Today we plan a trip to some nice places just outside Bryce Canyon. Breakfast at the “Ruby’s Inn” and we leave around 8.40am for “Bull Valley Gorge”. Twenty minutes later we arrive at the exit we needed to take for the gorge but unfortunately it is closed. We drive to our second stop “Grosvenor Arch”. Ten minutes later we arrive at the exit but this is also closed! This is disappointing. The last days it had been raining here so the dirt roads are dangerous so it is good that they are closed.

Further on this road we arrive at the “Kodachrome Basin State Park”. We stop at the Visitor Center and have a chat with some volunteers. We ask them, because of the bad weather and as part of our trip is now cancelled, if there is a shopping center in the neighborhood. For a mall we have to drive to Cedar City. We will discuss that later on... We pay the entrance fee and enter the State Park. About twenty minutes later, having seen everything, we leave the park. Hmmm... not really worth it, only a campground, a “Spire Rock” and a “Chimney Rock”. We are used to more! We have decided, we drive to Cedar City!

After a two hours drive, a bit before Cedar City we arrive at a gas station and inform where we can find this mall. It is a bit further on near the “lighthouse”. Once there we park our car and enter the mall. After half an hour and somewhat disappointed, we look for a diner as we are hungry. We enter “Applebee’s” where it is very busy but nice. It is full of young soccer fans with the parents and the television is playing as the USA is playing a match for the world championship. We had a nice meal and when we look around us what people have eaten it is not surprising that the youth is not looking so sharp...

When we leave, we first have a coffee at the local “Starbucks” and have a quick visit at the “Tandy” store to inform for the first time about the iPad. This gadget is sold out and, for now, nowhere to be found.

Around 3pm we drive back to Bryce. On our way back we notice something! When we drove to Cedar City earlier we crossed the “Sevier River” that was quite dry at that time but now it is a fast flowing river! This is why you see signs everywhere warning for “flash floods” en you have to be extremely careful when walking between rocks, cracks and rivers when it is raining in the (even far) surroundings. In the meantime we are having some hail here but a bit later it is clearing up again. It is now only 3,8°C.

Around 4.45pm we are back in Bryce and decide to drive again through this park. By 7pm we are back in our hotel, enjoying a hot shower and preparing for dinner at the “Ruby’s Inn”. Again the food is good and the four of us are sharing one “Bronco Buster Brownie” as it is so large. We are sharing one but looking around us you see that other people are not so into sharing but rather greedy!

Daytrip approx. 435 km