23 March, Day 13

Up to Bryce after staying in a warmer location. The park is beautiful, but still with a lot of snow. The Ranger said it was 25 degrees when they opened the visitor center at 8am. Go up to some of the higher points in the park, add the wind at some of the viewpoints, and it was... exhilarating! The kids of course wanted to go out and play in the snow! Too bad we did not think to bring snow clothes! While here, the kids figured out where Disneyland got the idea for the rocks on the Thunder Mountain ride! The kids also continued to add to their Jr. Ranger badge collection. After leaving the park, we dropped out of the high country on Scenic route 12, and through the Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument. VERY COOL drive up to Boulder Utah. Along the way, we hit the Escalante visitor center, as well as a state petrified forest park (the petrified forest was not worth recommending). Back up to the high country, with a summit of 9600 ft (I tried not to think about the fuel mileage of all the climbs!). Once we reached the area of Capitol Reef National Park, no RV/Campgrounds were open (we are really ahead of the crowds in this area!), but we did find the year round campground in the park to have space and be quite nice (it was still 43 degrees inside by morning, practically tropic!).

PS. For those looking for "Red", he has been in several of the pictures, including one in this post, but you might need to enlarge the picture by double clicking on it to find him.