Oregon to Utah

We bid farewell to Pris and Bill on Thursday 4^th June and headed on our way east through central Oregon and the Scenic Byway to John Day. Along the way, we visited Painted Hills and the colours were amazing,

Then on to Sheep Rock and the Thomas Condon Palaeontology Museum to look at fossils in the area and more fabulous scenery

Then through Picture Gorge

And on into Idaho. Along the way we stopped at Craters of the Moon. These are definitely volcanic in origin, but there was no volcano to be seen. The lava is from a number of deep fissures known as the Great Rift.

Next stop, Salt Lake City in Utah. We had a look around Temple Square and Mark was very well behaved, leaving me to converse with the Missionaries and the views of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (aka Mormons). We learnt a lot about Brigham Young and how he led the Mormons from the eastern states where they were being persecuted and to settle in Salt Lake City. The Temple was really impressive, more so given that it was carved out of granite with hand tools and stones moved by oxen before the railroad was built.

Inside the Tabernacle was lovely although didn’t get to hear the choir rehearse (they only rehearse on Thursdays and we were there on Monday). The organ has more than 11,000 pipes – that must be something to hear.

We took a day trip up to the mountains to Park City in the hope that there might still be snow and it would be cooler than down in SLC. All the snow had gone but it was certainly cooler. We were there about 15 years ago and the town has changed since it hosted the winter Olympics in 2002

Time now to head west, past the Great Salt Lake and to Bonneville Salt Flats and into Nevada past the famous Wendover Will

We spent a couple of nights in a one horse town called Baker so we could visit the Great Basin National Park and Lehman Caves. The Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive rose from 7,000 feet to 10,000 feet and the views were great. Unfortunately, there was a storm coming so the photos aren’t as clear as I would have liked

Lehman Caves were discovered in 1885 and are around 600 million years old and some of the formations were quite remarkable

The Park Rangers gave an astronomy talk in the evening and had two telescopes set up so we could look at the stars. Saturn was amazing as it’s currently tilted on its side so the rings are highly visible.

Back into Utah and down to St George. From here we visited Zion National Park for 3 days and did a number of hikes. The temperatures were 100F/40C plus, so we tried to get an early start and finish our hikes by lunch time. The mountains were stunning and photos don’t really do them justice

One day we did the Riverside walk and into The Narrows, where the trail is actually the river! We did it in hiking sandals (even though you’re supposed to wear boots) and our feet and legs were lovely and cool – probably for the first time in a week

From St George, we also visited Snow Canyon State Park. Such a remarkable landscape as you don’t normally see petrified sand dunes and lava fields all on the same hike

And this is how hot it was when we got back to Badger!

We left the heat of St George and headed north to the cooler realms of Bryce Canyon. At 8,000 feet, it’s at least 10C cooler than St George, but we still needed to start our hikes early. We thought Zion was magnificent but Bryce was on a different scale completely. The rock formations were incredible, both from above and when we hiked into the canyons, from below.

This was the view from the rim looking down into Bryce Amphitheater 

Sunrise point

Natural Bridge

And down we go, into the Queens Gardens

And to Queen Victoria

Then around the Navajo loop to Two Bridges

and back up again

Past Thor’s Hammer

The Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival is also happening this week, so we’ve been hiking during the day and attending talks and looking through some of the 40 telescopes (all amateur astronomers mainly from St George and Salt Lake City) in the evening. As well as seeing Saturn and Jupiter, we’ve been able to see the Butterfly Cluster, the Ring nebula, the Glob nebula, the Dumb-bell nebula and lots of others I can’t remember.

Our current neighbours are from Texas and belong to the Dutch Oven Group. Every year the group has a national competition (a cook off using these cast iron pots over a charcoal fire), and this year its here in Bryce City. There are various categories and we were invited to breakfast this morning. There were lots of cinnamon rolls, French toast and Mountain Men (potatoes, eggs, meat and whatever the cook wants to throw into the pot). We were completely stuffed by the end of it. We’ve also been invited to dinner this evening, so it should be fun seeing what’s on offer.

Tomorrow we hit the road again and head toward Page in Arizona and Lake Powell, and the excessive heat!