Utah - Bryce Canyon

Today the cards did not fall in in the right place for us. The stars were misaligned. The common sense (mine) was not there. The Master Planner has failed. But somehow we still managed to have a good day.
To take it from the beginning. We slept in, which we needed, and missed the breakfast at the hotel, so we went to Mikey's favorite place, McDonalds. He ate a whole breakfast today! pancakes and sausage and half of my hash brown, so we were good. We headed towards Bryce Canyon, 2 1/2 hours away. 30 miles in our trip, I decide to disregard Josie (you met her in my blog from the Florida trip, she's our GPS) and follow the signs on the highway. Fine and dandy, except that as soon as I take the exit Josie is revolting, and keeps trying to get me to turn around. I disregard her, and while I'm arguing with her I probably miss my turn towards the canyon. But stubbornly, I keep blowing her off every time she tells me to turn around, until I end up in the middle of nowhere. We end up driving almost 2 hours through the back country. Is it pretty? yes. Am I in the mood for it? No. I want to hike. And this is not the place. Luckily Mikey is asleep so I don't have to explain to him how comes we still have 2 more hours of driving after we've already been driving for 2 hours. Finally I listen to her and she takes me back to the interstate, and then she shuts off in protest. We find a rest stop and I keep poking her until she finally resets and takes us to Bryce Canyon. On the way we stop for a few minutes in the Red Canyon.

Gorgeous. A tiny glimpse of what we will see when we reach Bryce Canyon.How comes I missed it when I researched our trip? Would I have seen it I would have planned differently, but now we just don't have the time for it. By the time we get there it's past lunch time, so we stop at a diner. EXPENSIVE! Then while I go use the bathroom I hang the back pack on the hook and next thing I know the hook breaks; as the backpack hits the floor I hear - I almost feel - the camera breaking. Great! No pictures today. My cell phone is already dead too. Mikey is happy because this means I won't make him sit still for pictures. Wonderful. We head towards the park. There, big flashing signs: parking lots full, take the shuttle. Not what I wanted, but since we're here we're not turning around just because the parking lots are full. The shuttle comes regularly every 10-15 minutes and does have some stops in the park, but not in all the places I wanted to go and not on the hike I wanted to take Mikey on. I am annoyed. While in the visitor center I manage to lose my sunglasses too, and Mikey finds his attitude so we're all set. I'm fuming. We take another shuttle to Bryce Point. Let me tell you, it is gorgeous. Since I don't have pictures you'll have to take my word for it. It's a panoramic view of the red hoodooms and cliffs below us; it's scary and beautiful at the same time. Mikey puts on a show, I'm about to lose my temper, and we both have a meltdown in this out of this world place. We take the shuttle back to Inspiration Point, and I decide we will hike from there. The path takes us on the rim of the canyon, and again all the beauty is below us. Mikey walks too close to the rim sometimes, which scares me. He complains a lot, but then he starts seeing all kinds of birds and chipmunks, which keeps him occupied and going. I am musing and talk myself into getting it back together. I let go of the fact that the camera is broken and decide to take it all in. This trip will live in my memory only, or, if he's lucky, in Mikey's memory as well. Looking down is like a huge red city, an entry to Hell I would say if it wasn't so beautiful, and my mind goes to Tolkien and his fantastic lands. We hike one mile on top of the world. When we reach the Navajo Loop, which I really wanted to hike, I realize that we have 1/2 hour left until the last shuttle, so we don't have the time to do it. I was planning on driving my car here, and with the park being open 24 hours I thought it would be possible to do it. But the delay on the road, plus the fact that we are a good 2 hours away from our hotel completely change the game. I give it up. We catch the last shuttle to the visitors' parking lot, then head towards Hurricane. I know that on our way in the road was a bit difficult, up and down, lots of tight curves, and I want to drive through there while it's still light outside. But Josie changes her mind about the route, and gives me new directions. I had decided earlier today that I will listen to her since she's better connected than I am, so I follow her. All good, until we end up in Zion National Park (our destination tomorrow) in the dark. And let me tell you, that is a tough road. Tight tight curves, lots of them, I go about 15-20 mph, I can sometimes see the rock and mountain walls right next to us, and in the dark I can only guess the drops on each side of the road. In a way I am glad I can't really see around me, I would probably be scared. It takes me forever to cross it, Mikey is asleep and I seriously consider not making this drive again tomorrow and taking the shuttle instead.
Finally, we're at the hotel, its' almost 11 and Mikey is wide awake now. I keep thinking about today but I am glad we made it to Bryce Canyon. I wish we had more time there, and I wish we had time to see the Red Canyon as well. This was poor planning on my part, we could have done it if I had made reservations closer to it. We had limited time here in Utah and I tried to fit in a lot of destinations, which in this case backfired. I think I will put this on my bucket list and try to come back another time, because today I feel like I only touched the surface of this place, and I wanted more. For our next trip I will plan differently. Till then we have two more days in Utah, and hopefully everything will go smooth.