Friday Potpourri

Greetings once again from Bryce Canyon.  Our storm-ette is finally gone.  It rained from about noon yesterday until just before sunrise this morning.  Susun rallied up to go to the Rim today and enjoyed the light show.  She sure put the Su"sun" in the sunrise! We're waiting for the remaining stray clouds to burn off before heading 13 miles south to the highest point in the park--Yovimpa Point.

They say on a clear day such as we are certain to have today one can see all the way to New Mexico.  Where in New Mexico is a mystery to us so we will go to the Visitor Center to quiz them about this dubious claim.

We hard an interesting story while here.  Susun talk with two different campers who had fled Zion National Park because it was "raining caterpillars." Honest.  They said the caterpillars were dropping out of trees like rain and became so annoying they packed up in a real hurry.  Luckily, it hasn't been raining caterpillars here.

Yesterday was a typical rainy day.  We spent a lot of time in the Lodge lobby.  These people are great here.  They don't care how long WIFI junkies hang out.  One pair of people spent the entire day online yesterday.  We weren't that bad.  It sure was fun with the great big fire and all.

We plan to leave here tomorrow mid-morning.  The idea is to head up to Utah Lake near Provo and camp Saturday night.  That way we can get on the road real early Sunday morning.  By far the vast majority of the Salt Lake area residents will be in church all morning.  Sunday mornings in Salt Lake the I-15 corridor seems almost deserted.  It's MUCH safer to drive through the gauntlet then than any other time.  We ought to be well north of the worst areas by the time everyone leaves church.

We're not sure about the remainder of the day.  We might camp on the north side of the metro area and then head home Monday morning.  On the other hand, we might drive on up Sunday.  There are a lot of options, of course.  The leading options at this point are:

1) Camp at either Willard Bay or Brigham City Sunday so we can drive out to the Golden Spike National Monument Sunday.  That place is a real gem.  We were last there in 2004 and would like to see it again.

2) Camp at Devil Creek Reservoir near Malad.  We have fond memories of that place.  It's the only place on earth we have had a giant steaming baked potato delivered to our camper by someone in a golf cart.

3) Camp at the North Bingham County campground near Shelley.  That's a real sweet spot and would give us a leisure 30 minute drive into home on Monday.

There might be someplace near Pocatello we could camp.  We will check into it.  The main reason for camping someplace Sunday night is that we won't have electricity and water until Monday.  Too many choices.

Our sympathies go out to Wayne Ranney this morning.  Not only did he receive the news about Marilyn yesterday but he also learned of the death of a cherished colleague, Larry Newby, in a Dark Canyon plane crash.  Wayne's photo is featured front and center on a KSL story about the tragic event.  You can click here to read the story.

We will probably check in here at least once more today before going offline until we are home.

Have a great day & Many Cheers!  jp

Here's a three more hiking photos.