Bed & Breakfast

In the days leading up to our trip to Bryce Canyon, Cyndee had been spending considerable amounts of time online (mostly because of an abysmally slow connection) trying to find a match between one night of a hotel room and two spaces on the trail ride to the bottom of Bryce.  There were openings for both in mid-September but the prices for a room doubled to more than $200/night (we are not talking some fancy lodge here, just a Best Western).  Finally, Cyndee was able to mesh a room and ride mid-week at the end of August.  We locked in the reservations, both of which required payment in advance. Done; we are off to Bryce in a little less than a week.

The next morning we got a text from a life-long friend, Dean, in Texas.  It simply said; "Are ya'll getting settled in?"  "Sure"; I said.  "Running a routine, got a groove going, life is good."  "Great"; he replies, "I'll see you on Sunday".  It was Thursday afternoon, no chance to cancel our trip without loosing all the money we had already put up.  I reply; "How would you like to see Bryce Canyon from the back of a horse?".  The reply came slowly, but when it did it said; "Sounds great".

And so, just like that we were a trio for Bryce.  I got on the phone and made a one-on-one connection with the stable manager and they agreed to add another horse to the string.  Our room at the hotel already had two king beds so everything is a done deal.  Easy.  Yes, life is good.

Dean had almost 900 miles of country to cross.  A good deal of it is through very sparsely populated country with narrow, shoulderless roads that pick their way through the foothills of the southern end of the Rockies.  At first he indicated that he was going to do the drive all in one day.  I put up my best argument as to why that may not be a "comfortable" thing to do.  Dean, buddy, it is good to see that in your advanced years you have tapered off some of your hard-headedness and split the drive into two days.  The only wish I have is that I could have seen some of that when we were college roommates. ;-))

Right on schedule, Dean arrived Sunday afternoon after a leisurely six hour drive from Gallup, NM.  And right on schedule the skies opened up and it poured rain.  Not to worry, Dean brought a whole stack of movies with him and we had ourselves a little movie marathon.  After more than a month of no TV or seeing anything we had not already seen many times, it was a welcomed break in routine.

We had our hopes set on things clearing out and drying up during the night so we could spend Monday sightseeing around the North Rim with Dean.  But it was not to be.  Heavy fog and a light rain with occasional downpours persisted.  It did not matter, we were going to go out and see what everything looked like in shrouds of fog.

 Well, let me show you what it looks like in shrouds of fog.  Its foggy!

The picture at left is me on the tip of Bright Angle Point.  The picture at right is Dean and me at the exact same place.  I kept waving my arms and telling him there really was a mile deep canyon at his feet.

So much for looking at the canyon from the lodge.  Time to run out to Cape Royal, 15 miles away, and see what the weather was doing out there.

As we moved north and away from the edge of the Transcept Canyon the fog thinned out enough that everything stopped being just ghostly shapes.  We could make out the different species of trees and see abundant wildflowers.



Silent sentinels, heads peering down from the clouds to see their feet carpeted with natures finest.

About mid-way up to Cape Royal is a turnout called Roosevelt Point.  The bottom of the fog had just about risen to the elevation of the plateau so we took the opportunity to get out and show Dean there really was a canyon out there.

 

 

We got lucky when we arrived at Cape Royal.  We seemed to get there just when a gap in the storm was plying its way across the canyon.  It only lasted a few minutes, but it was enough.

Yes, Dean, it really is a mile to the bottom.

 As I previously posted, the park service will not allow us to put out anything to feed birds.  Cyndee's geranium attracted a couple of hummingbirds for a few days but they were quick to figure out that those bright blossoms had nothing to offer and were on their way with haste.  I could not even lift the camera to my face before they were gone.

But out here on the edge of Roaring Springs Canyon at a point called Cape Royal, Dean spotted movement about twenty feet below our feet as we stood at the overlook.  When he pointed all I saw at first was a cactus in bloom.  But then I saw a little blur of green and realized we had a hummingbird working his way through those cactus blooms.

I got the camera up and pushed the shutter button and did not let it go.  I got about fifty frames before the little guy finished his work and moved on.  My camera will shoot five frames a second so the whole thing lasted only about ten seconds.  Of the fifty frames only six or eight were worth keeping, below are two that I have enlarged and cropped.

No sooner had I photographed the hummingbird than the weather closed back in.  This time with rain heavy enough to make the shelter of Big Gulp highly desirable.  We loaded up and headed back to camp.  We spent the evening watching more movies and ripping CDs to iTunes for sync'ing up to our phones.  All the while chattering endlessly, catching up with goings on back home and swapping stories about things transpiring over the years of our separation.  Not a bad way to spend a rainy evening.  Not bad at all.

Tomorrow:  Road Trip!  We'll be heading out early for southern Utah's beautiful Bryce Canyon.  Maybe the weather will clear out by then.