Day 26/27...Kanab, UT (Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon National Park)

Yesterday we arrived in Kanab, Utah, where we are making home until tomorrow morning.  It is in a pretty good location for visiting two of Utah's National Parks.  Our Best Western is about 45 minutes from Zion, so we decided to drive over there yesterday after we arrived around 2:30.  We went straight to the Visitor's Center (as usual), since we had limited time and wanted to get some help on choosing the best hiking trail.  Zion also requires that you leave your car in the lot and use their free shuttle service to get around the park - easy for us and better for the park environment.  Zion is made up of towering sandstone cliffs in a beautiful range of reds and pinks.

We intended on choosing a moderate level trail because, for some reason, we assume that's our level.  Our ranger actually suggested a more strenuous trail, saying it was best for views.  We verified that we'd be able to handle it and set off for the shuttle to the Grotto stop, where Angel's Landing would start.  It's 2.5 miles total and we were told if we stopped about 1 mile up, we would be fine (after that point, you need to hold onto chains to keep steady...no thanks.)  It was still pretty hot and we hadn't eaten since breakfast...what were we thinking?  We got about 20 minutes into the very steep hike and realized we were just not prepared.  So, sadly, we headed back down and decided to grab the shuttle to the Lower Emerald Pools trail, which is just .5 mile round trip and moderate.  I don't think we can say enough about the thin air in this part of the country...it sounds silly when you hear about it, but experiencing it is a different story.  Moderate in Utah is equivalent to strenuous in the Smokey Mountains :)  The trail ended at a small pool of water with a waterfall, fed by both Upper and Middle Emerald Pools...as a bonus, we got to see some more mule deer.  From there, we did one more quick walk up to a viewpoint for some photos and then headed back to our car...we were starving.

After arriving back at the room, we did some quick tripadvisor.com research and found the Rewind Diner just down the block.  It was a cute red and white 50's style diner with a pretty extensive menu, so it was a nice find here in small-town Utah.

We woke up this morning and found out we missed free breakfast!  No good...so, we went down the block to Linda Lea's Cafe for some breakfast sandwiches and coffee (we were talked into getting bagels, New York style, of course...so sad) and headed out for our 1.5 hour drive to Bryce Canyon National Park.  Bryce Canyon is less of a canyon than the name suggests (not created by a river or other waterway), but even the park website has a hard time describing itself...it's made up of hoodoos created by the erosion of a plateau.  So, there.  Definitely the most unique of the parks we've been to.  The drive wasn't too bad and we got to the park around 11:00.  They also offer a free shuttle service, but it doesn't begin until May 7, so we needed to take our car around.  We decided to try the 2.9 mile Queen's Garden/Navajo Loop Trail, which goes down into the canyon and back up.  That's the trick about canyon hiking...you have to do the hard part last.  We started out great and made it to a point called Two Bridges, which is a steep rocky area.  We sat on some downed tree branches and had some apples to celebrate our accomplishments to that point, as we looked up at the barely visible trail and the scary ascent ahead of us.  We started up and realized it was going to be much more difficult than we realized and we couldn't even see the pathway out, so I stayed back, clinging to the rock wall, while Andy went ahead to check it out.  Huh...there was no exit...we went the wrong way...apparently Two Bridges is just for looking, not for hiking.  Super.  We made the scary, scary trek back down, somehow, and continued on.  The last leg of the hike was a zigzag climb to the top of the canyon - this was when the thin air really started to bother me and I had to stop at almost every turn.  Finally, we made it!  Great success, as they say.  Naturally, we had a .5 mile walk back to the car, but we were just happy to be back at the top.  So, we stopped at a picnic area for lunch and then decided to take the 15 mile drive out to the southern end of the park, Rainbow Point, to check out the views and then head back to the hotel to rest before dinner.  Bryce Canyon had kicked our butts.

We spent so much time researching future hotels for our trip that we didn't realize it was almost 8:00 PM by the time we decided to search for dinner...we embarrassingly landed at McDonalds.  Not much to say about that other than the fact that they had no fries ready, so we had to wait for them to make more...that was a first for us.  Happy Cinco de Mayo!