Yesterday we left Zion around 8:30am and drove east. Our first stop was at Bryce Canyon National Park, just a little after 10am. This park has a variety of overlooks and hikes around things called Hoodoos, and they are uniquely shaped pillars of red rocks and dirt.
Bryce also had a really good gift shop. I am very impressed with all the gift shops in the National Parks system. Sometimes they have stuff that repeats, but there are always new things to look at at every location that both apply to the specific park and just to nature in general.
{The town right outside of Bryce is REALLY cute! They have teepees you can stay in and other campgrounds, a rodeo weekly from Wed-Sat in April through October and an old west town. I wish we would have known, but we had to fly through. SO, if you find yourself in Bryce, plan on spending some extra time there!}
We left Bryce around 12pm and figured we'd find something along the way to eat. The problem is that the small towns are mainly run by Mormons (it's Utah!) and so most of the stuff was closed. However, around mile post 73 on State Route 12 (in the middle of nowhere), we found Kiva Koffee House. A kiva is a native american word for a shelter built into the ground, and their sign said they served lunch. I think it's been my FAVORITE random stop on this trip!
{You can't see this from the road. All you can see is the sign.}
It was a beautiful circular restaurant built into the side of the rock, overlooking the rocky desert landscape. There was a fire pit in the center, but no chimney because the smoke goes out the center of the roof. The food was served by and live music played by very laid back people... aka hippie-types, and it was SO cool because of that. If you find yourself in this area check it out!
After lunch we continued on to Capitol Reef National Monument (this is a FREE national park) and this is also when the storms started rolling in. Dark skies and thunder accompanied us through this park.
{Can you find Brian in this picture?}
It had more uniquely shaped rock and also some of the original buildings from the original settlers (Mormons).
They also had some petroglyphs...
They also have some rocks that are "waterfold" (I don't really understand what it means though I've read about it a couple times), but at the viewing point it started to pore down rain and hail.
So, we said goodbye to Capitol Reef and finished our drive to Moab (just outside of Arches National Park). We checked into our hotel, the Moab Valley Inn, and then walked around town. There are lots of neat shops and restaurants. Because of the storms going on, there was also a beautiful sunset (that we could only see glimpses of) and a double FULL rainbow. It was beautiful. We got pizza from a place called Paradox (DELICIOUS) and pretty much collapsed into our lovely hotel bed. We're heading into Arches today!
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