Overland in the Americas: of Bryce and men

Another victim of the ranchers is the Utah Prairie dog, (along with just about anything they can get their hands on, wolves, condors you name it……). This endangered species has a stronghold within Bryce Canyon National park. We were lucky to see this one in a meadow there and attempted to get a photo through the binoculars, not great but you can just about see him.

We saw what looked to be the same one on several occasions in exactly the same spot, standing up on his back legs, holding a blade of grass in both paws nibbling away (not that dissimilar to our much missed guinea pigs, the nibbling bit obviously as the manual dexterity of GPs is not renowned ). We even saw him run for cover when a hawk flew overhead.

Special prairie dog crossing sign

Fall colours on the way to Bryce

Golden mantled ground squirrel at North campground preparing for hibernation by tucking into a piece of bread Ralph dropped into the fire (recklessly ignoring all the don’t feed the animals signs).

Bryce Canyon is a small national park with amazing scenery. We spent a long day walking the Peek-a-boo loop, Navajo loop up and down around and among the spires and windows, rock formations with the colours changing as the sun moved across the sky. The shapes and colours were amazing and you could see all sorts shapes when you looked at them.

Our neighbours from Yellowstone arrived and unknowingly (so they claim!) pitched their tent next door to us while we were out walking so it was quite funny to see them again. We first meet Dan and Natasha at Slough Creek campsite, the one on the main Bison highway. They are great fun and regaled us with stories about naked Tuesdays at work, killing peacocks in bikinis and pancake making at LAN parties.

Spires

The campsite was up at the rim of the canyon so it was easy to walk up to see sunrise and sunset, well apart from getting up in the dark and out of the sleeping bag when it was just below freezing. From the rim walk you look down into the canyon and out across the spires and out into a wider canyon as far as you can see, on a clear day you can see into New Mexico.