Against laws of jenga

We spent only one night at Camp Lutherwood on intersection of "14" and "89". We weren't very much in mood for organized camping and we wanted to go back to free camping as soon as possible. We said goodbye to Lutherans and, sadly, also to "89". We spent over a week close to this road, we took it going south leaving interstate "15" and going on our most beautiful trip - to The Wave. But now we were going to even more beautiful road: "12" - first "All-American Road" in Utah.

Hoodoos in Red Canyon 

It's really complicated with all those scenic highways, byways and so on. Probably even Americans get lost in names, categories and numbers of these by- or backways long time ago. Federal Highway Administration  gives all those big names, state authorities like that game too (as it attracts rvs and harley riders). But even BLM started giving names to roads that run through its territory. It's really hard to know if it is really worth seeing or it's just a pure marketing.

Whatever the name is, "12"  is like a neckless full of pearls. And it is hanging on beautiful neck of Dixie National Forest.

Ohh, Dixie National Forest - as Tom, our friend from New Mexico would say - If only we were 20 years old again and had lots and lots of free time, you'd be all ours... Dixie National Forest spreads between border of Utah and Nevada all the way to Capitol Reef, where we were planning to get in a week or so. In Dixie, between Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon we spent two beautiful nights full of stars and smoke from the fire. We even managed to roast some sausages and potatos and sit with quite happy for a change Maciek.

You can write blog anywhere...

Short digressi on on fire. We wrote before about firewood and our fascination with this phenomenon. Small package (4-5 pieces) costs around 3-7 USD depending on place (we've once seen a promotion "two for 5 USD"). When sleeping in national or state parks it's the only way to make a fire. Gathering wood there is just as bad as racist jokes or criticising Poles for pesimism. Serious crime.

What's more, here and there we've seen recommendation not to move firewood: burn where you bought it. Even if you don't really feel like sitting by the fire anymore and you're really sleepy - sit and burn! We talked about it many times with Americans and Canadians and luckily they were quite reasonable about it, they thought the whole cry about it is just a little bit too much. Forests are much more normal - BLM  allows not only free camping but also wood gathering. So we do both and sit by the fire whenever we can.

One more practical tip for those who want to follow our footsteps. If you want to go ahead and turn onto one of those backroads and stay overnight on BLM or National Forest Service managed areas, without checking freecampsites.net or Marianne Edwards' book we recommended before, it's worth to stop at local BLM/NFS office. You should get full information and a good map, plus you will find out if they have any restrictions. It might happen for example that you'd need a permit or camping will be permitted only with self contained rv's. It happens.

In Bryce Canyon area we checked out two campsites recommended by Marianne. First one is north from  "12" just after marker 6, around mile 6.5. You have to turn onto road 121 which is easy to miss. After 0.7 of a mile on the right there is a campsite. Marianne wrote about this place as it's really picturesque, it has its own hoodoos (rock formation associated with Bryce) behind.

It was nice but it was also very uneven (Marianne did warn about it). The only even (more or less) site was already taken. There was some class C, table, chairs, shoes, bike rack outside, inside music and a dog. Only the owners and their bikes were gone. After half an hour of hoplessly trying to park our trailer in such a way that the kids wouldn't fall down from their beds we gave up and we went to see the other one.

Just a mile away, after marker 7 there is Tom Best Spring Road, a.k.a. forest road 120. It's for a change not easy to miss, as on the southern side there is a large quad parking ("120" is a quad trail), and our road goes north. It's a big, well marked junction.. Campsites starts maybe 500 feet from the main road. We wanted more peace and quiet so we went about a mile down. We found an empty, even site with a fire ring and quite a big stack of firewood (we left behind a similar one). There was no view, but fire, stars, peace…

Red Canyon

Even on this 7-milelong part "12" offers unforgettable views. There is one place we've seen before on some ads about rv travels. We've seen the pictures many times and finally we could take one of ourselves:

On the first day, those few hours we had left before sunset, we spent three miles from our campsite - in Red Canyon. It's part of Dixie National Forest. Red Canyon doesn't look impressive at first site but after closer look it shows it's beauty. It has many miles of hiking, horse and atv/ohv trails. We just looked around and we went for a short (2 mile) afternoon walk.

Red Canyon is a mini-Bryce, going from the forest-canyon views to a totally different world. If you're in hurry it's better to spend more time in Bryce Canyon, but if not it's a nice place to spend a day. Good advice: if you go there with kids do not go on so-called Photo Trail. We made this mistake. It's a short path but very steep. It's not very difficult to climb it and the views are really amazing, but going down is a real challange - we had to slide on our butts and question our parenting sense…

Sliding on our butts from Photo Trail

Next day we went to Bryce. Nice place to celebrate the oldest feet's birthday. We got there of course pretty late, around 11am, plus it was the end of Memorial weekend, so it was really difficult to find a parking spot. We didn't find any by Sunrise or Sunset point so we decided to go for a ride to see the views from vista points. If you have just one day for Bryce - skip them. The really breathtaking views are by the amphitheater. It's different shapes, often against logics, but this time in a really mindblowing way. We even got our own term for it: rocks against laws of jenga.

We have a problem with Bryce. Marianne wrote that nobody leaves it dissapointed, at least when it comes to the views. Yes, it's true. The views are really amazing. Going trough these national parks is like wachting an opera. Cedar Breaks is a prelude, Red Canyon an interlude and Bryce a mindblowing aria. Yes, amphitheater was like from another planet, hoodoos go all the way to the horizon, we were looking at them for hours. We'll keep a memory of this view in our minds forever.

However we left with a feeling of not being satisfied or overwhelmed completely. Maybe it's because we didn't go for a longer walk on the edge of amphitheater and we didn't go down to walk among hoodoos? Unfortunately Maciek at first was all excited, mostly gathering garbage with a plastic glove he got from visitor center (it's one of the tasks for junior ranger) but after a while he got tired and refused to walk longer than half a mile at once.

It wasn't Kalina's day either, she was becoming more and more mobile-frustrated (she wants to be mobile but she is not ready yet so she gets frustrated) and only with making noises and moving around she got us exhausted pretty quickly when we carry her in a snuggly. So we left Bryce thinking "something missing, we'll be back to check what it was".

So, what is Bryce? Unlike the name says it's not a canyon. It's a cliff amphitheater, one of steps of "Grand Staircase" that start just south from Grand Canyon, it's a part of Paunsaugunt plateau, which right around here broke down from ascending Colorado plateau and started to slide. And hoodoo is a  phase of cliffs erosion. Cliffs first started to crack crosswise, then these cracks were deepened by creeks and freezing water. Further in time these walls were subject to more erosion and finally they turned into hoodoos.

Bryce Canyon got it's name from mormon setteler who came here from Scotland and lived in the area. Bryce would graze his cows here. Once he was asked what it's like to live in a place like that. "It's a hell of a place to loose a cow" - Bryce replied.

Bryce Canyon, just like Zion, is a national park to the fullest. Entrance fee, if you don't have the annual pass, is 25 USD per car, there is a free shuttle, although you can get everywhere by car. Bryce is also very popular among foreign tourists, we got the impression that especially among those Polish speaking. It was the first time since we left Chicago that we heard Polish everywhere. When we finally headed back home, to the trailer, and we stopped at the gas station, guy that was pumping gas next to us was a Pole from Des Plains, IL…