Bucket List

Item 67: See Grand Canyon


The Grand Canyon is grand.

  So I took my clothes off.

My blue umbrella is my traveling gnome.

A decade of drought in the region, and just my luck, a giant rain and snow storm blows in just as I arrive.  Thursday, my day at the grand canyon was fine.

Today, Friday, it was overcast and on/off rain.  I've always enjoyed hiking in cool rainy whether, so I'm not too upset about hiking around Zion today in the cold and rain.  There is a certain stark beauty to grey clouds and rain, as there is beauty in sunny weather.  Traveling through this kind of weather is dreary and dramatic in a melancholy way I can't help but love.

The great thing about traveling around in the off season of late winter/early springtime is very few crowds and traffic; and cheap hotel rooms!

The grand canyon was cold because of the windchill.  Zion today wasn't too bad, not much wind, just rain, probably upper forties, low fifties.  Tomorrow should be about the same, mostly in the fifties.

If I make it to Bryce, through the snow and icy roads, it'll be much colder in Bryce.  If I make try to do it.  Driving times have been longer than i expected; my lazy ass sleeping in late everyday hasn't helped me keep to my itinerary either.   I am behind schedule and was forced to spend two day in Zion, which is a good problem to have, but I will try to squeeze in a few hours in Bryce on Sunday if I can before driving back down to Phoenix.  Bryce will be in the forties with some wind and snow on Sunday, temperatures overnight will be well below freezing so it's going to be icy.... which is a little worrisome to me having never driven on icy roads before.   If Angel's landing in the slick rain doesn't kill me, Bryce's icy roads might... and if neither kill me, Winter will have to try to get me some other year.