Utah - Part 3

From Moab, we headed south to get to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We passed by Monument Valley in full moon light that was so bright you could make out features on the towers - it was like muted daylight and gorgeous. We split up the drive to the GC by staying a night in Kayenta, AZ and then drove up to the North Rim from there. Here is Kim, the Grand Canyon and the San Francisco Peaks in the far background. The sun was really bright.

We stayed a night at a campground just outside of the National Park and had our first really cold night. The water bottles froze and frost covered everything. So we split back to Utah and went to Bryce Canyon to see the crazy HooDoos Every new park we went to was more impressive than the last and each is so unique.

The other thing to consider is that the little newspaper style guide you get at the park entrance that has all of the main hiking trails, is written for the "average" tourist that would visit the park. Some of the recommendations the park service makes about time to hike, footwear reguired and other info is aimed (potentially) at the people in the parking lot standing around you.

The hiking is fantastic and the thing that was the hardest for me was the difference in elevations between Portland and everywhere else we went.

I'm going to save my favorite park for the next Utah post - stay tuned.