4 December 2017
On Saturday we awoke early to meet at the bus at 6:30am (apart from Katelyn who enjoyed a sleep in at the hotel). The early start was to accommodate the opportunity to watch the sun rise over the magnificent Bryce Canyon National Park rock formations. And we weren’t disappointed either! The weather was very cold though, starting out at around -2 degrees.
After a quick 15 minute trip back to the hotel for breakfast (and to collect Katelyn!) we returned to Bryce Canyon for a hike into the canyon itself. The hike took around two hours and gave us some absolutely fabulous views of Bryce Canyon. For the second day in a row we were being treated to some of the USA’s (and the world’s) most amazing rock formations.
On our trip we came upon a squirrel, and then had to walk up an extremely steep (and quite long) uphill climb — which Nicole did very well to negotiate given her still swollen ankle.
As you can see, the long uphill climb was a very small price to pay for the pleasure of seeing the beauty of this park.
Then it was back into the bus for a fairly long trip to Page, where we stayed for the night. Just before we went to our rooms we visited the Glen Canyon Dam, whose construction created Lake Powell. It’s a huge dam and a suitable entrée to the Hoover Dam which we will hopefully visit in a few days time.
For dinner, it was off to a local Thai restaurant. You wouldn’t have thought a Thai restaurant in Page (out in ’the Boonies’ as we’d say in Australia) would have much to offer, however the food at this one was fantastic. I had the Massaman Curry and it was absolutely delicious — and very well complemented by the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale that I washed it down with.
During the (sometimes long) bus trips we’re all rotating around the seats and getting to get to know everyone a lot better. The group is fantastic, and a really interesting mix of people. It’s also really great to see Katelyn starting to come out of her shell and interacting more with everyone. Everyone on the bus (including our CEO) has gone out of their way to include Katelyn, which is wonderful. Katelyn has taken a particular shine to Kerrin and Celeste, who almost seem like big sisters to her at the moment.
I’m enjoying catching up with everyone and have been in landscape photography overdrive with all the fantastic locations we’ve been visiting. When we only have a relatively short amount of time in each location — each of which I could easily spend a month photographing — the pressure is definitely on. It almost feels like ‘speed photography’ sometimes, however given I may never get the chance to come back again I need to just get in with it … and loving it as Maxwell Smart would say.
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