Sometimes a Good Tourist, Sometimes an Ugly Tourist

There is a lot of parched, dry land out here.
There's not much green, not much rain, rarely a spring or lake, and when it does rain it all runs into drainage creeks and goes somewhere far away except for that it evaporates before it gets far away and so nobody can use it anyway. Then all these states fight over who gets to use the water that did not evaporate. I think Nevada and Utah have the most extensive varieties of water-repellent soil materials of any place on Earth.


There was a little more wildlife in Utah, including these cool antelope,

a good collection of cattle trying to help Subway make good on their "eat fresh" claim,
and the topography became more varied and dramatic.



Red Rock Canyon was a peachy drive on the way to Bryce Canyon.




Bryce Canyon National Park was a real winner... All I was looking for was a scenic route across Utah, en route to Boulder, and man oh man, what a place!
I parked the Deezuhl at the Visitor's Center, and took a day to ride the Park road.
It was sunny and warm, I struck my Natural Bike Dork pose,

and I loved the beautiful rocks and shapes

and colors and light. I slept out under the crispy cool stars again, and some of them now recognize me and know me by name. (Do you think all the little stars in Star Junior High have to learn Human Names like we had to learn Constellations?) I slept a few feet from the Canyon rim, and in the pre-dawn I moved right to the rim, wrapped in my goosey down, snoozing in my sling chair, to make sure the sun rose on time...
It did.

It was such a clear morning that it went from dawn to bright sunlight in about ten minutes.
Great hiking and walking...

I was a Good Tourist in Bryce Canyon NP. However, I confess to conducting an Ugly Tourist 90-Minute National Park Drive-Thru at Capitol Reef National Park.
Sorry, but I was behind schedule. It's a cool place, probably worth a day or two of hiking and walking and learning. Lots of the rock there was this color.
If you're there in September, it's open season on the fruit orchards,
and the crowds are thick. You might know Capitol Reef as "the place where that guy's arm got stuck and he cut it off with a knife to save his own life." He is busy rock climbing again, btw.

How 'bout this Crazy Canuck and his buddy, riding from Calgary to the complete bottom of South America! They are stopping pretty much everywhere, seeing pretty much everything, and they have no idea how long this will take, but they're measuring it in years.