Bryce Canyon

Day 40 - We were excited to love Zion via the famous tunnel.  We had driven through it a few days back, but Carson fell asleep before we left the Campground.  He had been talking about the tunnel for the past 3 days, and it didn't disappoint.

The tunnel has a series of windows cut out for spectacular views.

On the other side of the tunnel the landscape is completely different.  Instead of sharp towers and peaks, the land is changed to wind blown checkerboard mesas.

I can just imagine what the Mormon settlers thought as they were traveling through these interesting geological phenomenon, then dropped into the incredible Zion Canyon.  

We drove a few miles out of the way to visit Cedar Breaks National Monument for picnic lunch and earn another Junior Ranger badge.

It's amazing how these places just pop out of nowhere.  I loved this tried to zoom in on the arch...can you find it?

On the way back, we crossed over a volcanic eruption and the boys collected a lava rock each.  Our rock collection has multiplied exponentially this trip.  

This was literally less than 5 miles from Cedar Breaks.

We loaded up again and headed our short 60 miles to Bryce Canyon National Park.  Carson was happy that we had two more little tunnels to cross under through the Red Canyon arriving into the park.

We unhitched the casita for our one night stay at Bryce and headed immediately to the visitor center.  Unfortunately, we arrived just as the Junior Ranger talk was finishing and it was totally crazy.  Bryce Canyon must be a stop on the European www.cruiseamerica.com tour because there were Europeans everywhere for this little park.  

We loaded the shuttle and headed to the famous lookouts.  By this point the boys were DONE!  It had been a long day, everyone was tired of seeing things....it gets quite overwhelming for your brain to take it all in.

We made it back to the campsite for a quick dinner, frisbee with the German kids at the next campsite, and drive to the Bryce Canyon Lodge for the evening Ranger talk about the sounds of Bryce.

Stick a fork in us, we're DONE!!!!  

Tomorrow we head to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!