Moab to Bryce Canyon

Last of Moab
Saturday Sept 28 A Windy day in Moab! Red dust is everywhere. We drove out Rt 128 which is the road we went up to take the raft trip. It is a spectacular drive along the Colorado River

 We saw many off the rock cliffs we'd seen on the other trip but also new sites.

This area is where many western movies have been filmed. We ate at the Mexican restaurant again and it was just as good as the first time and returned to the campsite and inhaled a lot of red dust as the wind blew and blew. No gas fire in the firepit tonight.

Sunday Sept 29 We did laundry before leaving the KOA and waited for check in time at the Hotel Moab which is right in the center of town. We parked on the street and took a walk along the creek that runs through town.

We drove out to Moonflower Canyon again to park in the shade and stayed there a while.
We ate lunch at Antica Forma, a good pizza place. Perfect small pizza and salad.
We tried checking into the hotel but the room wasn't ready yet so we sat in the van and waited. It was almost 4:00 before we could check in. As usually happens we stayed in the room all evening.

Monday Sept 30 Finally the day has arrived to bring the van to the shop to have the ball joints replaced. But we get to the parking lot and the van is blocked in by a car. We find the person whose car it is but the keys are with someone who is at breakfast. The woman goes off to find them and I go up to get the garage's phone number. When I come back Will has managed to extract the van from the spot. We went off to the garage but I felt bad all day that we inconvenienced the people who blocked us in.
After dropping off the car we walked to breakfast at the Jailhouse Cafe again. I had the spinach and feta omelette which was lovely. Will had the Eggs Benedict again.
We returned to the room to await word on the car. It was 3:00 before it was ready but it was only $550 which was right in the ballpark of the quote, so no surprises.
Will immediately noticed the difference in how it handled.
We went to the Moab Brewery for one last meal and it was crazy busy but we managed to get seats at the bar and enjoyed a good meal. It was windy again in the campground.

Tuesday Oct 1 after stocking up on supplies in Moab we headed south, intending to go to Hite Campground on Lake Powell. The scenery as we drove was great. We passed the Wilson Arch:

and many interesting features like this:

There was also a lot of construction. We just missed a 1.5 hour road closure for blasting. We saw this guy on top of the rocks using a jackhammer:

We got to Blanding and visited the  Edge of the Cedars State Park
which was an interesting site of early Pueblo dwellings. you could go inside one of the kivas but it seemed like a difficult ladder to navigate so we didn't try. I also didn't take any pictures here for some reason.
We also stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument which was a nice drive around an amazing canyon but it was difficult to see the bridges from up high and the walks down to them seemed trecherous.

 We did have a good view of Bears Ears National Monument, though

and I did manage to capture one of the bridges:

 
Scenery continued to impress us. We're driving over a bridge here

This panorama was taken at a roadside stop a few miles further along. Difficult to see is the bridge we'd crossed earlier

We got to Hite and decided to keep going to Hanksville as we'd read there were no services at Hite and the once waterfront campground was now high and dry.
We saw the campground at an overlook:

 You can see the boat ramp that goes nowhere. To the left is the campground looking extremely bleak. Good call to move on.
We ended up at Duke's Grill and Campground in Hanksville.

Nothing fancy but we could walk to the restaurant and we had a fire ring.

Wednesday Oct 2 Another amazing day. We drove to Capital Reef National Park where we drove the Scenic Drive and hiked the Capital Gorge trail

We saw the petroglyphs

 And the 'Pioneer Registry', names of pioneers carved into the cliffside

We hiked almost 2 miles, amazing cliffs surrounding us.
We had thought we might stay in the campground there but it was full so we moved on. It was still pretty early.
We ended up driving through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument which had amazing views (I swear this is not a painting):

 and some scary parts.

 Yikes!

We stayed in  Escalante at the Canyon Campground with a restaurant right next door which was very good.

Thursday Oct 3 Continued on to Bryce Canyon

Checked into Ruby's Campground. Ruby's family owns pretty much everything in Bryce Canyon City and is responsible for the start of tourism here. In addition to this large campground there is an enormous inn, 3 restaurants, one with dinner and a show, and a general store that combines a large gift shop with a grocery store and just about anything a camper would need. We decided to stay for 3 nights so we'd have a place on Saturday night. We walked over to the restaurant which was serving lunch and had a meal. I had the soup and salad bar, Will had a steak. We picked up a few necessities at the grocery and walked back and laid low for the rest of the day.

Had a campfire and a nice view of the stars but went to bed early.

Friday Oct 4 Happy Birthday, Will! We packed some sandwiches and snacks and took the shuttle into the park to Bryce Point. We hiked 3 miles to Sunrise Point.

The views were amazing and the hiking felt treacherous at times but it was very safe, although there was no railing at all most of the time.

 We found the hike challenging because of the altitude, over 8000ft at the beginning and over 7600ft in the campground. It went up and down a bit but others didn't seem as fatigued as we were. We ended up hiking almost 3 miles. We loved it but were glad to stop when we did. We took showers when we got back and went back to the restaurant. I had the mushroom ravioli which was very good. Will had the spaghetti which was only ok. He's owed a better birthday dinner once we get to a better restaurant selection.
Another campfire and then to bed early because it was getting cold. It was 25 outside this morning. 45 inside the van but we were comfortable under the covers.

Saturday Oct 5 Another day in Bryce but we were lazy getting up since it was so cold. We got it up to 55 while making coffee but after we each made a trip to the bathroom it was down to about 49 so we just stayed under the covers until it warmed up. I worked on this blog entry.
We took showers and did laundry. We've got some leftovers so we're going to have them for dinner instead of another trip to the same restaurant.
It is in the low 60's now but feels warmer in the sun. We're sitting outside but planning an earlier campfire than usual.
Finishing this up now and we'll be on our way to Zion in the morning and I'll post again when I get the chance.