Bryce is one of our smaller National Parks, but the shuttle system is excellent and there’s plenty to do and see.  We will leave Monday after a five day stay at Bryce’s North Campground ($7.50 per night with your America the Beautiful pass).

We took in the views from all the major overlooks, made a few short hikes, and enjoyed our neighbors.  The fellow behind our site independently duplicated Kat’s solar night light invention – I saw that he had two of them recharging in full sun.  The California couple below our site, Jean and Roland (she’s US, he’s French but been here since ’71) are delightful people who poured me a glass of excellent Bordeaux.  Roland (the d is silent!) speaks impeccable English but allows himself one accented word per paragraph, sometimes per sentence.  The morning we found our perfect campsite Pink and I guarded it by sitting on the ground while Kat brought up the Cradle and Red Sled.  It was cold, windy, and early.  A voice called out to me “Sir, there is no extra ‘schargze’ for you to sit at the table”.  Roland’s quite the cook, too.  Last night when Pink and I walked he was working his gas grill.  When asked what he was cooking, he asked me “Have you had dinner?”  I had and said so, “Um, I’m cooking vegetables, some pasta, and ‘cheeken’.”  I hope we run across Roland and Jean again; I have a sense they’re people well worth knowing.

It’s still early spring here.  Two inches of snow fell last week.  Friday we were blessed with a quarter of an inch of rain, and a couple of strobes of lightning (I sure love thunderstorms and neon signs!).  It was necessary to put the raincoat on the generator three times, but Gennie is alive and well after the rain. The smell of a freshly showered Ponderosa pine forest is indescribable, but I’ll try anyway.  ‘The world around here smells just the same as it did when the Powell Expedition first passed through here in 1870’.

Put Bryce Canyon on your list.  When you get here be sure to see Inspiration Point, and do not fail to make the 400’ vertical hike to the third level.  The view is well worth it, and a glowing endorsement from a guy with a bum knee means: “Write it in your book.”