Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates

Remember as a youngster, someone in the family gets a box of chocolates. You know, the ones that come with a little map hinting at what might be inside each chocolate morsel.   The picture and descriptions of each chocolate all look and sound delicious but experience has told us that is not always the case.  So after much deliberation, you make your choice and blah! The first bite into that soft nougat turns out to have a brick hard caramel inside that takes forever to suck into a soft chewy mass. 

It had been an early departure from Bryce Canyon the previous day with a planned stop at Antelope Island Park. The park is located just 15 miles west of Salt Lake City on an island in the Great Salt Lake. The island has a herd of bison that roam freely around the park and it seemed worth the short side trip to check it out.

As we good closer to the park we found that they were working on the causeway out to the island and there were going to be construction delays.  It was going to be a long day without the delay so we made a management decision to include the park on our next trip.

 

Slightly ahead of schedule we arrived early at our next planned stop in Pocatello, Idaho.  We chose Pocatello as it was at the junction of Highways 15 and 84. The weather forecast was predicting a SLIGHT possibility of snow on our planned route through Montana and Spokane Washington and if it looked bad we had the option to go west and retrace our route back to Penticton and avoiding snow.  As chance would have it, we missed the exit from the highway to the Pocatello Motel 6. We had to drive another 12 miles to a native Casino before we found another exit.

The sun was shining, the weather forecast was still “a possibility of snow”, so based on the current information, we took a chocolate out of our box and decided to drive another 50 miles  further north to Idaho Falls where we scored a lovely motel room thanks to a coupon we picked up at a truck stop. Things were looking good.

 

Blah! The chocolate had a hard, tasteless inside.  We woke up to find that the SLIGHT possibility of snow turned into a full on blizzard with road closures in the pass we were to drive through from Idaho and Montana. 

Thank heaven; the motel had a great free breakfast. We needed those calories as we spent two hours backtracking the 60 miles to Pocatello with near white out conditions and another 90 minutes driving east into Idaho before the snow became rain.  Completely drained, we stayed overnight at a Motel 6 in Baker City, Oregon.

Not wanting to sample anymore chocolates, we made the next day a long day and drove all the way back to Penticton.  Not the way we wanted to end the Great Road Trip of 2014 but it has left room for future Great Road Trips.

 

 

 

Bryce is Nyce

With five national parks, Utah claims the title of America’s national park capital.  We have revised our bucket list to visit all five parks in our lifetime.  Our visit to Bryce Canyon National Park means one down and four too go, so stay tuned.

Leaving Vegas for the drive into Utah and Bryce, we decided to visit the Neon Bone Yard, home to some of the most iconic neon signage that has flickered and hummed over Vegas since the 40’s. It was a wonderful place to hang for an hour, getting an insight into the history of Las Vegas through its neon signs.  However, it was little unsettling to see and hear about these vintage signs that I first saw in 1969 as I have not quite come to grips with the fact that I can now be considered vintage and fast approaching heritage status.

 The weather was a mixed bag with sun, rain and sleet for the 3-4 hour drive to Bryce. The latest weather forecast for Bryce was mixed and snow was not out of the question.  We stopped for lunch in St. George, Utah.  A lovely little city that we would definitely consider as a place to escape winter.   The city annually hosts the world senior games and has a wealth of sport facilities and outdoor activities to keep anyone busy.  

Bryce Canyon’s rim sits at between 8,000 and 9,000 feet, similar to the Grand Canyon.  We hit a sleety snow as we crossed over one mountain pass that had us second guessing our decision to visit Bryce. Thankfully, the weather smartened up and we arrived at Bryce Canyon Village with clear skies but with a temperature hovering around the freezing mark. 

 

We woke with the sun streaming through the flimsy curtains of our room.  Other than that, the room was well appointed with microwave, fridge, big flat screen television, free wifi and eerily quiet after the craziness of Las Vegas. 



 

Bryce Canyon is definitely not as grand as the Grand Canyon but it quickly became our favourite canyon.

 

The depth of the canyon is not as deep as the Grand and this allows you to get up close and personal with the canyon without risking cardiac arrest.  



 

With no donkey pooh to worry about, you can spend most of your time looking out and up at the awesome vistas.









 

The hoodoos that are found everywhere and are what set Bryce apart from its sister parks.  With very little imagination required, they take on easily recognizable shapes such as forts, castles, faces and as lunch time approached, food shapes.



 

It was a exhilarating day exploring the many trails into the canyon and along the rim. The wonderful day and bottle of wine at dinner made for a restful sleep as we had a long drive the next day. We have stops planned in Montana and Spokane, Washington before heading home.