Rather than spend a full day at Canyonlands on Tuesday, we decided to make tracks for Bryce Canyon National Park. Our route took us back the way we came toward Green River, and then we continued west on I-70 because our Utah map had half a dozen or more scenic overlooks marked on that short stretch alone.

I took copious pictures as we drove along, and stopped 2 or 3 times to check out the amazing overlooks. The highway literally cut a path through several canyons.

We got off the interstate at UT-72 heading towards Loa, through the Dixie National Forest. Had great burgers at pretty much the only place to get food in Loa, Maria’s Grill, and then continued on, through the immense Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (a Bureau of Land Management “monument”).

I appreciate the Grand Canyon’s grandness, but man there are a lot of grand canyons out there. At one point on UT-10 going through the Grand Staircase the speed limit dropped from like 60 to 30 (and we’d probably been going ~75). Suddenly we found ourselves on a road with deep canyons on both sides, and not much of a shoulder or guardrails either. That was the first time I genuinely felt shivers in my legs. Thankfully Stephanie was driving.

Five hours later we made it to Bryce, their two campgrounds had availability, hurray, so we drove over the Sunset Campground, picked a winning campsite (#275), and started setting up for the night.