Greetings from inside of Bryce Canyon National Park

I only have one thing to say about Bryce Canyon...Awesome.  It is the most incredible place I have ever seen.  We spent 5 hours hiking the most strenuous trail ever.  We down to the bottom of the canyon floor and then back up again many times.  Thank goodness for the walking sticks.  Near the end...when we were out of water...and going straight up...I wondered who we thought we were to take on such a journey.  We did a combination of three trails marked STRENUOUS.  There were several easy and moderate but we thought we were advanced enough to go to the bottom because we now had trekking poles.  We could not have gone 10 feet without the poles.  It was steep up and down, very primitive and we still managed two slips.  Chris went down pretty hard in an area with loose gravel.  There was a nice couple that stopped to help and wouldn't leave till he was able to stand.  We still had about 2 miles to go.  He is pretty sore.  I just had a slip-slide.  No injury but my trekking pole took a little damage saving me from the fall.

I think Chris and I have a misconception about many things.  One--we think we are young and athletic and two--he thinks the RV is a 4 wheel drive vehicle.  Actually it is 4 wheels in the rear ...that is his explanation.   We will never grow up.  Even with the aches and pains, we are having the best time of our life.  An older than us lady was complaining to us about her husband.  She wanted us to take him on our hike because she won't go with him and he has a bad heart.  He was moving faster than us.  I thought about how we protect our loved ones as we age and came up with this:  I would rather die living than to live dying.  Let's have fun as long as the heart is beating.


We got busted by the ranger for leaving our generator on all afternoon.  We specifically parked in the loop that said generators from 8am to 8pm.  It was hot today and we could not leave the dogs without AC.  He said someone had complained.   You are supposed to turn it on for short amounts of time.  I think we are going out late tonight to let the air out of our neighbors tires.

I give thanks for my family, my friends, and Aleve.

Barbara