Yet another glorious morning, although there had been a frost overnight.
We were up early as we had decided to go back to Sunset Point in Bryce Canyon to see the Hoodoos in the early morning light. Neither of us had slept very well after the shock of the election result, so our "early" morning was not quite as early as it might have been.
It was mid morning by the time we got to Sunset Point, but the effort was well worth it. The vista was truly breathtaking.
The car park was crammed with cars and buses and there was a mass of people, mainly French, at Sunset Point so, we walked round the rim of the Canyon to Sunrise Point half a mile away - where there were far fewer people.
From Sunrise Point, there is a trail that leads down in amongst the Hoodoos for about a mile to the "Queen's Garden". What a delight it proved to be. It was fascinating to walk among the vividly coloured Hoodoos as they towered above us.
At the bottom of the trail we found the Queen's Garden and discovered that it was named after Queen Victoria as it is overlooked by a Hoodoo with a close resemblance to the statue outside Buckingham Palace!
We sat down in the "Garden" on a fallen tree to sip some water and get our breath back before starting the long climb back up to the rim. The sound of us unwrapping a chocolate bar attracted a cheeky chipmunk, who ran off and returned moments later with a friend. They were both very bold and were soon climbing all over us. One decided to whisper sweet nothings in M's ear - probably "feed me, please"...
And the other decided that it might like a drink of R's water.
We stayed there for about half an hour as they played around us and on us, until eventually some other people arrived and scared them off. They were so trusting and friendly and very cute.
As we walked back up to the rim, we kept on seeing characters in the stone - in this case Yoda, but there were so many Hoodoos that looked like well known characters or chess pieces. The Indians believed that the Hoodoos were the remnants of an ancient civilisation, whose wicked people were turned to stone - so they also saw the human resemblance.
We have seen many unusual birds on this trip and, on the way back up the trail, we managed to get some good pictures of a Pygmy Nuthatch, a close relative of our UK Nuthatch, but smaller and with less bright plumage. But, just like our native Nuthatch, it was hanging upside down pecking at the tree bark.
It had been quite cold when we started the trail, but now it was getting warmer in the sunshine and walking uphill made us even warmer, so we were quite happy to reach the rim again. But it was with great reluctance that we left this magnificent and magical place.
We drove back through Red Canyon, with its lovely colourful cliffs and even an arch or two (although in this case man made to get the road through).
Back at Panguitch, we parked up and walked up and down the Main Street. A lot of places were closed as it is out of season now. The town was the site of a large brickworks because there is good local clay available. The workers were often paid in bricks, and so built their houses of bricks - a lot of which are still standing.
A photograph on a wall in the town celebrates the fact that Butch Cassidy was born and brought up just north of the town. Many attribute the legend that he refused to kill anyone, to his Mormon upbringing. Butch is on the right and Sundance is on the left.
The cabin where he was born can still be seen just north of the town.
Back at the RV, we had some lunch and were amused to see that the Sheriff, his wife and the Deputy were having lunch in the cafe next to us.
The RV has to be back at the rental place on Friday morning, so we need to be back at David's tomorrow night. We set off north again and drove for a couple of hours. For much of the way, the little River Sevier ran alongside us and M grew very attached to it as it twisted and turned, occasionally with four footed friends drinking from its waters, such as a stag and his does, cattle and (a two footed) heron. It was intriguing that the river often seemed to be flowing uphill as it was very difficult to estimate gradient with the mountains on each side.
R had decided to do as much of the drive as possible on smaller roads, so we went through many small towns, much to M's delight. Eventually, in Richfield, a rather larger town, we found a KOA campsite that was officially closed, but they said that we were welcome to stay and use the hookups. They charged us $22.50 in cash, which basically took all the cash that we had on us including most of our coins!
32,542 miles, 132 miles today and 1,372 miles for the trip so far.
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