day..

The drive on US-89 in dark was indeed tiring.. Hitting a rabbit on the way, made me awake and had to focus on the road..

While driving on I-70, we realized that all restaurants were closed because of Christmas eve.. Nothing was open.. Was really frustrated just being on breakfast.. Only choice was going to Moab, next to Arches, and eating at Dennys.. There wasn't any other big place till Green River on I-70, ~110miles away..

Higher elevations on our I-70 drive also made us realize how bad weather can get.. The I-70 drive itself goes thru mountains and it started snowing heavily at around 7000 ft.. Though the speed limit was 70mph, we were driving at 40mph.. Visibility was around a mile.. Though it was just 7:30pm, it was pitch dark.. It was bit scary.. As we were unsure about quality of US-191 route towards Moab, we decided to stay in Green River Motel6..

Usual munchies and chocolate milk for dinner.. Thanks for nice dinner Mr Santa :-( !!

Arches NP is just an hour drive away...

Today's Drive: 520 miles
States: NV, AZ, UT
Visited: Zion NP, Bryce NP, Green River village

Total: 870 miles in two days
States: CA, NV, AZ, UT