Bryce Canyon, Utah

Kanab, Utah- July 3, 2010
This town of 3500 residents serves as host to many visitors going to the three national parks within 100 miles. People arrive late afternoon and depart in the morning, crisscrossing the area to the next great site, looking for a comfy bed and a good meal. It's hot and dusty but very friendly to travelers.

It also was one of the prime movie locations for filming westerns back in the 60s and 70s and earlier. The streets are lined with plaques to movie stars from great movies and tv shows like Death Valley Days, Roy Rodgers, Wagon Train.
After dinner at the Rocking V Cafe again, we watched fireworks from the front yard of our motel. We had missed the town picnic and road race while we went to Bryce. It was small town America at its best.
This is is the only town where we did not stay in a chain hotel. The Quail Park Lodge is a motel, completely done over to the quality of a ***. It's funky 50's look on the outside but inside is all new and had the ammenities of the boutique hotel. We chatted with Jim who manages the motel for his son who bought it 2 years ago. Jim is almost 80, a former marine who married a girl from Kanab, and came back to run the motel for his son. A great host.






Bryce Canyon:
Bryce is amazing. Full of hoo-toos or the stone columns that you can see to the right. We drove 60 miles to the park and then another 25 inside, along the top of the canyon. Each look down was more breath taking than the last. As with the grand canyon, nature on this scale makes us feel pretty insignificant, in a good way.